The John Hancock Center

 (sorry this is so small, click on the link below for a closer look)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/111_South_Wacker_Drive

http://www.chicagoarchitecture.info/Building/1006/The-John-Hancock-Center.php

• 1,500 feet tall
• 100 floors
• 42 elevators
• The elevators go 20.5 mph
•  Cost $100,000,000
• Architects: Skidmore, Owings and Merrill
• Has the third highest residence, after the Trump Tower and Burj Khalifa
• Is the fifth tallest building in the world

   This is the John Hancock Center. It is partly a residence, and partly for businesses. There are restaurants, and businesses like Best Buy,The Cheesecake Factory, and others. The people that own the building say that in 2011, there will be the world's highest ice skating rink that was not made of ice, but a synthetic material, so that the room stays at the normal room temperature. It has the world's highest swimming pool on the 44th floor.


         The John Hancock Center is an architecture icon.  The style of architecture is the structural expressionist style. It has X bracing up the sides, which helps it stay stable during high winds. It also makes the building a lot bigger on the inside, because the glass is not a layer on the outside, but the wall. There is a double layer of glass, and that is all. The X bracing is the "frame", and the glass fills in the spaces in between.  The X bracing, the glass, and the two radio antennas make the John Hancock Center very recognizable.


         The construction of the John Hancock Center took 5 years. It started in 1965, and ended in 1970. It was delayed slightly in 1967, but continued afterwards.

      
        The two radio antennae on top of the building are the same height. One of them is used by   WYCC-TV, and the other one is used by  WGBO-DT.