Boston Real Estate for Sale

11Back bay tower real estate

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.

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