Designed by Henry N. Cobb of I.M. Pei and Partners in 1976, the John Hancock Tower is the tallest building in New England, and stands on its own in Copley Square, away from the high-rise area of Boston’s downtown. The building was named after the insurance company (John Hancock Insurance) that occupied it.

The building’s exterior consists of 10,344 reflective-glass panes. The building’s most dangerous and conspicuous flaw was its faulty glass windows which detached from the building and crashed to the sidewalk hundreds of feet below. All the window panes since then have been replaced.