The John Hancock Center

Once the tallest building in Chicago and the United States, the striking John Hancock Center's rank has fallen to fourth and sixth, respectively. It currently ranks as the twenty-seventh tallest building in the world. No matter, the Hancock Center's design with its exterior X-bracing makes it distinctive among the world's skyscrapers.

The John Hancock Center (right) with its distinctive bracing and twin antennas.

I once heard that those of the building's seven hundred condominiums that include a diagonal brace element in their windows actually went for a higher price than those that don't. I can't verify that it's true, but it sounds like a good marketing ploy. In addition to condos, the one hundred story building includes offices and restaurants.

I've been up in the observation deck once and to one of the incarnations of a bar up top another time. When we went up to the bar, the welcome was less than warm. Obviously the bar is a popular tourist destination, and it was very crowded. The staff made the crowded conditions worse by treating us and others as if we were bothering them. They made it clear that they thought we were privileged to be allowed to spend our money there. We didn't stay long.

Still, it's a pretty neat building (notice the use of highly technical architectural terminology there).

This is the second in a brief series of photos that I took while visiting Chicago in June 1996. They're 35mm color slides that I've scanned and digitized.