A Boston Architectural Icon Turns 30

"It is all grown up now. Aloof yet alluring. Tall and graceful. An icon, forever blue, at the dawn of middle age.

The John Hancock tower turns 30 this week. Looming 60 stories over the Back Bay, it was once assailed as a skyline monster, an ill-mannered interloper in buttoned-down Copley Square.

Today, the city that checks its reflection in the tower's signature skin has largely dismissed its ugly past as an amusing piece of local lore, like the Bambino's curse or Curley's chicanery at City Hall. Few can summon an image of Boston without it -- or would want to."