John Hancock Tower

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200 Clarendon
(formerly John Hancock Tower)
200 Clarendon (formerly John Hancock Tower)
Basic data
Place: Boston , USA
Construction time : 1971-1976
Status : Built
Architectural style : modernist
Architect : I. M. Pei and Henry N. Cobb (Pei, Cobb and Freed)
Technical specifications
Height : 241 m
Height to the top: 241 m
Height to the roof: 241 m
Floors : 60
Building material : Steel
concrete
glass
Building-costs: $ 175 million
Height comparison
Boston : 1. ( list )
United States : 45. ( list )
World: 131 (as of 2005). ( List )
address
Address: 200 Clarendon Street
City: Boston
Country: United States

The John Hancock Tower , whose official name since July 2015 has simply been 200 Clarendon after its address , is the tallest building in Boston at 241 meters and 60 floors . Before it was built, a building in the immediate vicinity was called the John Hancock Tower , so that the old and the new Hancock Tower are sometimes used. The official name of the old Hancock Tower is Berkley Building . The new Hancock Tower had to change its official name after the eponymous John Hancock insurance company gave up its last office space in the building, as the name was contractually linked to the insurance company's residence in the building.

In the history of the city, three different buildings were called the "John Hancock Building ". All housed offices of the John Hancock Insurance Company ( John Hancock Insurance ), which owes its name to former governor and founding father John Hancock .

The "new" Hancock Tower

John Hancock Tower is still often called the tower, completed in 1976, whose official name has been 200 Clarendon since 2015 .

architecture

The tower reflects its surroundings

The tower was designed by the two architects I. M. Pei and Henry N. Cobb (company Pei, Cobb and Freed). In 2005 it was ranked 45th tallest building in the United States and 131st worldwide. The floor plan is a parallelogram . The architecture is modernistic, monolithic and at the same time minimalistic thanks to the continuous, completely bluish mirrored glass facade . On a clear day, the tower reflects its surroundings and thus blends in with the cityscape. The style was picked up in Germany a few years later, including at the headquarters of Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt am Main.

Construction problems

“Plywood palace” with wooden panels in the windows

Several problems arose during and after the construction. Already during the construction of the excavation for the foundations, ground movements and damage to neighboring buildings occurred due to weak retaining walls. The facade problems after completion were more spectacular: Due to the air gap between the double panes, panes (1.20 × 3.40 m, weight 227 kg) repeatedly detached from the facade and fell onto the street. The police had to cordon off the area around the tower at wind speeds of more than 72 km / h. The holes in the facade were temporarily closed with plywood panels, which earned the building the derisive name “Plywood Palace” and the joke that it was “the tallest plywood building in the world” . According to the Boston Globe , the problem was only solved after wind tunnel tests in cooperation with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) , and from 1973 the entire facade was replaced with toughened safety glass . Due to its glass facade, the tower now suffers from high air conditioning costs.

The biggest problem was the potential danger of the entire structure collapsing due to the insufficient rigidity of the narrow side in the wind - the pointed edge, on the other hand, had already been designed to be much more rigid. 1650 tons of steel had to be used to make the structure safe.

The problems were not made public for a long time because the parties involved had agreed not to disclose.

Another problem, a strong swaying which is said to have led to seasickness in some employees on the upper floors , was solved by installing two 300 ton pendulum absorbers on the 58th floor.

Overall, the construction time was delayed by several years due to other problems, the planned construction costs of 75 million US dollars rose to a total of 175 million US dollars.

Award

In 2011, the building received the Twenty-five Year Award from the American Institute of Architects .

The "old" Hancock Tower

The two former John Hancock buildings are in close proximity to the new tower. At one point the old buildings are reflected in the facade of the new one. The first John Hancock building is the low-rise in the foreground from 1922 and is now called the Stephen L. Brown Building (address 197 Clarendon St. ). Behind it is the "old" John Hancock Tower with 14 floors from 1947, which has since been renamed the Berkely Building (address 200 Berkeley Street ).

Trivia

In the television series Fringe - Borderline Cases of the FBI , this building is passed off as the headquarters of the FBI . The real office, however, is on One Center Plaza.

Picture gallery

  • The John Hancock Tower and the Boston skyline

  • At one point the two older John Hancock buildings are reflected in the facade of the new one

  • A tree in front of the tower

Note

This article in its original version dated March 28, 2007 is based on the article John Hancock Tower on Wikipedia.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Tim Logan: So, what should we call the John Hancock Tower now? In: The Boston Globe. July 30, 2015, accessed April 24, 2019 .
  2. ↑ http://boston.cbslocal.com/top-lists/5-things-you-didnt-know-about-the-john-hancock-tower/ CBS Boston on September 19, 2013.
  3. ↑ http://www.nytimes.com/1988/04/24/arts/architecture-view-a-novel-design-and-its-rescue-from-near-disaster.html?pagewanted=all publication of the New York Times on April 24, 1988.
  4. ↑ Actually, they are damped masses moving laterally on a lubricating film, but the physical effect is the same, according to https://brown.edu/Departments/Joukowsky_Institute//courses/13things/7187.html they weigh only 136 t each
  5. ↑ American Institute of Architects : list of winners

Web links

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Commons : John Hancock Tower  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 42 ° 20 ′ 57.4 "  N , 71 ° 4 ′ 29.2"  W.