John Hancock Center Chicago tower building architect, Height, SOM skyscraper design, Date
John Hancock Center Chicago : Skyscraper Building
Key High-Rise Architecture Development in Chicago design by SOM Architects, Illinois, USA
post updated September 23 2024
Location: 875 North Michigan Avenue, Gold Coast, Chicago, Illinois, USA
Dates built: 1969/70
Design: Skidmore, Owings and Merrill – SOM: Bruce Graham (architect) with Fazhur R. Khan (engineer)
photo : Royce Douglas
John Hancock Center Chicago
Height: 100 storeys
John Hancock Center
Building height: 1,127ft / 344m high
Building height including antennae: 1,506ft / 459m high
Nickname: Big John
Design: Fazlur Khan (structural engineer), Skidmore, Owings and Merrill
The tower is the fourth tallest building in Chicago at the time of writing.
Big John’s mass poking up behind Water Tower Place, 875 North Michigan Avenue, photo taken on 7 January 2017, 14:39:
photo : GualdimG, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Key elements of the tower design:
Hancock Observatory – observation deck on 94th floor at 1,020ft
Restaurant on the 95th floor
Building typologies: offices ; restaurants ; condominiums
Tallest building in the world outside Manhattan when completed
Highest apartments in the world
The building contains America’s fastest elevators, travelling to the building’s
“Observatory” on the 94th floor.
Instead of taking the elevator, visitors can also take the stairway from the main lobby to
the “Observatory”. It has a total of 1,632 steps.
Developer: John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company
SOM, Architects, IL
Location:Chicago, Illinois, USA
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