John Hancock Center Loses Its Famous Name: Report

CHICAGO, IL — The fourth-tallest building in Chicago has a new name. But 875 N. Michigan Ave. isn't nearly as catchy as the John Hancock Center, the moniker the 100-story high-rise has used since opening in 1969.

The building will go by its street address for the time being after the John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Co., the company that built the skyscraper, asked the tower's current owner to remove its famous name and logos from the interior, the Chicago Tribune reports. Chicago-based Hearn Co., which took over the commercial parts of the high-rise in 2013, will now look for a new naming-rights deal for the building, the report added.

“At this point, we’ll push harder for a replacement name," Stephen Hearn, president and CEO for Hearn Co., told the Tribune "This property deserves a more important identity than simply the address.”

A name change for the skyscraper doesn't come as a surprise. Reports of that possibility began circulating in 2016, and the Chicago Sun-Times even reported that a naming-rights deal was "imminent" at the time. The Hancock insurance company hasn't been a tenant in its namesake building for years, according to the Tribune.

“We have turned away a number of interested parties because we didn’t feel the name was appropriate for this iconic property,” Hearn told the Tribune. “I want to put an identity on this property that everyone in Chicago can be proud of.”

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The John Hancock Center now joins the Sears Tower and Comiskey Park on the list of beloved-but-discarded names of Chicago landmarks. The Sears Tower was renamed Willis Tower in 2009 when the building's lease was acquired by London-based insurance broker Willis Group Holdings Ltd.

The original Comiskey Park, the home field for the Chicago White Sox, was demolished in 1991 to make way for a new stadium that kept the name. But it was renamed U.S. Cellular Field when the naming rights were bought for $68 million in 2003. The ballpark's current name is Guaranteed Rate Field after the Chicago-based private residential mortgage company bought the naming rights in 2016.

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When talk began two years ago concerning a possible name change for the John Hancock Center, commenters on Reddit had their own suggestions. Two ideas: Sears Tower or the Arnold Tower, making Chicago arguably the first U.S. city to have skyscrapers named after the main characters from the sitcom "Diff'rent Strokes."

YOUR TURN: What should the new name for the John Hancock Center be? Share your thoughts and suggestions in the comments section.

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John Hancock Center (Photo by M. Spencer Green | Associated Press)