| 200 Clarendon Street | |
|---|---|
 A view of 200 Clarendon Street as seen from the Charles River, taken in 2007 | |
  Location within Boston  John Hancock Tower (Massachusetts)  John Hancock Tower (the United States) | |
| General information | |
| Type | Office |
| Location | 200 Clarendon Street Boston, Massachusetts 02116 |
| Coordinates | 42°20′57.4″N 71°04′29.2″W / 42.349278°N 71.074778°W |
| Construction started | 1968 |
| Completed | 1976 |
| Owner | Boston Properties |
| Height | |
| Roof | 790 ft (240.8 m) |
| Technical details | |
| Floor count | 60 |
| Floor area | 2,059,997 sq ft (191,380.0 m2) |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect(s) | Henry N. Cobb of I.M. Pei & Partners |
| Developer | John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company |
| Website | |
| www | |
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.[1] 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.[2]
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 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 the Declaration of Independence made his name so famous in the United States that a colloquialism for a signature is "a John Hancock".[3]
- ^ "John Hancock Tower". Pei Cobb Freed & Partners. Retrieved 2013-07-22.
- ^ Logan, Tim. "So, what should we call the John Hancock Tower now?". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 2016-01-19.
- ^ "John Hancock n. Informal: A person's signature. [After John Hancock (from the prominence of his signature on the Declaration of Independence)". American Heritage Dictionary. Retrieved 2017-04-24.