![]() The building, completed in 1973, was the highest in the world for 25 years until it was overtaken by Kuala Lumpur's Petronas Towers and, more recently, by the Taiwanese skyscraper Taipei 101. Willis views naming rights to the Sears Tower as a quick way to become a household name in the US. Or that the Duke of York opened its new global headquarters in Lime Street, smack in the middle of the Square Mile, last year. Or that it went public on the London Stock Exchange in 1976. Or that it famously provided cover for the Belfast-built Titanic. Plumeri omitted to mention that the company was founded as a marine insurer in London's Docklands in 1828. "More information about the company's lack of Britishness might have been good," he told the Chicago Tribune. In an attempt to dampen the controversy, Willis's New Jersey-born chief executive, Joe Plumeri, declared last week that opponents were labouring under the mistaken apprehension that the company is a foreign interloper. One tenant with offices in the tower described it as "beyond the pale of stupidity". ![]() Chicago's historians say the new name will never stick. The actor David Schwimmer, who went to university in Chicago, has described the change as "a bummer". A Facebook group attacking the new name has 95,000 members and the letters pages of Chicago's papers have been peppered with scornful digs at the building becoming "Big Willie". An online petition condemning the change has attracted 33,000 signatures. ![]()
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