A skyscraper of glass had long been one of modernist computer architecture ’s dreams . Boston ’s Hancock Tower was suppose to idealize that dream . rather , its 500 pound window started crash to the street . What went incorrectly then , and what go properly now ?
When the Sky Started Falling
jumbo shabu column have become threadbare to the point of unimpressive — perhaps even something of a corporate HQ cliche . But in the early 70 , the John Hancock tower was something particularly starring . Sixty floors , wrapped in stark , muted glass—10,344 pieces of ice , to be exact . The building , tall in all of Boston , has a peculiar wedge frame , like a gargantuan sail in the skyline . It was , at the danger of voice like a stodgy computer architecture prof , a victory of intention . It was tremendous , beautiful , and novel . At first . That is , before it initiate to altogether fall apart .
The Hancock tower was n’t even cease before it started to die . One by one , in the winter of 1973 , its gigantic drinking glass plates start to pop out and plummet hundreds of feet to the pavement , where they , of course , terrifyingly shatter — sometimes after crash through other windowpane on the style down . With broken in drinking glass everywhere , the sphere around the building was roped off in a panic . It was like someone ’s drunk uncle had rap into a 60 - story , very expensive Christmas Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree . But no one knew why it was fall out . Some thought it was the wind . Some thought it was the shape . Nobody was right .
Then , it got a lot worse . A Swiss engineer brought in to avail the broken towboat noted something somewhat more significant than tumbling , half - ton windows — the total structure was at hazard of falling over . Edge - wise . The tower had been reward along its broad side to brace it against the wind — but this had left its skinny ends inadvertently vulnerable , and stand for the entire thing could tumble over itself in a spectacular implosion of ruptured glass and steel , like a scene from Independence Day , as lead by Mies van der Rohe .
Two monolithic , 300 - short ton counterweights had to be install in the tower ’s sand to compensate for its sideways motility . All this for only an extra $ 3 million ! Oh , and by this point , over an acre of the construction ’s mangle face was board up with plywood , like some neighbourhood crack family . Bostonians eye - rollingly called it the “ Plywood Palace . ”
Today , it ’s beautiful again . A survey of architects conduct by the Boston Globe identify it the third best building in the chronicle of Boston ( a pretty city with a lot of history , mind you ) . So what commute ? How did the architectural equivalent weight of your pant shine down at the Oscar podium turn from disgrace to gorgeous monolith ? And how do designer design similar construction so the same shattertastic popping - aside does n’t repeat ?
Building a Better Window
fix the horrifying mess of the Hancock Tower was a prospicient , expensive process . It was also a secretive process — all members involve were sworn to secrecy as part of a legal covenant . Details have leak out through interview over the years , but rather than trust on the architectural grapevine , we went straight to an self-confidence .
Nicholas Holt is Technical Director at Skidmore , Owings and Merrill — the architectural firm behind a couple of nonaged building you may have heard of . Like the Earth landmark Sears Tower , and the Dubai ’s Burj Khalifa — you know , the largest skyscraper in story . serve it to say Nicholas knows how to put together a building that stays up , and more significantly for us — the man cognize his damn drinking glass . I talked to him about how one , in 2010 , design a Methedrine structure to stave off 70s pratfall of the Hancock Tower .
The use of glass in a give social organization is more than a way of dazzling us as we search up . It looks incredible , yes . But modernist loved it beyond its handsomeness — the stuff is utilitarian , and fag its function on its arm .
Why Glass?
apologise this simple material is an important place to part .
A modern edifice has needs . Beyond not disintegrating ( we ’ll get back to that ) , an architect of today wants their construction to utilize as little energy as potential while serve the little people inside all day . mass influence indoors . People postulate light to work . the great unwashed like natural light . manufacture a edifice out of glass ? Let the sun shine in . Beautiful . More tangible light means less artificial light , which mean less electricity , which , well , you get it . Everyone wins , and the thing look beautiful in the process .
But let ’s not forget — the sun is n’t just a big radiance ball . It ’s buck down warmth along with all that brightness level . And lest your office turn into a elephantine sweaty greenhouse , a building ought to let lighting in , while reverse heat aside at the door . The trick , Nicholas explains , is to just bound the heat off . It never crosses through . Low - emission ( or Low - E ) drinking glass works like a thermal chucker-out . allow in the beautiful ignitor , give heat the bang . Modern building fly the coop in what Nicholas name “ constant cooling mode . ” The clobber inside a skyscraper makes heat . A plenty of it . People , microcomputer , twinkle — all of it radiate warmth , and it bring up . flying . So even in the winter , the last thing you want , amazingly , is more warmth pouring it from outside . Low - E glass is treat with a thin meditative coating that excogitate caloric radiation — heat . You keep what you require , you push back what you do n’t . The best of both cosmos .
You Need the Right Glass
Reflective spyglass is n’t a unexampled principle . But , when they try out to slap it across the Hancock Tower , it was an imperfect design method acting . Really imperfect . The fatal fault of the Hancock ’s window was n’t wind , or torque , or being ramp up on an Indian entombment earth — it was the way they tried to bounce off warmth . The windows were doubled pan off , with a layer of lead apply between chrome - do by glass panels . It was a dangerous mix of things that can turn and things that really , really shouldn’t — glass , namely . And what happens when a Earth’s surface is subjected to Clarence Shepard Day Jr. after day of hot sunlight ? It expands and contract . These gradual thermic undulations warp the lead , which propagate the terms into the deoxyephedrine panes themselves . Too much stress , and crop up — out went the window , hurdling down to the street .
Today , architects ditch the track . They frequently dump metals in all , rather using conciliatory silicone that wo n’t spread its smutty thermal twitching to the sore chicken feed it ’s bonded to . This kind of sealant is secure , Nicholas says , and has every bit strong research to back it up .
Putting It All Together
So you want to build a wall of glass . A braggy one . The only affair resist between a design on newspaper and a building on the ground , Nicholas explains , is the size of the oven you may use to bake - pad the crank plate after spraying on the low-pitched - E coating . The turgid in North America crank out 7×14 invertebrate foot walls of hardened crank — but the prominent in world , found in China and Germany , are capable of staggering 49×10 foot sheet . Once you ’ve got your skillful giant sealed slab , they can be placed together between metal spacers — like pictures in a frame — and gather into a wall . A drapery , actually , as its eff . The hanging curtain is pretty much precisely as it sounds — a woodworking plane of unified glass plate , sealed , coated , and stick together . And how does stand up , especially when you stack it 60 account gamey ? With zero effort at all . Glass drape wall expect no weight whatsoever , but are instead hung — quite literally — onto the skeleton of a edifice . Again , retrieve Christmas tree . Gravity keeps everything in place ( though only after exhaustive drape examination , let in a barrage of two by tetrad and conquest to a wind tunnel ) . Once the glass is thoroughly abused , hang it up , and let it do its work .
Disaster Averted (Sort of)
So what about the misfortunate Hancock Tower ? A solution you should be very glad you had nothing to do with . Every individual pane of chalk in the intact building had to be replace . Price tag : $ 7 million , and a five year delay . But what about all of those over 5,000 defective windows that were n’t damage or exploded out onto the street ? Robert Campbell of the Boston Globe tracked them down , and reported they found a civilized retirement , sold for $ 100 each as picture skeleton , chocolate tables , and greenhouse parts . And that infamous , shocking plywood ? Repurposed to board up abandoned Bostonian construction .
The lesson was a acid one , and at 790 feet tall , a hard one to ignore . A poorly - designed crapper only break one setting hen . A blemished skyscraper design , on the other paw , tower over an entire city . But on such a exfoliation , no mistake goes unnoticed or to desolate . The teetering shard - shake off mess that was the Hancock Tower is a font survey in how not to do something — and a testament to just how well it ’s done now . The construction itself still stands , now proudly , despite its doubtful past times . But walk through any major urban area , and you ’re likely to see one of its extremely pondering nephews . And 40 years later , thanks to smart materials and good invention , you do n’t need to be afraid to look up .
pic byAdam Pieniaze , Allie Caufield , and Michael Shellenbarger/ University of Oregon Library
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