Light, Shadow, Form, and Texture

We made the drive to Boston on Tuesday and are staying for a few days with my friend Allen in Braintree, a suburb south of Boston.

The weather yesterday was magnificent so we took the commuter boat from Quincy into downtown Boston and trekked around enjoying the day and the sights. We worked our way to the Back Bay area, which is the “other” downtown.

The new John Hancock Insurance headquarters building is an astonishing architectural achievement by I. M. Pei and Henry N. Cobb.

Depending on which direction you approach it from, you might see what looks like a basically rectangular structure which lacks design. But as you walk around the building, you notice that the corners of the building are not right angles, but the footprint of the building is a parallelogram, giving the impression of a knife edge from certain angles.

Walking around the back Bay area the building dominates the view but in many ways the farther away you get from the building the more impressive it gets.

The building’s surface is like a mirror, reflecting all around it and esssentially using the surrounding area as it’s facade.

At right, The “old” John Hancock headquarters building is reflected in the mirror-like surface of the “new” tower.

Boston is a fascinating city with some great architecture spanning literally centuries from colonial times up to the current century.

~ by Rsmith on July 16, 2009.

Posted in Photography