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John Hancock Tower

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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 . 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 .

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46-454: The building is 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. The street address is 200 Clarendon Street, but occupants also use "Hancock Place" as

92-494: A mailing address for offices in the building. 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 tower was originally named for the insurance company that occupied it. The insurance company, in turn, was named for John Hancock , whose large and conspicuous signature on

138-469: A man wearing shorts , between the 44th and 50th floors of the building. According to the property manager, the mural was the final piece in a three-part series of temporary public art projects at the building. In the 2019 film Godzilla: King of Monsters , the John Hancock Tower is depicted being destroyed in the battle between Godzilla and King Ghidorah when the former behemoth pushes

184-401: A rapid change in temperature, resulting in cracking or shattering. When a material is rapidly heated or cooled, the surface and internal temperature will have a difference in temperature. Quick heating or cooling causes thermal expansion or contraction respectively, this localized movement of material causes thermal stresses. Imagine heating a cylinder, first the surface rises in temperature and

230-684: A request from the John Hancock company, decided that it would be better to keep the building on the tax rolls. It was also thought that open space near the base of the tower might not be desirable, due to the tower's "wind tunnel" effect. The Berkeley Building (also known as the Old John Hancock Building) is a 26-story, 495-foot (151 m) structure located at 200 Berkeley Street, the second of the three John Hancock buildings built in Boston. The building, located in Boston's Back Bay,

276-561: A temporary building to aid in their transition to One Federal Street. The temporary building was torn down and replaced by One Federal Street. The next John Hancock building was designed by Parker, Thomas and Rice , best known as architects of the United Shoe Machinery Corporation Building . It was completed in 1922. It is located at 197 Clarendon St. across from the Hancock tower. It was known as

322-459: Is calculated by multiplying the change in temperature, material's thermal expansion coefficient and material's Young's modulus (see formula below). E {\displaystyle E} is Young's modulus , α {\displaystyle \alpha } is thermal expansion coefficient , T 0 {\displaystyle T_{0}} is initial temperature and T f {\displaystyle T_{f}}

368-454: Is covered with lubricant so the weight is free to slide. But the weight is attached to the steel frame of the building by means of springs and shock absorbers. When the Hancock sways, the weight tends to remain still, allowing the floor to slide underneath it. Then, as the springs and shocks take hold, they begin to tug the building back. The effect is like that of a gyroscope, stabilizing the tower. The reason there are two weights, instead of one,

414-401: Is so they can tug in opposite directions when the building twists. The cost of the damper was $ 3 million. The dampers are free to move a few feet relative to the floor. According to Campbell, engineers discovered that—despite the mass damper—the building could have fallen over under a certain kind of wind loading. The structure was assessed as more unstable on its narrow sides than on

460-419: Is the final temperature. When T f {\displaystyle T_{f}} is greater than T 0 {\displaystyle T_{0}} , the constraints exert a compressive force on the material. The opposite happens while cooling; when T f {\displaystyle T_{f}} is less than T 0 {\displaystyle T_{0}} ,

506-542: The Back Bay which they were supposed to hold back. The shifting soils damaged utility lines, the sidewalk pavement, and nearby buildings—including the historic Trinity Church across St. James Avenue. Trinity Church won an $ 11 million lawsuit to pay for repairs. There were problems with the innovative use of blue reflective glass in a steel tower: entire windowpanes, 4 ft × 11 ft (1.2 m × 3.4 m) and 500 lb (230 kg), detached from

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552-530: The Declaration of Independence made his name so famous in the United States that a colloquialism for a signature is "a John Hancock". Minimalism was the design principle behind the tower. The largest possible panes of glass were used, there are no spandrel panels, and the mullions are minimal. Cobb added a geometric modernist twist by using a parallelogram shape for the tower floor plan. From

598-644: The John Hancock Center in Chicago and the Sears Tower , also in Chicago. The building features a "green" (energy-efficient) dual glass curtain wall construction, making it among the first buildings in Boston to win national LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification. On April 28, 2004, the then-head of Manulife's Boston operations announced that the building would be renamed

644-495: The "John Hancock Building." According to Manulife, this is not quite correct; the building, completed in fall of 2004, will house the John Hancock Wealth Management Group and will bear conspicuous "John Hancock" exterior and interior signage featuring the John Hancock logo. However, the company will refer to the building simply as "601 Congress." As of 2018 , Emporis lists the official name of

690-533: The "John Hancock Life Insurance Company Building." Parker, Thomas and Rice received the Harleston Parker Medal for its design in 1924. More recently, it was known as "The Clarendon Building", and circa 2001 it was renamed "The Stephen L. Brown Building" in honor of Stephen L. Brown, chairman of John Hancock Financial Services, Inc. According to Donlyn Lyndon , "if you stand on the corner of Clarendon Street and St. James Avenue and look directly into

736-604: The Hancock Tower and two earlier, similarly-named buildings is known loosely as " John Hancock Insurance ", or simply "John Hancock". It was known as "The John Hancock Life Insurance Company" in the 1930s and "The John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company" in the 1940s. As of 2000, the company owning the buildings was "John Hancock Financial Services, Inc." with various subsidiaries such as "The John Hancock Variable Life Insurance Company" and "Signator Investors, Inc." In 2003, Manulife Financial Corporation of Toronto acquired

782-636: The Massachusetts Trust Company Building. In 1926 the building was purchased by Stone & Webster and became known as the Stone & Webster Building. In 1965, the First National Bank purchased the building with plans to construct their new headquarters there. The Stone & Webster Building was torn down once Stone & Webster moved out. The property was acquired by National Shawmut Bank, which constructed

828-714: The alien into the building. Notes Sources John Hancock Building#601 Congress Street Four buildings in Boston , Massachusetts , have been known as the "John Hancock Building". All were built by the John Hancock Insurance companies. References to the John Hancock building usually refer to the 60-story, sleek glass building on Clarendon Street also known as the John Hancock Tower or Hancock Place. The first John Hancock Building

874-458: The big flat sides. Some 1,500 tons of diagonal steel bracing, costing $ 5 million, were added to prevent such an event. An observation deck with views of Boston was a tourist attraction for several decades. However, it was closed after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks . After the closure of the John Hancock Tower's observation deck, the building with the highest observation deck open to

920-423: The building and crashed to the sidewalk hundreds of feet below. Police closed off surrounding streets whenever winds reached 45 mph (72 km/h). Under the direction of Frank H. 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. The research raised questions about

966-401: The building as the "Manulife Tower". 42°20′54.22″N 71°04′30.07″W  /  42.3483944°N 71.0750194°W  / 42.3483944; -71.0750194 Thermal stress In mechanics and thermodynamics , thermal stress is mechanical stress created by any change in temperature of a material. These stresses can lead to fracturing or plastic deformation depending on

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1012-496: The building on the corner of Franklin and Devonshire Streets. The addition was designed by Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge in the French Renaissance architecture style. The "H type" design allowed for almost every office to have outside windows. Each floor contained marble flooring and wainscoting as well as a fireproof bank vault. The Wells Bros. Co. of New York City were the general contractors. John Hancock occupied

1058-401: The building swayed in the wind. To reduce the movement, contractors installed a tuned mass damper on the 58th floor. As described by Robert Campbell , architecture critic for The Boston Globe : Two 300-ton weights sit at opposite ends of the 58th floor of the Hancock. Each weight is a box of steel, filled with lead, 17 feet square by 3 feet high. Each weight rests on a steel plate. The plate

1104-483: The building, earning it the nicknames "Plywood Ranch" (the same name as a local lumber yard chain at the time) and "Plywood Palace", much to the consternation of the VP in charge of construction. According to engineers Matthys Levy and Mario Salvadori , the replacement also inspired jokes that the Hancock Tower was the "world's tallest wooden building." The building's upper-floor occupants suffered from motion sickness when

1150-417: The center remains the same initial temperature. After some time the center of the cylinder will reach the same temperature as the surface. During the heat up the surface is relatively hotter and will expand more than the center. An example of this is dental fillings can cause thermal stress in a person's mouth. Sometimes dentists use dental fillings with different thermal expansion coefficients than tooth enamel,

1196-544: The church. 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 . 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 opening of the building

1242-408: The company, but it still uses the name "John Hancock Financial Services, Inc." and those of various subsidiaries. The name change from "John Hancock" to "200 Clarendon" took place in mid-2015, when the Hancock's lease expired. It had been stipulated in the leasing contract that the building would retain the name "John Hancock" only so long as John Hancock Financial was an occupant. About a year after

1288-421: The falling windows problem was resolved, American novelist John Updike wrote in a story, Now I am aware of loving only the Hancock Tower, which has had its missing pane restored and is again perfect, unoccupied, changeably blue, taking upon itself the insubstantial shapes of clouds, their porcelain gauze, their adamant dreaming. I reflect that all art, all beauty, is reflection. The building can also be found in

1334-446: The fillings will expand faster than the enamel and cause pain in a person's mouth. Material will expand or contract depending on the material's thermal expansion coefficient. As long as the material is free to move, the material can expand or contract freely without generating stresses. Once this material is attached to a rigid body at multiple locations, thermal stresses can be created in the geometrically constrained region. This stress

1380-580: The firm with a National Honor Award for the building, and in 2011 conferred on it the Twenty-five Year Award . It has been the tallest building in Boston for more than 30 years and is the tallest building in New England . In 2002, Manulife Financial began construction of a 14-story building in the Seaport District at 601 Congress Street ( Picture ). The building was designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill LLP of Chicago, designers of

1426-549: The game Need For Speed Most Wanted 2012 in the fictional city of Fairhaven City in the Downtown district The TV series Fringe shows the building as the location of FBI Headquarters. At the time, the actual FBI Boston headquarters was located at One Center Plaza, though it has since relocated to nearby Chelsea . In September 2015, the French photographer and artist JR created a 150-by-86-foot (46 by 26 m) tall mural of

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1472-564: The mirrored surface of the third Hancock, you will see reflected there the first two, aligned hierarchically in an ethereal family portrait." Originally, the Planned Development Area (PDA) agreement for the building of the 60-story John Hancock Tower called for 197 Clarendon to be demolished to make way for open space or a public square. In 1982, the Boston Redevelopment Authority , responding to

1518-419: The most-common views, this design makes the corners of the tower appear very sharp. 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. 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. In late evening,

1564-424: The original glass panes were removed intact, and were later offered for re-use by artists . Glass panes were sold to Hingham based retailer Building #19 , who sold them for $ 100 apiece. They advertised "If it does fall out, we promise to sell you the replacement plywood very cheap." During the many months it took to diagnose and repair the building, sheets of plywood replaced many of the missing glass windows of

1610-447: The other variables of heating, which include material types and constraints. Temperature gradients , thermal expansion or contraction and thermal shocks are things that can lead to thermal stress. This type of stress is highly dependent on the thermal expansion coefficient which varies from material to material. In general, the greater the temperature change, the higher the level of stress that can occur. Thermal shock can result from

1656-482: The public in Boston became the Prudential Tower . The building's owners cite security as the reason for the continued closure. They have rented the deck for private functions and have expressed intent to replace it with more office space. Boston city officials contend that security concerns are moot, since most similar attractions have long since reopened. In addition, they note that a public observation deck

1702-425: The resilient bonding between the inner glass, reflective material, and outer glass was so stiff that it was transmitting the force to the outer glass (instead of absorbing it), thus causing the glass to fail. In October 1973, I.M. Pei & Partners announced that all 10,344 window panes would each be replaced by single-paned, heat-treated panels at a total cost between $ 5 million and $ 7 million. Approximately 5,000 of

1748-468: The stress will be tensile. A welding example involves heating and cooling of metal which is a combination of thermal expansion, contraction, and temperature gradients. After a full cycle of heating and cooling, the metal is left with residual stress around the weld. This is a combination of a large temperature gradient due to low thermal conductivity, in addition to rapid change in temperature on brittle materials. The change in temperature causes stresses on

1794-402: 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. An independent laboratory eventually confirmed that the failure of the glass was due to oscillations and repeated thermal stresses caused by the expansion and contraction of the air between the inner and outer glass panels which formed each window;

1840-610: The top three floors of the ten-story building and the Library Bureau , Eliot National Bank of Boston, and E. H. Rollins & Sons were among the first tenants. The addition gave the building frontage on Devonshire Street (176–200 Devonshire St.), Franklin Street (120 Franklin St.), and Federal Street (49–75 Federal Street). On January 3, 1920, the remainder of the building was purchased by Massachusetts Trust Company, which renamed it

1886-436: The vertical notch to the northwest catches the last light of the sky, while the larger portions of glass reflect the darkening sky. A major concern of the architects while designing the tower was its proximity to Boston's Trinity Church , a prominent National Historic Landmark . 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

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1932-441: Was a requirement for the original building permits to gain public benefit from the high tower. However, officials have not been able to locate the documentation of this requirement. In 2006, Broadway Partners acquired Hancock Place for $ 1.3 billion. By 2009, they had defaulted on the loans they used to buy the building, and it fell into foreclosure . On March 30, 2009, Hancock Place was sold at auction for $ 660 million ($ 20 million

1978-472: Was built on Devonshire Street in 1891. It was designed by William G. Preston . On October 2, 1919, the building was purchased by the First National Bank of Boston . In 1922, it was one of the buildings torn down to make way for the new First National Bank building. This building was torn down in 1971 and replaced by One Federal Street . In 1909, John Hancock began work on a new addition to

2024-416: Was delayed from 1971 to 1976, and the total cost is rumored to have increased from $ 75 million to $ 175 million. It was an embarrassment for the firm, for modernist architects, and for the architecture industry. During the excavation for the tower's foundation, temporary steel retaining walls were erected to create a space in which to build. The walls warped, giving way to the clay and mud fill of

2070-433: Was designed by Cram and Ferguson and completed in 1947. It is known for the weather beacon at its summit, which displays light patterns as weather forecasts. The John Hancock Tower, on the southeast corner of Copley Square , is a 60-story, 790 ft (240 m) skyscraper . It was designed by Henry N. Cobb of I. M. Pei & Partners and was completed in 1976. In 1977, the American Institute of Architects presented

2116-469: Was new equity and the $ 640 million of in-place debt was assumed by the buyer) to a consortium of Normandy Real Estate Partners and Five Mile Capital Partners. The companies had been slowly increasing their investment over the previous months. In October 2010, Boston Properties acquired the John Hancock Tower for $ 930 million. As part of the purchase agreement, the name "Hancock Tower" would expire along with John Hancock's lease in 2015. The company that built

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