Aon mum on monumental question

As addressed in the Chicago Sun-Times late Monday: Will it still be the Willis Tower?

The press release on the planned $30 billion Aon PLC purchase of rival Willis Towers Watson PLC doesn’t cover it. And an Aon spokeswoman on Monday did not wish to comment on the future of the 110-story tower, which opened as the Sears Tower in 1973 and is Chicago’s tallest building.

According to the hometown paper, the deal “raises one question in the mind of most Chicagoans: What will happen to the Willis Tower name now that we’ve gotten used to calling it that?”

Executives, announcing the deal on Monday, said the combined operation will use the Aon name, not Willis. 

Can Chicagoans stand another name change? The 2009 move to rename the building — which some still refer to as that of Sears — outraged some. And the city, as the newspaper points out, already has the 83-story Aon Center, Chicago’s fourth-tallest building.