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Willis Tower and Taipei 101

Willis Tower is a world-renown landmark building, a Chicago icon. It is the tallest building in the United States, a title claimed when it was completed in 1973. Standing 1,450 feet and 110 stories tall, the building encompasses 3.5 million square feet.

The Structure

The building consists of nine framed tubes, which are actually nine skyscrapers on themselves taken together into one building. Originally, the plan included no less than fifteen tubes, but when the planned hotel was Sears Tower at dusk taken out of the project, only nine tubes were used in the final designs. The nine tubes all reach forty-nine stories. At that point, two tubes end. The other rise up to the sixty-fifth floor. From the sixty-sixth to the ninetieth floor, the tower has the shape of a crucifix. Two tubes, creating a rectangular, reach the full height of 442 meters (1451ft).

Wind LoadThe result is an interesting tower, which looks

different from all angles. The construction, designed by Fazlur Kahn (1929-82), has other advantages : the construction with separate tubes provides lateral strengths to withstand the strong Chicago wind loads, as each tube only needs to take a part of the pressure.

Fact about willis Tower

Willis Tower has a footprint that encompasses an entire square city block. It’s even its own zip code. Truly a city-within-a-city, you might be surprised to learn some of these stats about the building:

Willis Tower features 16,100 windows and six roof-mounted robotic window washing machines clean them.

Willis Tower’s square footage is the equivalent of 101 football fields.

It took 2,000 workers three years to build the tower. Approximately 43,000 miles (69,200 kilometers) of telephone

cable runs through the building - enough to stretch across the continental United States 15 times.

Willis Tower weighs 222,000 tons. The average sway of the building is approximately six inches

(152 millimeters) from true center, but the building is designed to sway up to three feet.

Willis Tower elevators operate as fast as 1,600 feet (488 meters) per minute - among the fastest in the world.

Each working day, between 15,000 and 20,000 people come and go from Willis Tower

The most interested thing

Skydeck Chicago debuted The Ledge in 2009, unveiling a breathtaking view of the city, 1,353 feet straight down to WackerDrive and the Chicago River. Since then, it has become a “must-do” Chicago experience for locals and visitors alike.

The Ledge features glass panels that are 1 ½ inches thick and can hold 5 tons.

The Ledge’s glass boxes are designed to retract into the building, allowing easy access for cleaning and maintenance.

Approximately 1.4 million people visit Skydeck each year, a 30% increase in attendance since the debut of The Ledge.

On a clear day, you can see four states from Skydeck on the 103rd floor: Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin and Michigan. Visibility from the Skydeck is approximately 40-50 miles (65 - 80 kilometers).

Located on the east commercialarea of Taipei basin, Taipei 101has become the tallest buildingin the world since October 2004,and a new landmark for Taipei.Being general contractor of Taipei101 project, KTRT JV organisedan effective construction teamto manage this unique projectthrough dai ly, weekly andmonthly meetings to monitor theproject, KTRT JV also carefullyexecuted PDCA CYLE to controlproject schedule, quality, safetyand cost.During the construction period,Taipei 101 experienced a hugeearthquake shock, causing thewhole project to be delayed forabout half a year. After carefulexaminat ion and planning,KTRT JV resumed the work andcompleted this unique projectwithin the owners’ expectation.