Fiascoware

The latest issue of ArchitectureBoston has a great essay on what happened to all that glass removed from the John Hancock Tower after the windows started to pop out and fall hundreds of feet to the sidewalk. Rudolph Bedar, who wrote the essay, was part of the group charged with sweeping the faulty glass under the rug. Some of the windows went to the Building 19 chain of discount stores ("good stuff cheap"), where people bought them as wind screens for swimming pools. Even better, a young glass blower purchased some of the shattered pieces and made drinking goblets, each with an etching on the bottom indicating that the material came from the infamous Hancock Tower. Unfortunately:

In a gush of excitement over the potential of mass-producing souvenirs out of our piles of broken glass, one of our partners had the bright idea of sending off a sample to the John Hancock CEO.... A week or so later, the package was returned with a carefully worded and wonderfully restrained letter indicating that this type of souvenir was not considered appropriate.

Too bad. I would have liked to have a set of John Hancock Goblets (for when you want to get falling-down drunk), along with some Big Dig Dinner Plates (for when you want to subtly let your guests know that your cooking is way behind schedule) and a City Hall Plaza Brick Pizza Oven to keep my pies nice and hot from May through October (or for freeze-drying them the rest of the year).