Chicago: Home of the First Steel Skyscraper, and of the Tallest Building in the Western Hemisphere, Willis (formerly Sears) Tower

Architecturally speaking, Chicago is second to none.

Glass, steel and stone skyscrapers give architectural stature to the city. Anderson Lock provides security to the world class corporations inside several of those awe-inspiring towers, as well as to literally hundreds of high-rise hotels and hospitals, low-rise schools, banks and other buildings in the city and surrounding suburbs. We maintain key codes for thousands of master key systems.

Multi-level key systems, created and installed by Anderson Lock, control and restrict access to offices, and designated areas within buildings, both tall and small. High security lock systems assure owners, property managers and security personnel that keys cannot be duplicated without proper authorization.

Chicago's prominent buildings feature a variety of styles by many important architects. Since most buildings within the downtown area were destroyed (the most famous exception being the Water Tower) by the Great Chicago Fire in 1871, Chicago buildings are noted for their originality rather than their antiquity.

Another result of the Great Chicago Fire was the establishment of rigid fire codes. Anderson Lock has a certified Fire Door Inspector on staff, and knowledgeable hardware sales representatives and estimators who know applicable building codes, and know which door hardware products meet or exceed those codes. We repair and replace doors, frames and related hardware to assure that life safety codes are met.

Cloud Gate, a public sculpture by artist Anish Kapoor, is the centerpiece of Chicago's Millennium Park. Constructed between 2004 and 2006, the sculpture is nicknamed "The Bean" because of its bean-like shape. Made up of 168 stainless steel plates welded together, its highly polished exterior has no visible seams. It is 33 by 66 by 42 feet, and weighs 110 short tons.

Millennium Park, the capstone of the city’s rebirth built in an abandoned railroad yard, literally gives the city a 21st century facelift. The myriad blown-up faces of Chicagoans materialize and morph on the massive twin blocks of the Crown Fountain, and Frank Gehry’s magic mushroom-shaped Pritzker Pavilion freezes motion. His pedestrian bridge unfurls like a wave of aluminum foil rolling to Lake Michigan.

Chicago is a passsionate "sports city," and Anderson Lock techs have worked at Wrigley Field, where the Chicago Cubs play and U.S. Cellular Field where the Chicago White Sox play. Chicago is the only city that has had more than one major league baseball franchise every year since the AL began in 1901. The Chicago Bears, one of the last two remaining charter members of the National Football League (NFL), have won nine NFL Championships, including Super Bowl XX. The Bears play their home games at Soldier Field just off the shore of Lake Michigan, another favorite place for our techs to work.

The Chicago Bulls of the National Basketball Association (NBA) are one of the most recognized basketball teams in the world. During the 1990s with Michael Jordan leading them, the Bulls took six NBA championships in eight seasons. The Chicago Blackhawks of the National Hockey League (NHL), who began play in 1926, and are one of the "Original Six," teams of the National Hockey League (NHL), have won four Stanley Cups. The Blackhawks are the 2010 Stanley Cup champions, and hosted the 2009 NHL Winter Classic at Wrigley Field. Both the Bulls and Blackhawks play at the United Center on the Near West Side.

The University of Chicago is a private research university incorporated in 1890. It has a reputation of devotion to academic scholarship and intellectualism and is affiliated with scores of Rhodes Scholars and 87 Nobel Prize laureates, the largest number affiliated with any American university.

The University consists of the College of the University of Chicago, various graduate programs and interdisciplinary committees organized into four divisions, six professional schools, and a school of continuing education. The University enrolls approximately 5,000 students in the College and about 15,000 students overall.

The main campus of the University of Chicago consists of 211 acres in the Chicago neighborhoods of Hyde Park and Woodlawn, south of downtown Chicago. The northern and southern portions of campus are separated by the Midway Plaisance, a large, linear park created for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. After the 1940s, the Collegiate Gothic style on campus began to give way to modern styles. A master plan, designed in 1999 and updated in 2004, produced the Gerald Ratner Athletics Center the Max Palevsky Residential Commons, South Campus Residence Hall and dining commons (2009), a new children's hospital, and other constructions, expansions, and restorations, like the award-winning 2009 Chiller Plant, shown at right.

Anderson Lock supplies security door hardware products for old and new buildings throughout the impressive campus.