Is this balcony such a good idea?

GeorgeC · Post by **GeorgeC** » July 3rd, 2009, 12:00 pm

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldne ... floor.html

I lived in Chicago for 3 years. The Sears Tower would regularly "pop" windows due to flexion. Heck, people got killed every year from pieces of ice or "stalact-ice" falling from the rooftops of other buildings 10 or more stories up.

Is a ledge that far up that wasn't part of the original design spec such a good idea? Especially on a building known for popping windows off like zits?

I don't have that much of a fear of heights as long as I know I've got good guard rails and the ground around me isn't moving that much. At 1/4 mile up, this building DOES sway in heavy wind. The wind does get heavy in Chicago -- so says two umbrellas I owned that were destroyed by it.

It's unnerving enough to look down on the ground from those photos. Especially from a building design I never liked or trusted...

Post by **Ben** » July 9th, 2009, 6:39 am

Shudder...you would never get me out on that ledge.

GeorgeC · Post by **GeorgeC** » July 9th, 2009, 8:40 am

I don't have acrophobia but I dislike ledges without nice, thick guardrails and at least a good 100 feet of non-skiddish earth behind me! I've never cared for driving through the relatively low elevation of the Appalachian Mountains in the Eastern U.S., either.

I definitely wouldn't go out on any of those Tower ledges although I'd be okay with going to the rooftop of most skyscrapers including the Sears Tower.

I did stand on the top of the World Trade Center Twin Towers in the early 1980s and it wasn't that big a deal to me.

Ditto with the "round room" at the top of the Empire State Building on the same family trip, too.