![]() On how he decides a building belongs in a given city: But, I believe that one of the major challenges for architecture today is to find a way to make tall buildings that speak to the space of the city, to the life of the city, to the historic buildings in the city. ![]() Some people will never like the idea of tall buildings or contemporary buildings in the context of historic buildings. On the continued criticism and controversy over the Hancock Tower: 17, 2005 file photo, sunlight reflects off the John Hancock Tower onto a statue outside the Boston Public Library in Boston. In the case of Trinity Church and the Hancock Tower, the tower is designed in such a way that the church is reaffirmed as the center of a composition, whereas the tower is very much a peripheral element. the problem of how cities can grow and accept tall buildings in a way that is not damaging to older buildings, but actually works in concert with them. For Copley Square, to recover its meaning or perhaps find a new meaning, it needed to find a way to embrace rather than reject the new scale. My argument was that Copley Square had already been seriously damaged by things happening around it that made it seem irrelevant, like the Prudential Tower. On why the Hancock Tower was such an important building for Copley Square: There was also intense resistance to John Hancock Financial funding a Modernist glass building beside Trinity Church in Copley Square.ĭespite all of that, Cobb told Radio Boston in December that he remained steadfast in his belief that the Hancock Tower was an essential structure for Boston to build at that time. During construction in the 1960s and into the 1970s, engineering flaws led to major delays. The change did not come without controversy. "I like to think that the Hancock Tower had something to do with a greater acceptance of tall buildings, " Cobb said. "Before that Boston was very uncomfortable with tall buildings." ![]() The tower was re-named 200 Clarendon Street in 2015. The building he believes had the biggest impact, though, is the John Hancock Tower in Back Bay. He was the architect behind the Harbor Towers at the waterfront, the Moakley Courthouse in the Seaport, and, most recently, One Dalton, a condominium building near the Prudential. "The irony is having gotten away from Boston, I've done more work in Boston than any other city."Ĭobb's list of accomplishments is long. "I had come to the conclusion that nothing of interest to me was going to happen in Boston during my lifetime," Cobb told us in December. Pei critiqued his work at Harvard.Īfter graduating, all he wanted was to get out of Boston. Pei in the 1950s.Ī Boston native, he graduated from Harvard's School of Design in 1949, where he studied under Walter Gropius, founder of the Bauhaus School. ![]() He was 93.Ĭobb was a partner at Pei Cobb Freed & Partners - a firm he helped found along with architect I.M. Henry Cobb - the man credited with transforming Boston's modern skyline - died in Manhattan on Monday. Facebook Email Architect Henry Cobb helped to reshape Boston's skyline. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |