![]() The research raised questions about the structural integrity of the entire building (due to unanticipated twisting of the structure), but did not account for the loss of the glass panels. Durgin of MIT's Wright Brothers Wind Tunnel a scale model of the entire Back Bay and an aeroelastic model of the John Hancock Tower were built and tested in the wind tunnel to identify the problem. Police closed off surrounding streets whenever winds reached 45 mph (72 km/h). ![]() There were problems with the innovative use of blue reflective glass in a steel tower: entire 4′ × 11′, 500-lb (1.2 × 3.4 m, 227 kg) windowpanes detached from the building and crashed to the sidewalk hundreds of feet below. Trinity Church won an $11 million lawsuit to pay for repairs. The shifting soils damaged utility lines, the sidewalk pavement, and nearby buildings-including the historic Trinity Church across St. The walls warped, giving way to the clay and mud fill of the Back Bay which they were supposed to hold back. ĭuring the excavation for the tower's foundation, temporary steel retaining walls were erected to create a space in which to build. It was an embarrassment for the firm, for modernist architects, and for the architecture industry. The opening of the building was delayed from 1971 to 1976, and the total cost is rumored to have increased from $75 million to $175 million. The building was a much-anticipated landmark designed by a well-respected architect, but was known in the 1970s for its engineering flaws as well as for its architectural achievement. The tower during the time when windows that had fallen out were replaced with plywood Their concern led them to redesign the tower's plans, as there was a public outcry when it was revealed that the Hancock Tower would cast its shadow on the church. In late evening, the vertical notch to the northwest catches the last light of the sky, while the larger portions of glass reflect the darkening sky.Ī major concern of the architects while designing the tower was its proximity to Boston's Trinity Church, a prominent National Historic Landmark. As a final modernist touch, the short sides of the parallelogram are each marked with a deep vertical notch, breaking up the tower's mass and emphasizing its verticality. The highly-reflective window glass is tinted slightly blue, which results in the tower having only a subtle contrast with the sky on a clear day. From the most-common views, this design makes the corners of the tower appear very sharp. Cobb added a geometric modernist twist by using a parallelogram shape for the tower floor plan. The largest possible panes of glass were used, there are no spandrel panels, and the mullions are minimal. Minimalism was the design principle behind the tower. The insurance company, in turn, was named for John Hancock, whose large and conspicuous signature on the Declaration of Independence made his name so famous in the United States that a colloquialism for a signature is "a John Hancock". The tower was originally named for the insurance company that occupied it. John Hancock Insurance was the primary tenant of the building at opening, but the company announced in 2004 that some offices would relocate to a new building at 601 Congress Street, in Fort Point, Boston. The street address is 200 Clarendon Street, but occupants also use "Hancock Place" as a mailing address for offices in the building. It has been the tallest building in Boston and New England since 1976. ![]() In 1977, the American Institute of Architects presented the firm with a National Honor Award for the building, and in 2011 conferred on it the Twenty-five Year Award. window panes to detach and fall-up to the full height of the building-endangering pedestrians below. The building is widely known for its prominent structural flaws, including an analysis that the entire building could overturn under certain wind loads-as well as a prominent design failure of its signature blue windows, which allowed any of the 500-lb. ![]() Pei & Partners and was completed in 1976. It is the tallest building in New England. John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance CompanyĢ00 Clarendon Street, previously John Hancock Tower and colloquially known as The Hancock, is a 60-story, 790-foot (240 m) skyscraper in the Back Bay neighborhood of Boston. ![]()
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