Word: hancocks
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...opposing architects, led by the Boston Society of Architects (BSA), a chapter of the American Institute of Architects, claimed that Hancock's request "to increase the floor-area ratio by nearly three times that provided in the zoning ordinance, is such a flagrant breach of the existing regulations that it would make zoning meaningless as a way of regulating land use in the public interest." The architects, in a somewhat foreboding note, also criticized the Pei designers for attempting "to reduce the apparent bulk of their proposal by cladding it in mirrors. This is a device untried on any scale...
...voiced its disapproval of the plans after studying the proposal and meeting with Hancock architects, Pei and his general partner Henry Cobb, his chief designer for the Hancock project. The architect group urged that the Boston Board of Appeals deny Hancock's petition for zoning variance until the insurance firm could come up with a "modified" plan better suited for the character of Copley Square. The BSA feared that the building would interrupt the serene pattern of the neighboring Trinity Church and the Florentine Boston Public Library...
After holding hearings to determine if the proposed development conformed with the master plan of the city, and was in accord with the neighbors, the Hancock people finally got Pei's design okayed, in September 1968. But it was only after ten months of wrangling and a change in the zoning law that Hancock...
...Jack Feeley, director of public information for Hancock, said last week that his firm had told Pei only "to create a site that would accomodate space needs and have aesthetic qualities at the same time." And architect Henry Cobb, in Nadel's Esquire article, said he decided himself that since the building "had to be tall, near the size of the Prudential Building...if you're going to be near the size of the Prudential, it's better to be taller, than shorter...
...Business Week story, said that when the soaring Prudential building was erected several blocks away from the Hancock site in 1967, the architectural "form" of the area was already destroyed. "Besides it wasn't a great space, like, say, the Place Vendome," Pei said. "Let's forget about the past as far as Copley Square is concerned and try to make a 20th-century space. We know it can be done. Look at Rockefeller Center...