Chicago: Hancock Building, Sears Tower & Alder Planetarium

This week I will go over some more locations I visited while living in Chicago.

At 100 stories tall, the Hancock Building is one of the tallest skyscrapers in the city—the 4th tallest to be precise. At the top is an observatory which one can visit to get a nice view of the city. Some people claim that it’s the better of the 2 observatories (the other being the Sears Tower) to visit since you are a little more removed from downtown and can therefore see downtown a bit easier. I think both are fine and have their own appeal.Chicago: Hancock Building, Sears Tower & Alder Planetarium

Downtown Chicago

Looking north along the beach

 

The Sears Tower as viewed from the Hancock Building

I was blessed with a relatively clear day and managed to get a good glimpse of the city. After visiting the Hancock Building, I just walked around downtown for a while until it got dark.

The Pavilion in the Millennium Park lit up at night

I ended up walking all the way out to the Alder Planetarium, which was closed by the time I got there. The skyline from there was quite impressive, though.

Chicago’s skyline at night

***

Later that year, my brother flew out to Chicago to visit me for New Year’s, and while he was here we discovered some other things together.

One of the first places we went to was the last place I tried to unsuccessfully get into—the Alder Planetarium!

Outside the planetarium

 

Old telescopes

How I imagine using a space toilet would be like

One of the Mars rovers

There was of course lots more to see but quite a bit of it was dark (and therefore didn’t show up very well in my photos). The main attraction also happened to be an impressive movie about the creation of our universe, but I obviously couldn’t take pictures of that very well.

While the planetarium was pretty cool, I don’t recall it having anything that put it leagues above any other planetarium I have visited. Check it out if you have the time or have never been to a planetarium before, but I wouldn’t go too far out of my way to visit it if you have been to one before.

Since the weather was nice and crisp, we then decided to make our way over to the Sears Tower.

The Sears Tower built out of Legos in the Sears Tower lobby

Note that I keep calling it the Sears Tower, and not the Willis Tower, as it is now officially titled since 2009. I don’t have a particular reason for doing so; a lot of people still call it by its original name and I simply jumped on the bandwagon.

Regardless, the Sears Tower is the tallest building in Chicago and still the 2nd tallest in the USA, only recently surpassed by the new World Trade Center, One World Trade Center. The other 2 buildings in between the Hancock Building and the Sears Tower are the Aon Center (3rd tallest) and the Trump Tower (2nd tallest).

The Sears Tower also has an observatory at the top of the tower, but this one also has 2 “ledges,” which are simply glass boxes that stick out of the side of the building that you can stand in and look directly at the ground below your feet, about 1,400 feet (440 meters) below.

My brother (left) and me (right) on the ledge

 

The Hancock Building

 

Looking southeast

 

Me “falling”

Not sure where else to go, I took my brother to the Millennium Park and showed him that area before we headed home for the day since we did quite a bit of walking by that point.

Snow falling off the Bean

In a couple weeks I will show some more things my brother and I did while he was visiting me, so stay tuned!

2 thoughts on “Chicago: Hancock Building, Sears Tower & Alder Planetarium

  1. I enjoyed your article, since I am from Chicago. Those glass observation boxes were add one I would never ever do!!! I’m much too chicken!!! The one Chicago iconic building I would love for you to do an article on is The Prudential Building. The Prudential Building is formerly the tallest building in Chicago,, and my father used to work there as a young man.. He was a photographer and copywriter for The Prudential Insurance Company. I would love to see what you can find about the iconic Prudential Building in Grant Park, behind Buckingham Fountain. It’s located on Randolph Street. I hope you consider my request.. Thank you!

    • Thanks for your comment! I no longer live in Chicago, but whenever I do visit again next time, I will try to check out the Prudential Building.

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