Willis Tower Chicago area residents expressed reluctance to accept the Willis Tower name, and in an article that appeared in the October 2010 issue of "Chicago" magazine that ranked the building among Chicago's 40 most important, the author pointedly refused to acknowledge the name change and referred to the building as the "Sears Tower". "Time" magazine called the name change one of the top 10 worst corporate name changes and pointed to negative press coverage by local news outlets and online petitions from angry residents. The naming rights issue continued into 2013, when Eric Zorn noted in the "Chicago Tribune" that "We're
Joshua Sears Building "SEARS". The second entrance is centered on the east facade and bears many of the same features: pressed metal pediments, etc. The Sears Building was built in 1891 by Boston millionaire, philanthropist and Kirkland investor Joshua Montgomery Sears as part of the speculative land boom following Peter Kirk's proposal of building a steel producing mecca that would rival Pittsburgh on the east side of Lake Washington. The building cost $18,000 to build, at the time the most expensive being built in Kirkland outside of the steel mill itself. The bricks were pressed from local clay at Peter Kirk's own brick