The Top of the Rock

Back in 1964, my father spent one summer teaching at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. As a result of this, the family got to see a great deal of Chicago. One of the high points of our stay in the Windy City was having dinner at a restaurant called “The Top of the Rock,” which was located on the top of the Prudential Building. It was over 500 feet high, and in 1964, was the second-tallest building in the world outside of New York City. Ironically enough, a bit more than 20 years later, I had a job interview in the Standard Oil of Indiana building next door to the Prudential Tower. The “Top of the Rock” has long since closed, since you can’t get much of a panoramic view of Chicago with a building more than 200 feet higher right next door. I have seen Chicago from the top of the Sears Tower, and the Prudential Tower is now, I believe, the 25th-tallest building in Chicago. (Probably not even in the top 100 in the world. Such is progress.)