http://www.chicagotribune.com/busine...0,187802.story
Sears Tower owners looking to put 'green' hotel next door
By Becky Yerak and Sara Olkon | Tribune staff reporter
11:10 AM CDT, June 24, 2009
Sears Tower in March 2008 (Scott Olsen/Getty Images)
The owners of Sears Tower will build an environmentally friendly hotel next to the skyscraper, which is also going green.
A hotel will be built at Wacker Drive and Jackson Boulevard, said John Huston of American Landmark Properties, representing the partnership that owns Sears Tower.
The hotel will be designed by architect Adrian Smith, chief designer of the recently-completed Trump International Hotel & Tower, the tallest American skyscraper since the Sears Tower.
Financed by private funds, the hotel will draw "net zero energy from the power grid" Huston said.
The hotel plans coincide with new measures to make Sears Tower an energy efficient building. That might entail green roofs, including putting grass, shrubs and perhaps even trees on the building's roof, as well and changes to the building's mechanical systems to save energy, according to a news advisory sent out Tuesday morning by Smith and Gordon Gill Architecture.
The green steps "will reestablish Sears Tower as a pioneer" Huston said today.
The building is likely to be shooting for LEED certification, the architecture firm said. LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. LEED certification is granted by the U.S. Green Building Council, based in Washington, D.C.
Sears would likely be the tallest existing building in the world to get LEED status, the firm said.