Upon winning the bid for the site, Wolman approached SOM to design the building, considering them to be the best architectural engineering firm in the country. 2: Fazlur Khan (left) and Bruce Graham (right) standing beside a model of the John Hancock Center Though the transit line was never built, the demand for high-density development remained, due to beginning of gentrification and urban re-development, as well as the cachet brought about by media attention on the project itself.įig. Recognizing that a planned public rapid-transit line that would pass by near the neighborhood of the site would create an opportunity for high-density residences and offices, he responded to this anticipated demand by acquiring the site on North Michigan Avenue. Developer Jerry Wolman recognized the opportunity and need for this tower as early as 1964. Along with Chicago’s City Council, he began to focus his attention on revitalizing the city of Chicago through redevelopment of downtown and areas surrounding the central business district. 2 As the city faced decay, Mayor Richard Daley was elected in 1955. This sudden shift in the city’s demographics and declining population greatly affected the manufacturing industries resulting in increased unemployment and poverty. 1 Over the decade, Chicago’s population shrank significantly.
Chicago, along with the nation’s other large cities, was faced with the burgeoning phenomenon of ‘white flight’ – the flood of upper and middle-class citizens abandoning the inner city in favor of the surrounding suburbs. But by the late 1950s, this development began to reverse. In the 1920s, Chicago had seen a major expansion in industry, a high availability of jobs, and a subsequent increase in African American migration to the city from the South.
The Hancock Center debuted and expressed Khan’s “trussed tube” structural system making it a notable structural and social symbol, as well as an emblematic landmark for the city of Chicago.
For the Hancock’s chief engineer, Fazlur Khan, the feat symbolized a more personal accomplishment –it served as validation of his belief that constructing tall buildings at unprecedented scales required designing innovative structural systems. The 100-story, 1,127 foot tall structure was the tallest building in the world outside of New York City at the time of completion, and heralded Chicago’s arrival on the global stage in the race for tall building. The John Hancock Center (Figure 1) was completed in 1968 by Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill (SOM) at 876 North Michigan Avenue in Chicago, Illinois.
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