John Hancock Tower

200 Clarendon Street
A view of 200 Clarendon Street as seen from the Charles River, taken in 2007
John Hancock Tower is located in Boston
John Hancock Tower
Location within Boston
John Hancock Tower is located in Massachusetts
John Hancock Tower
John Hancock Tower (Massachusetts)
John Hancock Tower is located in the United States
John Hancock Tower
John Hancock Tower (the United States)
General information
TypeOffice
Location200 Clarendon Street
Boston, Massachusetts
02116
Coordinates42°20′57.4″N 71°04′29.2″W / 42.349278°N 71.074778°W / 42.349278; -71.074778
Construction started1968
Completed1976
OwnerBoston Properties
Height
Roof790 ft (240.8 m)
Technical details
Floor count60
Floor area2,059,997 sq ft (191,380.0 m2)
Design and construction
Architect(s)Henry N. Cobb of I.M. Pei & Partners
DeveloperJohn Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company
Website
www.200clarendon.com

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]

  1. ^ "John Hancock Tower". Pei Cobb Freed & Partners. Retrieved 2013-07-22.
  2. ^ Logan, Tim. "So, what should we call the John Hancock Tower now?". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 2016-01-19.
  3. ^ "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.