@@KropeeekNot really, it doesn't have that massive presence, like the Sears does, I've seen them both in person and the Sears just blew me away with how huge it is.
One of the Hancock's neighbors was the Palmolive Building (renamed the Playboy Tower when Playboy Magazine owned the structure) Atop the Palmolive Building was a high-powered, revolving beacon called the 'Lindburg Light' (again, rechristened the Playboy Beacon for a time). The 360 degree revolving beacon would provide some, probably unintentional tanning to residents of the 60th floor at Hancock. A shield was erected on the Playboy building to block the beam from striking Big John.
I'm born and raised in Chicagp and never knew this building changed its name and its 2024. It will always be The John Hancock Building as the Sears Tower will always be the Sears Tower.
Kudos, Ryan, for including the Casino story. I'm from suburban Chicago and played there often. The. president of the members-only club would do just that: each time she got a letter for another offer to buy the property she would just snicker and place it with the others in the top drawer. The members were - and still are - among Chicago's wealthiest and didn't need their money.
My uncle was the assistant chief engineer at the Hancock for 20+ years and worked there for 35+. He told me all about the casino club. That's where a lot of deals were brokered
One of my favorite childhood memories is my mom and I taking the train downtown to walk around and see this new marvel. We walked round and and round the loop wondering where it was……it was so tall you could not really distinguish it . We finally asked someone and they said we were there, look up 😂🤗
My structural engineering professor at UIC worked on the JHB and told me that when the caissons were poured for the building, there were a total of 6 and that they used aluminum truck tankers for the pier walls, which were tigged end to end, reaching down to bedrock. When one of the corner piles was poured with concrete, it suffered from differential setting and sank something like 6". The firm he worked at surmised from calculations that the aluminum cross-section of these tanks could hold the building within safety factors and not have to rely on the concrete in the cassion and that the other remaining 5 piles could support the foundation within spec. Something to think about.
If I remember correctly, I think the characters in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)" visited the observation of the then John Hancock Center. Thank you for your videos, always fascinating!
Greatest Documentary on John Hancock Building yet on RU-vid. My memory is tricking the restaurant employee in the lobby to let us take the elevator to the top restaurant for a free view. Then after viewing telling the restaurant workers up top we were no longer interested in eating there. This was 30 years ago at least.
I Sincerely Love Learning From Your Channel, While Living In Chicago. Much Love To You, Your Channel, I Love Being Your Faithful Follower! #KeepUpTheFantasticWork
I've been on the roof of john Hancock center. You could see the jumbe score board from Wrigley so clear and lake Michigan looks so long going north. Just an amazing site. Chicago looks so peaceful from that height just amazing. For me. Because I love Chicago so much. Thank you God for that vision
As always a great job!! I truly look forward to your work regularly! Would you consider finding out any information about the Grace building in nyc. I'm from ny and always loved the building. Unfortunately I cannot find any substantial info online on how it was built. So I now differ to the master... you!😂😂😂
Great video as usual, you could cover the OLD Post Office in StL, sometime. It’s a great story/building (you could even cover the new one as well as it’s pretty amazing too) I’m sure your audience would enjoy. :]
I spent lots of time at the JHO when I lived in Chicago 13 years ago. It was a great place to just get away and enjoy the magnificent views of the city and during the summer I watched the Navy Pier twice a week fireworks. There is a great little barista that was (might still be there) where I would often get a cappuccino and enjoy the views. Chicago still holds a special place in my heart that no other city can hold. There are times I do very much miss being in Chicago but now I live in the great state of Florida and love it very much. Orlando, Tampa, Miami and Jacksonville have quickly become my favorite big cities. Daytona Beach will always be a favorite of mine as I have many memories of going there as a kid. Great video on a really magnificent part of Chicago.
I moved from Europe to Chicago for my undergraduate studies and immediately adopted it as my new American city. I absolutely love Chicago. One thing about everyone's impression of the Gold Coast....My sophomores year I needed to be closer to the med school as I commuted between the Evanston Northwestern campus and the downtown Northwestern Hospital. I found a budget apartment on the gold coast. Since then I've lived in many cities that are used on films and I'm so used to pushing passing tourists in the gold coast was my 1st experience in the US. I lived within a few blocks of the Hancock center and my roof deck on the 16th floor had a great view looking up to the tower. There was a food court at ground level that was actually very good and I even attended a wedding reception or someone who admit their fiance in that food court read it out the entire food court! 1 of the best wedding receptions I've ever been to. One could view the break-up of the ice flow in spring if you went up to the upstairs level and I would sneak a bagel and coffee and stay for hours watching the ice break up in here in the big booms! TRIVIA: I've also been in a couple of apartments in the don heck center End this interesting to note that apartments with 1 of the cost beams on the windows was actually more expensive and preferred to the Apartments without the crossbeams. And then there's another note that that is those like Chicago will always be the Sears Tower!!!
Be glad you chose Chicago, the only other city in the usa that could even match it is new york, no other city in the usa is exactly a real city, most are just suburbs, parking lots, and highways, as I'm sure you've noticed if you ever started to drive out of the downtown area, or west from loyola.
@@tortellinifettuccine I chose Chicago because I wanted a typical American experience. The neighborhoods of Chicago were so like Europe with customs, food, and people. Since that time I've lived in Manhattan on the east coast, San Francisco and LA on the west. Each has their own personality, even LA. I would never have thought I would find a neighborhood experience in LA but I did!
@IntriguedLioness Chicago is the most American city in the country, but in the best way possible, and yes, very diversified and dense neighborhoods with rich foods and cultures, closed streets for the whole summer, etc. I consider Chicago and New York to be the only real cities in the country, but Chicago is by far my preferred city even if the cta isn't quite as good as mta, still gets me anywhere at anytime, and it's way cleaner, and way cooler. Even garbage that is la no doubt has some tiny havens, but surrounded by nothing, leaves the entire city recognized as just that, nothing. San Francisco is a bit more acceptable, but still a major disappointment. Each city having their own personality I couldn't disagree more with, all American cities are quite the same, Chicago and New York are the only two that quite differ from the rest.
I've been on the observation decks of John Hancock (or Eight Seventy whatever) and the Sears Tower. Hancock's view is the best! I saw 4 states. Before merger mania obliterated the nation, The John Hancock Center was affectionately called Big John and the nearby Standard Oil of Indiana building was called Big Stan. Simple nomenclature in a time when those two buildings and the Sears Tower were three of the five tallest buildings in _the world._
Illustrator Kirsten Ulve designed the logo for "The Signature Room" in the early 90s. It was one of the best presentations of the Hancock, and it was a logo that endured til the 95th floor restaurant closed, in 2023.
For me, I will always refer to the building as John Hancock, if not just for the original naming of the building, but in memory of one of our founders, and the first signer of the Declaration of Independence. And quite frankly, for the historical standpoint, the owners should have retained the name, John Hancock. It would have not made any financial difference and would have helped their PR reputation. And the other skyscraper will always be called The Sears Tower.
My favorite memory is when some guy paid me to point my microwave dish at the top of the building for about half an hour. That was sometime in November of 1987. Crazy dude, I'm not sure what he was up to.
The observation deck is free (or was forever), there's a bar at the top and this by far the best view of the city as you're able to get a clear view of the northside and it sits outside of the loop so youre able to see the whole loop as opposed to the Sears where youre at the edge of the loop to the south. Unless youre in to unobstructed views of Gary, Indiana and Naperville.
Lived in the building in the ‘80s. The neighborhood is called Streeterville, roughly bounded by Oak Street, Michigan Ave. and the Chicago River and Lake Michigan. There was a private dining room on 44 as well as the grocery and pool. From 44 there are six residential elevators. Three service 45 to 66 or 67 (?) and 3 service 68 to 92. Parking for ~200 cars is not enough. While I was there there was a suicide of a radio station employee from 97 and a young woman supposedly pushed an armoire across a bedroom with enough force to breakout a window and dropped to her death. The ceilings are low. Less than 8 ft, except 4 floors with 11 foot ceilings as an architectural anomaly. Many of the apartments were unoccupied at any given time with people traveling or at other residences. After awhile I missed grass and trees and migrated north to Lincoln Park. Noise didn’t reach my floor, but traffic and city lights were 24/7. Great location and views obviously.
He goes from being a high school grocery store clerk, to a college dropout (or was it high school?), to working in the merchant marines, then is a failure as a paint salesman. Starts a construction company, then boom! he’s the builder and owner of the Hancock Center in Chicago. Something tells me you could have explained that last step just a little bit more.
I went and stayed out in IL for 3 months in in 2016, when it was still the John Hancock Center. I met someone on my dad's side of the family (can't remember how I'm related to her 😂) who actually ran the Cheesecake Factory at the foot of the tower(u can see the front bronze facade to the right of the plaza at the beginning of the video). She took my aunt and I to the Signature Lounge On The 95th Floor and when I say that view from that pic was nostalgic, I think we literally sat in the same area that pic was taken 😂 But fr, I'll never forget that day. I love being able to say that I've been there 😁
When I still lived in Illinois I took my now fiancé (from Long Island) to the Hancock. I have a fear of heights, but she did the tilt "ride". She also convinced me to go skydiving. To me it wasn't as scary as that. Oh yeh I now live on Long Island. The things women will do... And I couldn't be happier. And don't forget to visit the Cheesecake Factory at the base. You won't regret it!
Not certain if it's still there but a portion of the observation deck was turned into a screened, open-air area. Because nothing spells innovative thinking like a chair link fence 1000' in the air! Gotta love Chi 🙂
John Hancock Life Insurance is owned by Manulife, a foreign financial services company. John Hancock was one of the US Founding Fathers and his signature is prominent on the Declaration of Independence. He and his family had nothing to do with the formation of the insurance company that bears his name. I'm not sure how Manulife can claim a copywrite or a trademark infringement on the name and signature of John Hancock. Hearn should have kept the name John Hancock and told Manulife to buzz off.
What happened to between Wolman starting his company in the 1950s and launching construction of what was likely one of the most expensive builds at the time by 1964 and how did he go bust?
you forgot to mention the time the spiderman climbed the tower, i remember seeing it with my own eyes while doing a service call to the american medical center
Instead of showing generic video of a construction scaffold and broken glass you could have shown the actual video of a huge window cleaning scaffold dangling and banging on the side of the building. Then crashing down and flattening a car.
That’s not scary. Scary is getting stuck on the roof after trying to take photos and the only way down is via police escort with a nice fine at the bottom
You didn’t mention the girlfriend of IS Berlin, owner of the Berlin press printing company that used to print playboy his girlfriend jumping out from the 90th floor somewhere around there
Entire science/engineering fields that I never knew existed until youtube teachings came around in the past decade of use, has been around since we started building... Simple thinking about it now is "duh!" but how they did these calculations like soil settlement, soil friction, foundation design to the types of soils, and all the exact measurements and testing/wind loading by hand without computers and advanced AI demo's and such... They do real thankless jobs, where if nothing happens and the building goes up and stays and doesnt fall or anything, you did your job right and no one is thinking/knows about the 400 pilings that go hundreds of feet into the ground like roots to hold the tower up...
The Hancock elevators are reportedly some of the largest and fastest on the planet. Hydraulics kicked in but it was the engineering excellence that allowed the cars to not only decelerate and stop, but to do so without killing passengers falling at terminal velocity.
I worked a private Christmas Eve dinner in a Penthouse apartment. I was overwhelmed when looking out windows watching Snowfall. I had to stay away from the windows. Anyway, to this day, that party was the largest tip I ever received. 550 cash for 4.5 hours and his girlfriend did the dishes and i was allowed to drink any bottle of wine that I chose from his collection. Love that building
You didn’t mention the girlfriend of IS Berlin, owner of the Berlin press printing company that used to print playboy his girlfriend jumping out from the 90th floor somewhere around there
