Great news! Sears Tower is now the (Wesley) Willis Tower

It’s a good day in America, folks: the Sears Tower has been renamed!

CHICAGO (AP) — The Sears Tower, one of the world’s iconic skyscrapers and the tallest building in the U.S., was renamed the Willis Tower on Thursday in a downtown ceremony, marking a new chapter in the history of the giant edifice that has dominated the Chicago skyline for nearly four decades.

The linked story might claim the building is being named after an insurance broker. But that’s just not true. Everyone knows the building was named after the late native Chicagoan and prolific schizophrenic songwriter Wesley Willis.

Rock over London! Rock on Chicago! Taco Bell: Make a run for the border!

As a fan of his since junior high, I was shocked when Willis died in 2003. I couldn’t think of a better tribute than to name a huge building after him!

5 thoughts on “Great news! Sears Tower is now the (Wesley) Willis Tower”

  1. Glad to see Wesley Willis mentioned on here. I was lucky enough to see him play live in Portland around ’98 or so. Really genuine, nice guy, but with a lot of problems. I hear there’s gonna be another documentary about him released in the near future.

  2. Back in 2004, when I was working on a Senate campaign in Florida, I shared a room of desks with the research team, a group of guys who all had Rhapsody subscriptions. They seemed to use 90% of their subscriptions to blast Wesley Willis at each other all day long. Yes, I miss that summer.

  3. The official nickname for this building is ‘The Big Willy’. I kid you not. Unfortunately, most of my fellow Chicagoans won’t catch the double entendre.

    As for me, I’d rather be in Kyoto…

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