John Hancock Center

From Towrs

The John Hancock Center in Chicago. Photograph courtesy of Chicago Architecture Info.

Diagram of the antennae at the top of the John Hancock Center in Chicago. Diagram courtesy of Chicago Architecture Info.

Statistics

• This building has at least 37 elevators.
• The residential portion of the building has three elevator banks. One for freight, one for passengers, and one for emergency evacuations.
• Though not visible from the outside, many of the residences in this building have screened-in balconies known as "sky terraces."
• Commercial address: 875 North Michigan Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60611
• Residential address: 175 East Delaware Place, Chicago, Illinois 60611

Timeline

• 1973: The residential portion of this building converts from apartments to condominiums.
• May, 1997: The 94th floor observatory reopens after a $2.5 million renovation.

Trivia

• Comedian and actor Chris Farley died in this building. He lived in 6002 (60th floor).
• In many ways the John Hancock Center is a city unto itself.
  • It has its own full-service supermarket on the 44th floor
  • It has its own post office.
  • It has its own full-sized heated indoor pool on the 44th floor.
  • It has its own FedEx and UPS facilities.
  • It has two dry cleaning shops. One on the garden plaza level for office workers and the public, plus another half-way up the tower for the residents.
  • The residential portion of the building is its own voting district in elections.
• There was originally supposed to be two skyscrapers here, which is why it is called John Hancock Center. The second tower would gave been East of the first, but the developers could not wrest the land at 195 East Delaware Place away from the very private Casino club. The developers sent a letter about the second tower to then-club president Doris Winterbotham. She ignored the letter and the development went forward with only one tower. The letter in question was found in Winterbotham's papers after she died, and were later publicized by the Chicago Tribune.
• At one time this was the most prestigious residential address in the Midwest. As such, the building had a number of corporate apartments. Those became prohibited in the early 2000's.
• This building and others surrounding it were erected at the location of the first City of Chicago cemetery. While all of the bodies were supposed to have been moved to the former cemetery in what is now Lincoln Park construction in the area still turns up the occasional body.^[1]

References