In 1997, the Sears Tower lost its title of the world's tallest building to the twin Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, leaving Chicago with the world's third-tallest building. Now, seven years later, it looks as though the Sears Tower has fallen down in the ranking yet again. According to an April 22, 2004, article written by Dave Newbart in the Chicago Sun-Times, the Taipei Tower in Taiwan just topped them all. Therefore, what was intended to be the world's tallest building thirty years ago is now ranked fourth.

Another easily identified building in Chicago, built 10 years after the Sears Tower, is celebrating its 20-year anniversary. The Smurfit-Stone Building – formerly the Associates Center and the Stone-Container Building – sits on the corner of Randolph and Michigan. What the Smurfit-Stone Building lacks in height, it makes up for in design. The diagonal, flat, diamond-shaped outline glows at night, making it recognizable among the forest of skyscrapers in the Chicago skyline.

To be honest, I have never studied architecture before, yet there is something rather curious about that diamond shape. A friend of mine heard that the building was designed to be an anti-phallic symbol and that the diamond shape was indeed a vagina.

A vagina among the penises? I had to find this out.

Being a child of the '80s, I grew up watching the movie Adventures in Babysitting, a wholesome yet cheesy flick depicting clueless suburban kids from Oak Park surviving the dangerously wicked inner city of Chicago . However, there is a famous scene in which a 10-year-old girl, who thinks she's the comic book hero Thor, escapes the bad guy by climbing through an open window and onto the face of the Smurfit-Stone Building . Now, was it the director's intention to symbolize and intensify “girl power” by having her elude the bad guy while sliding down the face of a vagina?

I decided to look up a movie review for Adventures in Babysitting to determine if this was true or not. On Centerstage.net, the reviewer makes no mention to the director's intention but does refer to the Smurfit-Stone Building as the “Y” or “Vagina building.”

Surprising? How about this:

Last July, Jonathan Ames of Cabinet magazine wrote an article for Slate describing what he thought was the world's most phallic building. His readers disagreed, and responded with more than 50 other buildings. So Ames decided to have a contest in which his readers would vote what they thought was the world's most phallic building. Among the candidates were Chicago 's very own Tribune Tower , Hancock Building (which is a perfect name) and, of course, the Sears Tower. However, the Smurfit-Stone Building was nominated and won a different category: the “Wrong Contest” award. This award could only suggest that people around the world see the Smurfit-Stone Building as an anti-phallus symbol, thus winning the “wrong contest.”

A community blog page that discussed Ames ' phallic contest supports this claim. On Sept. 23, 2003, one respondent posted, “I personally prefer the ‘Wrong Contest' entry, which my wife likes to call ‘The Vagina Building' every time we drive past it on Lake Shore Drive.”

Now, before calling the Smurfit-Stone building a symbol for feminism, I had to call A. Epstein & Sons International, Inc., the architectural firm who designed the building back in 1984. According to Sid Epstein, one of the original architects, the building was designed to take advantage of the space on 150 North Michigan Avenue and to maximize the view overlooking Grant Park and Lake Michigan. When asked about any feminist or anti-phallic intention, he grew perplexed and almost annoyed, saying he had never heard of that claim before.

“[The designers] never had that thought in mind. It was never their intention. I assure you, absolutely not,” he repeated.

Hanging up the phone, I found myself reflecting on Newbart's story. Even though the designers' intention for the Sears Tower was to create the world's tallest building, things changed and now it stands as the fourth. As it turns out, A. Epstein & Sons had no intention to create an anti-phallus symbol, but things change, and now Chicago is recognized for housing a powerful feminist symbol.

However, above all this, I do see a more obvious change, maybe even irony. In the past 30 years, the intended Chicago penis continues to shrink while the unintended Chicago vagina is glowing with recognition.