[hunser]

http://www.ctbuh.org/News/GlobalTall...S/Default.aspx

Chicago’s Iconic John Hancock Center Shopping Naming Rights to Fund Plaza Redevelopment
Chicago, United States – 23 May 2016

The owner of Chicago's John Hancock Center is looking to put someone else's John Hancock – in bold letters – on the front of the building.

Chicago-based Hearn, which bought the Hancock's office space and parking deck in 2013, is shopping the naming rights for the 47-year-old skyscraper to pay for a proposed $10 million plaza redevelopment. The deal could include a sign adorning the façade of the 100-story, X-braced tower – and a challenge for Chicagoans to relearn the name of yet another iconic structure.

A presentation on May 18 by Hearn executives to The Magnificent Mile Association – a non-profit group promoting businesses along North Michigan Avenue – included a rendering that showed where a sponsor's name could appear in three-foot-high (one-meter) letters near the third floor, facing Michigan Avenue. "I can't put anything on the top of the building, so the crown will never change," said Hearn President Stephen Hearn.

Any sign on the Hancock would be subject to special Michigan Avenue sign restrictions and related city regulations. The ordinance prohibits roof signs and allows for less total signage than in other parts of downtown. The Hancock sign would not be affected by restrictions imposed on parcels adjacent to the river in the wake of the controversial "Trump" sign added to the Trump International Hotel & Tower in 2014 – five years after its completion.

Hearn said linking naming rights to redevelopment of the plaza is essential to getting the project off the ground. "This is not going to be Jiffy Lube Tower," Hearn said. "I'm looking for a prominent household name, Fortune 500, that would be interested in doing this as a part of a program. It's similar to the names that you see on athletic venues…It's going to be a 15-year commitment. I don't want somebody to just write me a check and do this for two years and then bail.”

In 2015, Hearn proposed a $10 million redevelopment of Hancock's sunken plaza with such elements as a cluster of triangular columns, a large video wall, and other attractions to draw visitors.

Developed by the John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company and designed by the Chicago office of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, the tapered tower was billed as a revolutionary mixed-use skyscraper, with stores, parking, and offices in the lower portion of the tower and residences on top.

When it was completed in 1969, the John Hancock Center was the tallest building in Chicago. It was soon surpassed in height by the Standard Oil Building (now Aon Center) and Sears (now Willis) Tower and more recently by Trump Tower. But "Big John" remains an iconic symbol of the city's modern, muscular architecture.

Ward Miller, Executive Director of Preservation Chicago, a non-profit working to get the Hancock building designated a Chicago landmark, said changes to its plaza, the building's façade, and even its name could hurt its legacy. "The John Hancock Building's name and design and presence is so much a part of Chicago, especially in relationship to its superstructures," Miller said. "Between Sears Tower and the Hancock building, there's a great legacy of Chicago's great architecture of the modern movement of the 20th century. They are seminal buildings that should be preserved…New York wouldn't allow the Empire State Building to be renamed."