Heller International Building Heller International Building The Heller International Building is a skyscraper in Chicago, Illinois. The building rises 600 feet (183 m) in Chicago's Near West Side neighborhood. It contains 45 floors, and was completed in 1992. The Heller International Building currently stands as the 44th-tallest building in the city. The architectural firm who designed the building was Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, the same firm who designed Chicago's Sears Tower and John Hancock Center and the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. The Heller International Building currently stands as the tallest building in Chicago situated west of the Chicago River. One year after its
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