Wender·Vista
Willis Tower
shown on ceramic, 12-inch tileUnited States
on Wacker Drive, in the southwest Chicago Loop

Willis Tower

— — the black tower the wind grew up around.

— Where it lives

Not only on a wall.

A small tile on the nightstand catching the morning. A larger one above the fire. Yours, wherever you spend the slow hours.
— On the nightstand, a 6-inch on a walnut stand
— Among the books, a 6-inch leaning into the spines
— Beside the kettle, a 12-inch propped
— Down a quiet hall, an 18-inch floating off the wall
— Above the fire, the 24-inch in a walnut surround
— a note from the studio

“The tallest building in the Western Hemisphere for nearly twenty-five years, holding the southwest corner of the Loop in nine bundled tubes of black steel. From the 103rd-floor Skydeck the lake stretches east past Navy Pier, the Sears name lingers in older Chicagoans' mouths, and the glass ledges step out over Wacker Drive a quarter-mile below. A building Chicago measures itself against.

from the studio
Willis Tower
— bring it home

Willis Tower, on ceramic.

Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.

What kind of piece?
One tile — square or rectangle.
How big?
the popular one — counter, shelf, nightstand
6 × 6 in · 15 cm · 1.6 lb
Surface finish
A clear glossy finish — the artwork reads as if under resin. Ideal for show-pieces and framed wall art.
How it sits
A hidden cleat — sits ¼″ proud of the wall.
$58
Hand-finished and shipped from our studio at the foot of the Smokies. On your wall in about ten days.
— size
6 × 6 in
15 cm
— weighs
1.6 lb
solid in the hand
— surface
ceramic, hand-finished
art rests beneath a thin glossy finish
— from
Knoxville, TN
our family studio, at the foot of the Smokies
— start a Coaster Set

Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.

— about Willis Tower

The place, in three passes.

A little of what's known, in case you fall down the rabbit hole — or want to go see it yourself.
— the place

Willis Tower stands at 233 South Wacker Drive on the southwest corner of the Chicago Loop, two blocks west of the Chicago River's South Branch. It rises 1,451 feet to the roof and 1,729 feet to the antenna tip, with 110 occupied floors. Completed in 1973 as the Sears Tower for the Sears, Roebuck headquarters, it held the title of world's tallest building for nearly twenty-five years, until the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur topped it in 1998.

— the stone

The structural system, designed by Bangladeshi-American engineer Fazlur Rahman Khan of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, is a bundled-tube frame of nine 75-by-75-foot square tubes rising from a 225-foot base. Tubes drop away in stages, two at the 50th floor, two more at the 66th, three at the 90th, leaving the final two to reach the roof. The exterior is black anodized aluminum cladding over a steel frame, the combination that gave the building its signature dark profile against the Chicago sky.

— informed by CTBUH — Willis Tower
— the visit

The Skydeck on the 103rd floor opened in 1974 and now draws about 1.7 million visitors a year. The Ledge, a set of glass-floored boxes added in 2009, cantilever 4.3 feet out from the west face and look straight down 1,353 feet to Wacker Drive. On a clear day the view reaches across the lake to Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin, four states at once. The building was renamed Willis Tower in 2009 after the Willis Group leased a large block of office space.

— informed by Skydeck Chicago
— where
United States · Chicago, Cook County, Illinois
— position
41.8789° N · 87.6359° W
— the neighborhood

What's nearby.

A handful of named places within an hour's walk or short drive. Some we've already painted; some we will.
0.2 km E
Chicago River
river
0.5 km N
Union Station
rail terminal
1.2 km E
Art Institute of Chicago
museum
N
Willis Tower
Chicago River
Union Station
Art Institute of Chicago
— common questions

What people ask.

A few questions we get about Willis Tower — and about bringing the piece home.
— about the place

Willis Tower rises 1,451 feet to the roof and 1,729 feet to the tip of the antenna, with 110 occupied floors. It is the second-tallest building in the United States.

The building was renamed in 2009 when the London-based Willis Group leased about 140,000 square feet of office space and acquired the naming rights. Many Chicagoans still call it the Sears Tower.

Bangladeshi-American structural engineer Fazlur Rahman Khan, working at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, designed the bundled-tube system that made the building possible. It was completed in 1973 as the Sears, Roebuck headquarters.

The Ledge is a set of four glass-floored boxes added to the 103rd-floor Skydeck in 2009. They cantilever 4.3 feet out from the west face, with the floor 1,353 feet above Wacker Drive.

It held the title from 1973, when it surpassed the World Trade Center in New York, until 1998, when the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur topped it, almost twenty-five years.

A structural design by Fazlur Rahman Khan that ties nine square tubes together at the base, with tubes dropping away at upper floors. It made very tall, lightweight skyscrapers economically possible.

— about the piece in your home

It has been a meaningful gift for Chicago natives and longtime residents. The tower's profile against the lake reads as the city's silhouette to anyone who has lived there.

The deep-black and lake-blue palette settles well in modern, industrial-loft, and Mid-Century rooms. The bundled-tube silhouette also reads beautifully against warm white or oxblood walls.

The Willis Tower piece is vertical, so a single Large works well above a console or in a stairwell. Above a sofa we usually recommend the Triptych for the proportions.

Yes. Choose the Dura Satin or Matte finish for any room with humidity or splashing. Both are scratch-resistant and built for vertical installations like backsplashes and shower walls.

A soft microfibre cloth and clean water. The colour is slowly infused into the ceramic surface beneath a thin glossy finish, so there is nothing to flake, fade, or rub away.

Yes. Every WenderVista piece is original to our family studio in Knoxville, Tennessee, curated by Reid Wender. We do not license or resell other artists' work.

— if this one stayed with you

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