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How They Change the Colored Lights Atop the Willis Tower

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Ever wonder how the twin spires of the Willis Tower (aka Sears Tower) get a change in colors for holidays and special events? Well, if you guessed that they have an intelligent computerized system that engineers can use to change each of the roof light's colors dynamically, you'd be very wrong. Thanks to this new video released by the Chicago Architecture Foundation, we now know that the oft-changing lighting displays are done the old fashioned way: with their hands. Building engineers take to the 108th and 109th floor rooftops to change the colored lenses on the massive lamps by hand. The building's management and electricians select color combinations like red and green for Christmas, pink for breast cancer awareness, and blue and orange to celebrate major Bears victories. They probably even have Cubs-blue lenses set aside, just in case pigs start to fly.

UPDATE: We come with some good and some bad news. The bad news is, the video we shared is actually part of an upcoming series from the Chicago Architecture Foundation and so we've had to remove it from this post. The good news is that beginning next week the CAF's new Skyline Stories series will go live and everyone will be able to enjoy their awesome work.