Look Down: “The Ledge” At The Sears Tower

Image Credit: Getty Images, Aaron Gutsche/Flickr

This month, Chicago’s Sears Tower added an interesting (and surely terrifying for some) component to their Skydeck observatory atop the building.

“The Ledge” is a hanging, transparent glass area that juts 4 feet out of the west side of the tower which visitors can go out on It offers a completely unobstructed view of the city from 1,353 feet in the air. Acrophobic readers take note- the 1.5 inch thick glass floors can withstand 5 tons.

In addition to this tourist-friendly architectural curiosity, there are plans to have the iconic skyscraper be utilized as a laboratory for green retrofits in order to demonstrate the sustainability of existing buildings. More on that here.

[via DesignCrave]