20th century The project, which would become the world's second tallest building at opening, was conceived and owned by
Jerry Wolman in late 1964. The project was financed by John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company. Construction of the tower was interrupted in 1967 due to a flaw in an innovative engineering method used to pour concrete in stages, that was discovered when the building was 20 stories high. The engineers were getting the same soil settlements for the 20 stories that had been built as what they had expected for the
entire 99 stories. This forced the owner to stop development until the engineering problem could be resolved, resulting in a credit crunch. The situation is similar to the one faced during the construction of 111 West Wacker, then known as the
Waterview Tower. Wolman's bankruptcy resulted in John Hancock taking over the project, which retained the original design, architect, engineer, and main contractor. The building's first resident was Ray Heckla, the original building engineer, responsible for the residential floors from 44 to 92. Heckla moved his family in April 1969, before the building was completed. The 1988 film
Poltergeist III was set at the John Hancock Center and was filmed in early 1987.
21st century On December 10, 2006, the non-residential portion of the building was sold by
San Francisco–based
Shorenstein Properties for $385 million and was purchased by a joint venture of Chicago-based Golub & Company and the Whitehall Street Real Estate Funds.
Shorenstein Properties had bought the building in 1998 for $220 million. Golub defaulted on its debt and the building was acquired in 2012 by
Deutsche Bank, who subsequently carved up the building. The venture of Deutsche Bank and New York–based NorthStar Realty Finance paid an estimated $325 million for debt on 875 North Michigan Avenue in 2012 after
Shorenstein Properties defaulted on $400 million in loans. That same month, Prudential Real Estate Investors acquired the retail and restaurant space for almost $142 million. In November 2012, Boston-based American Tower Corp affiliate paid $70 million for the antennas. In June 2013, a venture of Chicago-based real estate investment firm Hearn Co., New York–based investment firm Mount Kellett Capital Management L.P. and San Antonio–based developer Lynd Co. closed on the expected acquisition of 875 North Michigan Avenue's of office space and 710-car parking deck. The Chicago firm did not disclose a price, but sources said it was about $145 million. This was the last step in that piecemeal sale process. Hustle up the Hancock is an annual stair climb race up the 94 floors from the Michigan Avenue level to the observation deck. It is held on the last Sunday of February. The climb benefits
Respiratory Health Association. The record time as of 2007 is 9 minutes 30 seconds. The building is home to the transmitter of
Univision's
WGBO-DT (channel 66), while all other full-power television stations in Chicago broadcast from
Willis Tower. The
City Colleges of Chicago's
WYCC (channel 20) transmitted from the building until November 2017, when it departed the air as part of the 2016 FCC spectrum auction. On February 12, 2018, John Hancock Insurance requested that its name and logos throughout the building's interior be removed immediately; John Hancock had not had a naming-rights deal with the skyscraper's owners since 2013. The building's name was subsequently changed to its street address as 875 North Michigan Avenue. The Signature Room restaurant on the 95th and 96th floors was listed for sale in April 2023 and closed that September, with ownership citing "severe economic hardship" that they attributed to the impact of the earlier
COVID-19 pandemic. Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (the architectural firm that designed the building in the 1970s) was hired to redesign these two floors. On December 18, 1997, comedian
Chris Farley was found dead in his apartment on the 60th floor of the building. On March 9, 2002, part of a scaffold fell 43 stories after being torn loose by wind gusts around crushing several cars, killing three people in two of them. The remaining part of the stage swung back-and-forth in the gusts repeatedly slamming against the building, damaging cladding panels, breaking windows, and sending pieces onto the street below. On November 21, 2015, a fire broke out in an apartment on the 50th floor of the building. The
Chicago Fire Department was able to extinguish the fire after an hour and a half; five people suffered minor injuries. On February 11, 2018, a fire in a car on the seventh floor required approximately 150 firefighters to extinguish. On November 16, 2018, an express elevator cable broke. Initial reports stated that an elevator with six passengers plunged 84 stories from the 95th to 11th floor. Since express elevators are not accessible from floors within the express zone, a team of firefighters had to break through a brick wall from the parking garage to extricate the passengers, none of whom suffered injuries. Elevators to the 95th/96th floor were closed thereafter pending investigation. Subsequent investigation documented only a controlled descent from the 20th floor to the 11th floor. On January 5, 2022, a piece of
cladding fell from the building. ==Architecture==