LOCATION OF CHICAGO

CHICAGO
LOCATION OF JOHN HANCOCK CENTRE

130 E WACKER
NORTH MICHIGAN AVENUE DR
 TEMPERATURE OF CHICAGO
• Mid-summer day, humidity is usually moderately high and
temperatures ordinarily reach anywhere between 78°F
and 92°F (26°C to 33°C).
• Overnight temperatures in summer usually drop to
around 65°F (18°C), but can sometimes remain well
above 70°F (21°C).
• Yearly precipitation comes about 36 inches (920 mm).
• Summer in Chicago is prone to thunderstorms.
• In a normal summer, temperatures exceed 90°F (32°C)
on 24 days.
 PROJECT BRIEF
• Project :- John Hancock Center
• Architect :- Skidmore, Owings & Merrill.
•
• City :- Chicago
• Country :- USA
• Building Type :- Tower
• Number of Dwellings :- 700
• Date Built :- 1968-70
• Floor :- 100
• Floor area :- (260,126 m²)
PROJECT BRIEF
Height
• Antenna/Spire :- 1,500 ft (457 m)
• Roof1 :- 127 ft (344 m)
• top floor :- 1,078 ft (329 m)
• Elevator count :- 42

Companies
• Contractor :- Tishman
construction co.
• Developer :- john
Hancock insurance
BUILDING USE

 mixed use
 communication
 observation
 office
 Residential
 JOHN HANCOCK CENTRE
•Located at 875 North Michigan Avenue in the Gold
Coast area of Chicago, Illinois.
• Skyscraper designed by structural engineer fazlur
Khan of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill.
• It was the tallest building in the world outside
New York City completed in 1969
•Currently the fourth-tallest building in Chicago and
the sixth-tallest in the United States.
•When measured to the top of its antenna masts, it
stands at 1,506 feet (459 m).
•.
• The building is home to offices and restaurants, as well as about
700 condominiums and contains the highest residences in the world.
• This skyscraper was named for John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance
Company, a developer and original tenant of the building.
The elliptical-shaped
outdoor plaza
 FACADE
• The facade consists of 5 sections, each approximately 18
storey high.
• Facade defined by the diagonal bracing tubes.
• In the top section, only half of the pattern is visible.
• The external cladding is made of anodized aluminum with
tinted bronze glass and bronze colored aluminum window
frames.

Five sections defined by

diagonal braces
FACADE

Facade detail

Close up of
aluminum skin
The slope of the windows helps to reduce the
feeling of vertigo for people looking out of high
floors.
SITE PLAN
 PLANS

STREET LEVEL PLAN TRANSIT FLOOR PLAN

 APARTMENT
It includes 48 stories of apartments
(witH a total of 711 apartments).

LIVING ROOM PLAN OF APARTMENT

 K
I
T
C
H
E
N

BATHROOM BED ROOM

 APARTMENT

TYPICAL APARTMENT LIVING ROOM

FLOOR PLAN
 CIRCULATION
• The tower’s centrally located core contains fifty lifts and five
escalators.
• Transport up to 12,000 people a day.
• Express lifts directly link the entrance level with the transfer
floors, the observation deck, and the restaurant at the very top
of the floor.

Escalator from the

office lobby
 SUITES

View of embassy
suite

View of Hilton
suite
INTERIOR OF JOHN HANCOCK CENTRE
• JOHN HANCOCK Center's interior incorporates rich
travertine
and marble surfaces with textured limestone.
• The elliptical-shaped outdoor plaza has become a
favorite meeting spot for North Michigan Avenue
office workers, shoppers and
tourists.
• This community oasis is enlivened with plantings, a
12-foot waterfall and seasonal outdoor dining.

Marble surface with

texture limestone
• The 95th floor has long been home to a restaurant.
• While patrons dine, they can look out at Chicago and
Lake Michigan.
• The Hancock Center's observation deck facilities
(called the Hancock Observatory) compete with the
Willis Tower's Sky deck
across town.
• The Hancock Center is in a commercial district, while
the Willis
Tower is in the financial district.
• The Hancock Center 94th floor observation deck
displays
exhibits about the city of Chicago.
• The 44th-floor sky lobby features America's highest
indoor swimming pool.
• The first forty-one floors are office, parking, and
commercial; the remaining upper floors are
condominiums, an observatory, a restaurant & bar, and
broadcast facilities.
• The skyscraper ... rises from 40,000 square feet at the
base to 18,000 square feet at the summit.
 INTERIOR OF JOHN HANCOCK CENTRE

Planters used in
interiors

Marble surface
texture limestone
OBSERVATION DECK
• The Hancock Center's observation facilities compete
with the Sears Tower's Sky deck across town.
• The Hancock Center 94th floor observation deck
displays exhibits about the city of Chicago.
• Maps explain the view in each direction and a
special meshed-in area allows the visitors to feel
the winds 314 m (1,030 ft) above ground level.

Observation deck
View of Chicago from
observation deck
SWIMMING POOL

• America's highest indoor swimming pool is located

on the 44th floor near the sky lobby.
• The pool itself is carved out of the mechanical floor
below.

Swimming pool
on the 44th floor.
 PARKING

• The parking garage is accessed through a detached

spiral ramp at the southeast corner; the double helix
makes 3 loops each way between ground level and
the garage.

Detached spiral
Bridge from the ramp to
ramp
the garage
 RESTAURANT
• Located atop the John Hancock Center, The Signature
Room at the 95th® offers diners exquisite food, superb
service and a dazzling skyline view.
• The elegant wood designs and art deco interior create
an inviting and intimate atmosphere, while the floor-to-
ceiling windows exhibit the stunning Chicago skyline
and 360 degree views of the entire city.

Signature room of the 95th Signature lounge on 96th

floor floor
RESTAURANT
RESTAURANT

Area For private

parties
 SKY LOBBY
• The first sky lobby was also designed by Khan for the
John Hancock Center.
• The 44th-floor sky lobby of the John Hancock Center
also features the first high-rise indoor swimming pool,
which remains the highest in America.
• This was the first time that people could have the
opportunity to work and live 'in the sky'

Barry Flanagan sculpture in Delaware place office lobby

the south lobby
LOBBY VIEWS
 CONCEPT BEHIND FORM
• The tapered form resulted from structural
concepts to reduce cost and decrease the "sail effect"
of wind loads.
• The tapered form is also accredited to the zoning of
building functions with offices, which require more
open floor area on the lower levels, then a zone of
efficiency apartments that require a deeper plan than
the multi-bedroom dwellings at the top that have more
rooms requiring exterior frontage.
• The unique diagonal bracing, an idea used earlier by
SOM in the Alcoa Building in San Francisco of the same
year, is the result of a structural concept to achieve
maximum wind bracing with minimum steel.
• The idea is a rectangular "trussed tube" made up of
vertical trusses where lateral loads are taken up by the
diagonal members as compared to a conventional steel
frame of vertical vierendeel trusses where lateral
loading is taken up in the connections between
column and beam.
• The choice of this system resulted in a significant savings in steel
from a typical steel building requiring 45-50 pounds of
steel per square foot to about 30 pounds per square foot here.
Tapered form
 CONCEPT BEHIND FORM

Tapered form

Because of space constraints caused by the tower's

tapering walls, common hallways and elevator
lobbies are narrower on higher floors.
MULTIFUNCTIONAL
• Just like Marina City, the John Hancock Center is a
multifunction
building.
• It includes 48 stories of apartments (with a total of 711
apartments), 29 stories offices, shops, a hotel, a swimming
pool, an ice rink, restaurant and on top of the 344 meters
(1127 ft) tall building radio and television facilities.
• On top it offers services like its own post office and a
refuse
collection.
• Apartments are located on the top.
• Some of them are so high that the inhabitants sometimes
have to call the doorkeeper to ask what the weather's like
down on the ground, as the apartments are sometimes
above the clouds.

Height
comparison
 CRITICISM
• At the beginning of the project, it was controversial
mostly because of the location of this massive tower, near
the much
smaller and more gentle buildings on Michigan Avenue.
• After its completion, most of the criticism dwindled, but
much like with the Sears Tower, the plaza at the entrance
was considered very user- unfriendly, being afflicted by
heavy gales
and loud traffic noise from Michigan Avenue.
• It was redesigned in 1995 and now includes a 3,5 meters
high fountain to muffle the noise and a recirculation of
office and shopping traffic.

Fountain view
STRUCTURE
• X-braces used in the façade.
• The construction was designed by the engineer Fazlur Kahn
and architect Bruce Graham from Skidmore, Owings &
Merrill. Fazlur Kahn devised the frame-tube system, which
he also implemented in the sears tower.
• This new construction method was made possible by new
technologies, like more advanced software and new
developments in steel.

Diagonal
shaped braces
• New construction method, made possible for Kahn to design
constructions which could resist the strong windforces more effectively
by having the forces absorbed by all three dimensions of the building.
• The diagonals are connected to the exterior columns, making if
possible for the forces to be carried over from the braces to the
columns and back.
• The innovative construction also resulted in a 50% decrease of
required steel compared to skyscrapers built with interior
columns.
• The huge X-braces serving both a structural and a visual purpose.
• Visually, it gives the impression of stability and it moves the eye away
from the human-sized windows.

Night view
• The external crossbracing also conveniently
freed up the interior space from columns,
allowing for flexible office arrangements.
• The John Hancock weighs in at a mere
29.7 lb/sq. foot (although it uses a total of
46,000 tons of steel). This allowed it to be
constructed for the cost of a conventional
45-story.
• One of the most famous buildings of the
structural expressionist style, the skyscraper's
distinctive X-bracing exterior is actually a
hint that the structure's skin is indeed part of its
'tubular system'.
• This X-bracing allows for both higher
performance from tall structures and the ability
to open up the inside floorplan (and usable floor
space) if the architect desires.
 FEATURES AND AMENITIES

• Doorman is available
• Exercise facility is available
• Hospitality room is available
• Laundry room is available
• Observation floor is available
• One of the city's famous buildings
• Plaza is available to the public
• Public parking is available
• Sky lobby is present
• Swimming pool is available
• Transmission antenna on roof
 ACHIEVEMENTS
• Recognized around the world for its distinctive architecture,
prestigious location and presence on Chicago's skyline.
• JOHN HANCOCK CENTER has won numerous awards for its
innovative and iconic style, including the Distinguished
Architects 25-Year Award from the American Institute of
Architects.
• John Hancock Center is a member of the World Federation of
Great Towers.
ARIAL VIEW OF JOHN HANCOCK CENTRE

Tapered form