John Hancock Tower: From Shaky Past to Bright Future

Located in the heart of Boston, right in the famous Copley Square, is the John Hancock Tower*, the tallest building in all of New England. An architectural marvel at an impressive 790 feet, it towers over the city and is very distinguishable when looking at the Boston skyline.  

The tower’s place in Boston history and culture over the past few decades, since its erection in 1965, has been a fascinating one, and one that lends it to exploring through multiple lenses. When looking at it through these various perspectives, it becomes apparent that the John Hancock Tower is quite the urban palimpsest: a tower that, despite its historically rocky past and mishaps, has brought Boston to the forefront of architectural and technological innovation. The many “layers” of its history are multifaceted, and go to show that the role urban landmarks and spaces play can very effectively vary over time. With this theme in mind, it’s particularly fascinating to have a look at these various points in time that exemplify this idea of the Tower as an urban palimpsest, changing in meaning and representation over the years. 

Tracing the Tower’s historical origins is important in understanding its current place in the city of Boston today, playing host to the idea of this as the ultimate, urban palimpsest—a building with various “layers” of history, stories, and public receptions that have shaped it into what it is today. Today, its place in Copley Square—a pulsating, large tourist attraction in the heart of the city’s most bustling area—is marked with the collisions of people, stories, and the vagaries of urban life, all in the heart of a major American city.

As Michel de Certeau writes, “People moving through the city at ground level write the ‘urban text’ without being able to read it. The city is provisionally created as a patchwork quilt of individual viewpoints and opinions. The created order is everywhere punched and torn open by ellipses, drifts, and leaks of meaning: it is a sieve-order.” This quote has particular relevance in looking at the role of the John Hancock Tower plays today in the city. After emerging from years of its shaky past, the John Hancock Tower has become a cultural icon and architectural marvel that not only allows the writing of this “urban text” that one is able to aptly and immediately notice once walking past it. Its architecture of big, reflective windows allows others to engage with it in fascinating and novel ways—and ultimately, this modernist architecture allows for this “patchwork quilt of individual viewpoints and opinions” to exist.

*Although I will refer to it as the John Hancock Tower (as most people still do colloquially), the tower is actually no longer called that—it is instead now known as 200 Clarendon, aptly so after its street address. This is due to a series of legal and real estate dealings and the fact that John Hancock Insurance’s last lease in the building has now expired.

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References 

Logan, Tim (July 30, 2015). So, what should we call the John Hancock Tower now? The Boston Globe. Retrieved 2015-09-27.