WASHINGTON, D.C.- The John Hancock Tower in Boston, designed by I.M. Pei & Partners, has been selected to receive the 2010 AIA Twenty-Five Year Award. The John Hancock Tower has demonstrated excellence in function, in the distinguished execution of its original program, and in the creative aspects of its statement by today’s standards. The 2011 Twenty-five Year Award will be presented at the AIA National Convention in New Orleans.

Thirty-five years after its dedication, the lean, rhomboid reflective glass tower designed by Henry Cobb, FAIA, continues to dramatize this classic architectural question of aesthetic balance. Built on a small site adjacent to some of Boston’s greatest architectural assets, the tower had to be massive enough to accommodate the owner’s requirements, yet absolutely mindful of its delicate and historic surroundings.

Located in Boston’s historic Copley Square, the Hancock Tower continues to serve as an office building. The 60-story, 790-foot reflective glass tower remains the tallest building in New England. Boston Globe architecture critic Robert Campbell, FAIA, said the tower is “one of the greatest office towers of the second half of the 20th century.”

Past Honors and Awards

The John Hancock Tower received an AIA National Honor Award in 1977. In 1994 a Boston Globe poll of architects and historians rated it as the third-best work of architecture in Boston history, behind only Trinity Church and the Boston Public Library, its two closest neighbors. The John Hancock Tower recently achieved LEED Gold Existing Building certification for energy use, lighting, water, material use, and other sustainable strategies--some of them (such as ample use of natural light) a part of the original design.

In addition to the 2011 Twenty-five Year Award, the firm of I.M. Pei Partners, Architects, previously received the 2004 Twenty-five Year Award for the East Building, National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Founding principal I.M. Pei, FAIA, received the AIA Gold Medal in 1979, and his firm was honored with the 1968 AIA Architecture Firm Award.