Nevertheless, the blackened plywood does spoil the effect of disguising the building amidst its surroundings. All Hancock can do now is wait until September 1974, when all the new single-paned reflective windows are installed, to see whether the effect will still be the same.

But once the building is occupied, Ahern warns that the functional impact of the building will then surface. "It will be fine aesthetically and economically, bringing workers into the city, but the building will present a transportation problem." Ahern cites increasing traffic, plus an overburdened transit system as possible outgrowths of the Hancock Tower occupancy.

The question the Hancock building poses about Pei is whether sensitivity to community desires has a high priority when his plans come under attack and the possibility of his withdrawal from a project arises.

Landreth said last week that Pei "would absolutely withdraw if he thought a building was detrimental to the urban environment." "Mr. Pei takes great pains going into the neighborhood and interviewing people being dislocated and anybody who is touched financially," Landreth said. "All the data is then poured into a big central vat, before we consider the design we work on."

Of all of Pei's projects, the biggest test for his ethics so far will no doubt be the Kennedy Library. The Library plans, unveiled in May 1973, have engendered more protest than any of Pei's projects in Boston to date. The prevailing criticism coming from both the community and architectural leaders ranges from the argument that the modern design would not fit into its surroundings, to the contention that the community could not handle the immense parking problems that the Library would cause in the area. The plan has already gone through many changes to meet with community zoning problems. "Mr. Pei wants it within the texture of the city so everybody's happy," Landreth says. But despite Pei's attempts to scale it down, according to a poll taken last month, about 69 per cent of the community is still opposed to having the combined library and museum proposal built at the old MBTA trolley barn.

From the beginning, the project's chief proponent, Jacqueline Kennedy, has desired the Library to be exciting for young people, and a melting pot for all of Boston's as well as Harvard's students. The melting-pot idea has tarnished a bit, with the Library's tourist-attraction aura toned down, but there is still enough of a potential traffic problem to warrant the environmental study and the crowd estimates.

If Pei's new plans, to be revealed on June 3, are opposed by an overwhelming majority of the community and are found to be environmentally damaging by the impact studies, then Pei could either withdraw entirely from the project or retire to his drawing board for another year of reconsideration.

But if the impact studies find no overwhelming obstacles in the new plans, despite still vehement community opposition, what will Pei do? Despite Pei's office's claims that he would withdraw from a client's project if he thought it was detrimental, Pei would probably follow the precedent he established with the John Hancock Tower and build the library anyway on top of community and architectural opposition.

One can only hope that if Pei gets the go-ahead, his record of "bad luck" in Boston won't follow him when he supervises the execution of the Library plans.