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When I was researching this, I found that there was some discrepancy with the way the elevator system was set up in the Hancock. After 9-11, security concerns arose about the lack of security and general public using the office double-deck elevators. Of course, this could have been easily solved by keycards, like the Pru. Instead, they just installed turnstiles to avoid the need to keycard the elevators and barred the public from setting foot in the building.
The Pru's set up has some dedicated elevators that serve the basement (which became a lobby for the Skywalk and Top of the Hub), 50 and 52 with keycarded lockouts for office levels.
This was apparently too much to ask for Boston's tallest building with the fastest elevators and only double-deckers in the city. The conditions of the Hancock arrangement are prime and the views are unparalleled. The seamless floor-to-ceiling glass walls on level 60 with the thin steel rail made for nothing short of an incredible experience. Also, it is alleged that in order to approve the tower, the city required that a public deck be at the top. Upon the closing of the deck after 9-11, the JHT owners claimed that this was merely verbal agreement and was never actually written down.
If you can't tell, this is at the top of my gripes list along with my angst for Macy*s/Filene's. The views from the Pru are nice except for the view east because a large portion of historic downtown is blocked by the JHT.
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