Coming Soon? The Chance to Rappel from Chicago's Willis Tower Skydeck
By Katherine LaGrave. Photos: Getty.
If the idea of crossing a canyon on a glass bridge—nearly 1,000 feet up—or looking down from the world's tallest observation decks is enough to make your stomach drop, stop reading now. The latest crazy proposal for an attraction in Chicago will give you second-hand vertigo.
The owners of the Willis Tower, a 110-story, 1,450-foot skyscraper in the center of Chicago's West Loop, want to give visitors the chance to rappel from the 103rd floor to the 102nd—inside an enclosed glass box, so you feel...safe. It's an expansion of the Skydeck, part of a proposed $20 million renovation plan for the popular observatory, reports Time Out Chicago, and part of a larger, $500 million renovation plan for the Tower, which was the world's tallest for nearly 25 years after it was completed in 1974. Not interested in dangling more than 1,300 above ground on a rope? Also included in the list of potential upgrades is a Ledgewalk, which would allow guests to walk outside the building in the open air, and an enclosed glass staircase to let visitors move between the 103rd and 102nd floors.
During the summer, wait times for the Chicago attraction can run from one to two hours. (Space is capped at 600 visitors at a time.) The expansion would double the number of visitors allowed at a time, and supplement the tower's popular Ledge attraction, which lets visitors step "outside" of the observatory in a set of glass boxes, reports Curbed. Before you get your harness and helmet ready, know that these are only preliminary plans. Until then, consider the panic-inducing Skyslide in Los Angeles as an interim thrill.
This story originally appeared on Conde Nast Traveler.
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