In the Wall Street Journal’s Leisure and Arts section, there’s an interesting interview with Henry Cobb, who was the building architect for the Hancock tower in Boston’s Back Bay.
Here are a few interesting highlights of Boston’s most “famous and iconic” skyscraper:
* Construction began in August 1968 and was opened to the public 35 years ago on September 29, 1976. (BTW, Happy Birthday.)
* The Back Bay Hancock tower is a 62-story building and the facade has 10,344 window panes.
* Like most skyscrapers, the Hancock tower began as a rivalry. In 1964, Prudential erected a 749-foot building. Hancock Insurance, whose corporate offices were headquartered in Boston, couldn’t let an out-of-state insurance company outdo it with the city’s tallest building, thus it created a building precisely 41 feet taller.
Mr. Cobb’s reflections on his design today:
It’s the closet I’ve ever come to poetry…As you can see the building refuses to say anything about itself – other than reflect on the rich formal qualities of Trinity Church below.