The tales a tower tells

The Hancock: Reflecting business in Boston.

Everything you need to know about Boston business is inside the John Hancock Tower.

OK, so maybe I'm exaggerating a little. But the iconic 60-story glass tower, still the city's best-looking office building after all these years, tells you a lot about the passing of what was once at the heart of Boston's business community - and what has grown in its place.

What has passed into history is the big, independent company that called Boston home. Most of them were institutions, financial companies, or utilities. A few were just large businesses headquartered in Boston, like Gillette. Practically all of them are gone.

John Hancock Financial Services Inc. wasn't the first or even the most important Boston company sold to someone else somewhere else. But Hancock, acquired by Manulife Financial Corp. nearly five years ago, was a famous company headquartered in a landmark building. The only thing remaining in Boston remotely resembling that distinction is State Street Corp. and its downtown tower.

There is still a subsidiary called John Hancock and a small number of its employees continue to work at the tower. (Fewer than 100 work on a single floor today.) But now the building is best known for a very different kind of commerce and an entirely new cast of business people.

The Hancock Tower is a preferred address for Boston's growing ranks of money managers who specialize in what they call alternative assets. That can mean hedge funds, private-equity firms, and other kinds of money managers with specialties.

They command the high floors of the city's tallest tower, with offices that capture panoramic views. Look out from there and you feel like you're on top of the world. No one misses the implication.

Just yesterday, the Globe's Beth Healy reported that Bain Capital was bursting out of its offices a couple of blocks away and looking at the Hancock Tower. Bain, one of the city's premier private-equity firms, says it's in the market for 250,000 square feet.

But much of the tower's alternative-asset crowd is made up of hedge fund managers. Highfields Capital Management was one of the first to move there, as a start-up a decade ago. Cofounder Jon Jacobson had just left Harvard Management, and he brought a pot of the university's endowment money with him to manage with partner Richard Grubman. The Harvard imprimatur and a good word from Morgan Stanley helped them get the lease.

Over time, other hedge fund managers who had helped invest Harvard's endowment moved into the Hancock Tower. Other kinds of managers gave the Back Bay a closer look.

Many moved at a time when rents there were cheaper than downtown. Executives who lived to the west of the city found an easier commute. They also discovered the charms of the neighborhood and the building's appeal.

"It has flair and elegance, and the Back Bay is nice," says Jack Meyer, of Convexity Capital Management, who resigned as president of Harvard Management to start the firm in its current Hancock Tower office.

Today, Highfields occupies the 59th floor. Meyer and his colleagues at Convexity work from the 57th floor. The big private-equity firm TA Associates moved in a floor below two summers ago. ArcLight Capital Partners, an energy investment firm, works from the tower's 55th floor. It's just above Charlesbank Capital Partners, another investment firm led by former Harvard endowment managers.

Adage Capital Management, one more firm with the same kind of Harvard connections, occupies the 52d floor. Private-equity investor Weston Presidio shares the 50th floor with HighVista Strategies, which invests in a portfolio of funds for clients.

Denham Capital Management, a private-equity firm that specializes in energy and commodities, operates floors below. Denham was spun out of another Hancock Tower hedge fund, Sowood Capital Management, which made headlines when it lost billions in the credit-market squeeze and closed its doors.

There are others, like Batterymarch Financial Management, that call the Hancock home. A big private-equity firm, Berkshire Partners, is said to be moving there.

The day of the giant company headquartered in Boston is mostly over. Alternative-asset managers are among the city's growing business forces. The whole story is in the Hancock Tower, along with something that connects past with present. The Hancock's 60th floor, above all the hedge funds and private-equity managers, is home to the family office that manages money for famous ad man Jack Connors, who served many of the giant Boston companies that are no longer here.

Steven Syre is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at syre@globe.com.