At 442 meters (1450 feet), Chicago’s Sears Tower has the honor of being North America’s tallest skyscraper since 1974. Commissioned by Sears, Roebuck and Company this spectacular work is that of Bruce Graham and Fazlur Khan of the Skidmore, Owings and Merrill Group, a firm responsible for 13 of the 100 tallest buildings ever constructed.

It took just under two and a half years to build this immense steel structure clad in aluminum and tinted glass, who surface totals 345,600 square meters (3,720,000 square feet). The building houses nine towers of varying heights, each harboring a surface of 520 square meters (5,600 square feet). Together, they form a monolithic block to the 49th floor – the Sears head office once occupied this entire space. From there, the building gradually narrows to seven, five, and two towers at the 66th, 90th and 110th floors respectively.

After 22 years as the world’s tallest building, the Sears Tower relinquished the title in 1996 to the Petronas Towers of Kuala Lumpur, in Malaysia. These twin towers, 452 meters (1,482 feet) tall have only 88 floors. Therefore, the Sears Tower still holds the record for the building with the highest occupied floor.

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