Official name: Hancock Place Built: 1977 Designed by: I.M. Pei & Associates Type: Skyscraper Maximum Height: 790 feet / 241 meters Location: 200 Clarendon Street, Boston, United States
Building Rating 70% of readers like the John Hancock Tower (Boston).
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I n another city, the John Hancock tower wouldn't be anything special -- just another reflective glass box in the crowd. But because of the way Boston and the rest of New England has grown up architecturally, this "70's modern" building stands out from the rest. Instead of being colonial, it breaks new ground. Instead of being quaint, it soars and imposes itself on the skyline. And Instead of being white like so many buildings in the region, this one defies the local conventional wisdom and goes for black. For these reasons and more the people of Boston have fallen in love with the 790-foot monster looming as the tallest building in New England at the time of its completion. In the mid-1990's, The Boston Globe polled local architects who rated it the city's third best architectural structure. Much like Boston's well-loved baseball team, the building has had a rough past, but still perseveres, coming back stronger to win the hearts of its fans. The trouble began early on. During construction of the foundation the sides of the pit collapsed, nearly sucking Trinity Church into the hole. Then in late January, 1973 construction was still underway when a winter storm rolled into town and a 500-pound window leapt from the tower and smashed itself to bits on the ground below. Another followed. Then another. Within a few weeks, more than 65 of the building's 10,344 panes of glass committed suicide, their crystalline essence piling up in a roped-off area surrounding the building. The people of Bean Town have always been willing to kick a brother when he's down, and started calling the tower the Plywood Palace because of the black-painted pieces of wood covering more than an acre of its façade. Some people thought the building was swaying too much in the wind, and causing the windows to pop out. Some thought the foundation had shifted and it was putting stress of the structural geometry. It turns out the culprit was nothing more than the lead solder running along the window frame. It was too stiff to deal with the kind of vibrations that happen every day in thousands of office buildings around the world. So when John Hancock Tower swayed with the wind, or sighed with the temperature, the windows didn't and eventually cracked and plummeted to Earth. It cost $7,000,000.00 to replace all of those panes of glass. The good news is, you can own a genuine piece of the skyscraper. According to the Globe, the undamaged sheets were sold off for use as tabletops, so start combing those garage sales. For any other skyscraper, the hardship would end there. But the Hancock building continued to suffer indignities. The last, and most ominous, was revealed by Bruno Thurlimann, a Swiss engineer who determined that the building's natural sway period was dangerously close to the period of its torsion. The result was that instead of swaying back-and-forth like a in the wind like a metronome, it bent in the middle, like a cobra. The solution was putting a pair of 300-ton tuned mass dampeners on the 58-th floor. The same engineer also determined that while the $3,000,000.00 mass dampeners would keep the building from twisting itself apart, the force of the wind could still knock it over. So 1,500 tons of steel braces were used to stiffen the tower and the Hancock building's final architectural indignity was surmounted.
Architect: I.M. Pei
Architect: Henry N. Cobb
March 30, 2009: This building was sold for $660,000,000.
Jon Churchill
Wednesday, August 19th, 2009 @ 10:22pm
i agree with John Tobin,Time to give the Viewing point to the General public,
Jon Churchill
Tuesday, April 14th, 2009 @ 7:43am
I do think it`s time to open the 60th level for the public,Jon
G. F. Hayden
Saturday, January 29th, 2005 @ 5:23am
Rating: Five stars. Has everyone forgotten THE most striking architectural property of Boston's Hancock tower? Stand at the corner of Dartmouth and Boylston, across Boylston from this amazing structure. You will have a fine view of the skyscraper dwarfing Trinity Church. Now, while observing the tower, begin walking downtown on Boylston (in the direction of traffic flow). Before you have proceeded 100 feet the entire sixty-odd-story building, except for its narrow side, will have VANISHED! You will be gawking up from near its base at a monolithic slab having almost no depth, but extending nearly 800 feet into the sky! Where did the skyscraper go? Walk back toward the corner and it will slowly reappear. This visual treat is not to be missed! Make sure to bring the kids. (Take the Green Line to Copley station.)
Colin K
Thursday, January 20th, 2005 @ 8:15pm
Rating: Four stars. I've lived in Boston for ten years and still enjoy seeing this building every day. It works because it's good- the purity of form and line are exceptional- and because it's unique. I've always thought of it as being like a gem set in a nest of ornate old buildings. Neither takes anything away from the other.
Kevin
Thursday, November 25th, 2004 @ 12:56am
Rating: Three stars. Some might say this building is a bad design in the Historic fabric of Boston because it does not conform to the local vernacular. However, it would have been a far greater injustice had it attempted to emmulate a style that has long since been dead. IM Pei chose to create a building that would literally mirror its surroundings; the effect is incredibly accepting and references historic neighbors by allowing them to become the facade - the only thing about this building that is in poor design would be the entrance - a small awning over a few double doors.
R. Christian Anderson
Saturday, November 20th, 2004 @ 12:15pm
One of the best examples of the worst "International Style" of architecture. A big glass non-descript box that says nothing about the rich architectural history of Boston.
BMiller
April 20th, 2003
This is Boston's best tower...Much better than the Prudential tower(Designed by Mr. Boring) and than the monster next to the Prudential
bob
January 26th, 2003
I work in this building. And I remember the 'plywood palace' moniker. Inside, it's really nothing special, just another office building that takes you too much time to get up or down to the basement cafeteria.
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Jon Churchill
Five stars.
Four stars.
Three stars.