High in the Sky, Those in Sears Tower Keep Eyes Open Amid Strict Security

People rushing to work in the nation’s tallest building--the 110-story Sears Tower--were more concerned about the cutting winter wind Monday than any security jitters exactly six months after the World Trade Center attacks.

“People are over it,” said Rick Carrier, 43, a sales and marketing executive with Universal Access, a telecommunications firm on the sixth floor. “I think we’ve all moved on.”

That’s not to say the specter of two hijacked planes slamming into the twin towers in New York on Sept. 11 was far from the minds of the 10,000 Midwesterners, who scurried in the 20-degree cold to their offices in the black-aluminum architectural landmark. A spate of weekend newspaper articles, television shows and their own vivid memories made sure of that.

But Carrier and others say their confidence is based firmly on a refrain shared by millions of Americans these days: In security measures we trust.

The Sears building has plenty. There are metal detectors, X-ray machines, extra security guards, undercover police officers, bomb-sniffing dogs, building identification cards, no-stopping zones at the curb and sidewalks blocked by concrete barriers painted red, white and blue.

Next up: Security turnstiles at the eight access points to the building’s 104 elevators.

Mark Spencer, spokesman for building manager TrizecHahn Office Properties, said sending e-mail messages to the 124 client firms has calmed employees and squelched rumors, especially when anthrax scares brought the Fire Department to the South Wacker Drive address for repeated false alarms.

Spencer wouldn’t say how much the security measures cost but added they will require a 1% increase in rent, among the city’s priciest at up to $45 a square foot. To people like attorney Jim Zahn, 59, the cost and inconvenience have been worth it.

Jan Cahajla, a 44-year-old legal secretary, said she was comforted when building management immediately tightened security after the attacks. “They really implemented quite a bit of stuff,” she said. “I feel very, very safe here.”

Jullian Van Prooyen, 23, an underwriter for Chubb Insurance on the 46th floor, owned up to a bit of trepidation. “I get a little paranoid, but I think it’s very safe,” she said.

Not everyone has been so sanguine about a building that many consider a potential terrorist target.

Anthony Wilson, 39, an accountant, made no secret Monday about his feelings as he pushed through the tower’s revolving doors and into the modernistic tan marble lobby with the large Alexander Calder sculpture. It wasn’t until last month that he could muster up the courage to walk into the Sears Tower to go to his bank, he said.

“It’s not my favorite place, since six months ago.”

Despite being closed six weeks to install new security screening devices, the popular Sears Sky Deck continues to draw crowds of tourists for the panoramic view of Chicago’s skyscrapers, Lake Michigan and streets stretching into the prairie. The deck reopened Oct. 29, and former President Bush and Mayor Richard M. Daley were among the first to visit as a show of confidence in the building’s safety. Attendance has been down only 4% for the popular attraction, which draws 1.5 million people a year, Spencer said.

Kevin Lynch, 40, of suburban Glen Ellyn, brought his 22-year-old stepdaughter and her friend, both North Carolina college students, to the Sears Tower just hours after she got off the plane. It was her first time in Chicago and looking out from the sky deck was tops on her agenda.

“I had talked to them about the fact that it seems these terrorists might get it in their head to make a strike on an anniversary, to strike some kind of fear into us,” said Lynch. But his stepdaughter and her friend were unfazed. “They were more concerned that the elevator wouldn’t work right.”

Terrorism only crossed John Sparrow’s mind briefly as he and Karen Granger watched an eight-minute movie about the building before ascending to the 99th floor observatory.

“It struck me that here we are in [this skyscraper], six months after 9/11,” Sparrow said.

But his thoughts turned to the future as he and Granger, both from Washington, D.C., looked out at the brightly lit skyline just after sunset. He pulled out a white box, opened it to reveal a diamond ring, and asked her to marry him. Granger, 32, said yes.

“I was thinking about popping the question at a restaurant later tonight,” said Sparrow, 33. But he changed his mind while taking in the view. “We were just looking at Lake Michigan, staring at the buildings, standing close and kissing.”