Office and commercial entrances are on Michigan Avenue, Delaware Place and Chestnut Street. Our resident enjoys a view unequalled in any other dwelling place on earth. The landscaped plaza area features a skating rink in winter which serves as a reflecting pool in summer. John Hancock Center's unique design reflects the logic of form following function. Consider the building's tapering sides, for example.
Office space is most efficient and produces optimum flexibility when it is offered in large blocks.
This space is thus located on the lower and larger floors of the building. Apartment dwellers wish to enjoy an exciting, high-level view of the city. The five huge steel X's which parade up each side of the building are of unprecedented visual interest and in keeping with the history of architectural innovation in Chicago, mother city of the skyscraper. The X's give the building a dynamic visual geometry as well as a high degree of structural efficiency. The cranes, which climbed the sides of the building, were chosen because the taper of the skyscraper ruled out conventional steel-hoisting rigs.