John Hancock Tower
Skyscraper in Boston, Massachusetts
Photos by Josseph Downs, Qiuhai Gao, Austin Farrington on Unsplash
About
The John Hancock Tower, colloquially known as the Hancock, is a 60-story, 790-foot (240 m) skyscraper in the Back Bay neighborhood of downtown Boston, Massachusetts. The pinnacle height (including antennas) is 852 feet (260 m). Designed by Henry N. Cobb of the firm I. M. Pei & Partners, it was completed in 1976, and has held the title as the tallest building in New England ever since. In 2015, the lease belonging to the John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company, for which the skyscraper was named, expired, and it was renamed to its address at 200 Clarendon Street.
The building was initially widely known for its prominent structural flaws, including an analysis that the entire building could overturn under certain wind loads and a prominent design failure of its signature blue windows, which allowed any of the 500-pound (230 kg) window panes to detach and fall, up to the full height of the building, endangering pedestrians below.
Nearby
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Boston Public Library
Library system in Massachusetts, US
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Copley Square
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0.3 mi awayPlaces to eat nearby
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