[left of center]

Aon Center's planned observation deck, Chicago's third, could create competition for tourist dollars
Source: http://www.chicagotribune.com/busine...511-story.html

The owners of the Aon Center, Chicago’s third-tallest skyscraper, on Monday unveiled plans for an observatory atop the building, potentially setting up a heated competition for tourist dollars with the established observatories at Willis Tower and 875 N. Michigan Ave., the former John Hancock Center.

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If built, the as-yet unnamed observatory would make Chicago the only American city with three observation decks besides New York, where visitors take in views from atop One World Trade Center, the Empire State Building and Rockefeller Center. The question is whether all three can survive.

“We believe there’s a huge market that can sustain all three,” Steve Sales, principal of the New York-based 601W Cos., the Aon Center’s owner, said in an interview previewing the plans, which include a glass-sheathed elevator tower and a thrill ride that would vault visitors over the building’s edge.

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The Aon Center’s answer to The Ledge and Tilt would be the Sky Summit, an attraction that would lift cabs full of visitors over the building’s edge for 30 to 40 seconds. Tickets for that experience would cost extra.

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The Aon Center plans call for some exterior steel columns and the granite cladding above the building’s 82nd floor to be removed to create uninterrupted views from the observatory.

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The estimated $185 million cost also covers the elevator tower and other planned features, such as an entrance pavilion at the building’s southeast corner and underground passageways leading from the pavilion to the elevator.

Source: Chicagotribune.com

Apologies for the huge pic, linked from the Tribune.