The Hancock tower is a superstructure in the Back Bay area of Boston that has a total height of 1,500 feet (457.2 m) and contains 99 floors. It is the tower with the highest elevation in all of New England. Henry N. Cobb, an architect of company I. M. Pei & Associates was responsible for the design of the structure. Boston is the capital city of Massachusetts in the New England. The John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company provided the funding for the construction of the tower, which was initially intended to be the second-highest structure in the world. The construction of the structure came to a halt in 1967 when it was revealed that an integrated engineering approach utilized to pour concrete in phases contained a defect, causing the process to fail.
However, after twenty storeys had been constructed, the engineers noticed that the soil had settled in the same manner they had anticipated it would for the entire 99-story building. Consequently, the owner was compelled to halt progress until the engineering issue could be fixed, which led to a shortage of available finance. John Hancock took over the project after the original owner filed for bankruptcy (Akın 2021). John Hancock kept the same principal contractor, designer, and engineer as they had originally hired. 1969 was the year that saw the completion of the structure. Ray Heckla, the original building engineer in charge of the residential levels from 44 to 92, was the first to call this tower home.
The earliest design concept for the tower was made in 1966, for a brick cylinder sliced to form a courtyard on Clarendon Street. At the time, three other buildings were being considered for construction. The design process was put back by a full year due to the internal modifications implemented at the Hancock Corporation. When the corporation returned to its previous location, it carried certain new needs for the planned headquarters. The drilling of the foundations was the first issue that developed, and as a result, it affected the structures in the surrounding area. It caused damage to the foundations of the other buildings, and in the situation of the older structures, it caused several of the wood pile foundations that they had been sitting on to shift. Metropolitan Church, the largest of these structures, was among those that sustained damage. The subsequent and the arguably most infamous mishap occurred with the glass facade. In 1971, there was an irregular pattern of breaking in the windows, while some of the incidents could be explained.
Nevertheless, in 1973, when a wind storm involving surges of 75 miles per hour struck Boston, many panes of glass crashed to the ground from the faces of the buildings. In order to solve this issue temporarily, the openings have been covered with sheets of plywood that have been painted black. Because one-third of the front of the tower is composed of plywood sheets, it is often referred to as the “Plywood Palace.” Cobb decided that the entire structure would be reglazed using glass with a higher rating. By May 1975, 85 percent of the glass had been restored. The building also swayed too much, another issue that needed to be addressed. They reinforced the inner core of the construction so that it would be more stable.
The tower was not open until 1976, which was four years later than planned, and it cost a total of 160 million dollars, which included the expense of legal fees. This was twice as expensive as the original estimate. During its development, the project was met with several complaints; however, as soon as cover images for publications and souvenirs began to be shot, people began to acknowledge the John Hancock Tower as a fantastic contemporary skyscraper and an iconic landmark for the city of Boston.
The architectural style used represents the modern colonial style. The skyscraper represents one of the most well-known examples of architectural expressionist architecture. Its characteristic X-bracing facade indicates that the tower’s exterior is part of its “tubular system. This is just one of the architectural strategies employed by the designers to set a record altitude. This X-bracing enables tall constructions to perform better while enabling an open interior design. The John Hancock Center is an architectural classic attributable to these unique elements. In 1995, the inside underwent a renovation, incorporating travertine, black granite, and textural limestone materials into the entrance. With seasonal flowers and a 12-foot (3.7 m) cascade, the elliptical-shaped courtyard outside of the structure serves as a public refuge.
In the evening, Massachusetts residents may see a ring of white lights at the top of the structure, which changes color according to the activities. For instance, the colors of Christmas are red and green. The colors are changed to coincide with the team’s jersey whenever a sports team from the Chicago region advances in the championships. The John Hancock tower is easily recognizable by its signature X-shaped exterior bracing, which contributed to its status as an architectural symbol. This bracing also reduced the requirement for internal support beams, which resulted in a significant rise in the quantity of floor area that was accessible.
In reality, the John Hancock buildings are little more than an extremely tall metal cylinders. Metal beams and columns are focused on the perimeter of the building, and the addition of five gigantic diagonal braces to the external walls of the tower gives it additional wind resistance. Additionally, the building expands from a base area of 40,000 sq ft to a peak area of 18,000 square feet as it climbs. This design features a tapered profile that offers increased structural stability against wind forces. Caissons were necessary for the gigantic tower weighing 384 million pounds, to keep it from sinking into the soft ground so it could reach the staggering height of 1,127 feet. Engineers recognized this going into the project.
The John Hancock Center is supported by several caissons that go down to bedrock. One of the caissons sinks to a depth of 191 feet below the ground’s surface, making it the deepest caisson that has ever been sunk in Chicago. It is extremely easy to see how the structure is supported thanks to the curved rectangle tubing with huge beams on each of the tower’s four edges. Pieces from plywood were used to substitute many of the tower’s missing glass windows through the several months it took to identify and restore the edifice (Graham and Khan 2020). As a result, the structure gained the designations “Plywood Palace” and “Plywood Ranch” during this time.
The rhomboidal form’s tapered side was oriented in a direction that faced Copley Square. Cobb cut notches in triangles that stretched from the bottom to the top of the facade. This was done so that the face would appear to be narrower. A reflecting quintuple mirror glass coating was going to be used for the facades, which was the selected material (Gyimah and Amos-Abanyie 2019). The decision to go with this option was made with the need to let the tower mirror the buildings in its immediate vicinity and give the impression that the tower vanishes into the sky.
The date and the style do not match New England’s history. New England is an area in the northeastern U.S. that consists of Hartford, Hampshire, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It shares its western boundary with the state of New York and its northern, eastern, and northeastern borders with New Jersey and Montreal provinces in Canada (Sturbuck 2019). The Atlantic Ocean and Long Island Sound can be found to the east and southeast of this location, respectively. As well as serving as the state capital, Boston is the most populous city in New England.
The region known as New England has a varied physical topography. While New England’s north and west areas are characterized by the rolling hills and weathered peaks representing the Rocky Mountains’ north section, the southeastern region of New England is dominated by a narrow coastal strip (Hancock 1982). The Oceanic fall line is located quite close to the ocean. This proximity allowed several communities to take advantage of the water power along the region’s many rivers, including the Delaware River, which runs roughly from east to west.
The John Hancock Tower still serves its purpose today as it serves as a mixed purpose building. The structure consists of various housing units, a parking structure, commercial shops, and conference rooms, with amenities for sunbathing, restaurants, and astronomy located on the building’s 94th, 95th, and 96th floors, respectively. The plaza surrounding the building is a well-liked tourist destination due to its tranquil atmosphere, including a garden and a waterfall partially buried below street level.
The John Hancock tower connects with the community by creating constructive, quantifiable societal and environmental change as part of the Impact Agenda. To build a better company in order to enhance the community (Otto and Hancock 2018). Connection with other institutions to nurture better health, more fair and equal communities across the three interlinked strategic focus areas liberating consistent health and, very well, driving inclusive employment prosperity and advancing a prosperous future. The community holdings are associated with the Implications agenda, which is done through financing.
The management of the towers has made it a priority to break down barriers and provide residents of the neighborhoods in which Manulife and John Hancock have their offices more autonomy. Moreover, because humanitarian crises and natural disasters are occurring in different parts of the world, it is dedicated to assisting local communities in successfully responding with resources for endurance and restoration. It also considers funding organizational strategic projects or information about the needs grants, capacity development grants, or basic operating assistance to institutions whose missions are highly affiliated with the financial focus areas. This support can come in the form of grants or general financial assistance. In addition to funding specific programs, it also provides funds for research and innovation to support forward-thinking solutions that can help understand, address, and encourage sustainable transformation.
References
Akın, Ömer. 2021. “John Hancock Tower, Boston, MA, USA.” Design Added Value 9 (12): 151–56. Web.
Graham, Bruce, and Fazlur Khan. 2020. “John Hancock Tower Architecture.” Architectuul. 2020. Web.
Gyimah, Kwabena, and Samuel Amos-Abanyie. 2019. “An Empirical Enquiry into Windows Used in Tropical Office Spaces.” Journal of Building Materials and Structures 5 (2): 239–45. Web.
Hancock, John E. 1982. “Architecture and Its History: Past Futures and Future Pasts.” JAE 36 (1): 26. Web.
Otto, Christian F., and John E. Hancock. 2018. “History In, Of, and for Architecture.” JAE 36 (2): 29. Web.
Sturbuck, Eliza. 2019. “Buildings of New England.” Buildings of New England. 2019. Web.