![]() ![]() And in fact the wrought-iron tower is twice as tall as the masonry Washington Monument and yet it weighs 70,000 tons less! It is repainted every seven years with 50 tons of dark brown paint.Ĭalled “the father of the skyscraper,” the Home Insurance Building, constructed in Chicago in 1885 (and demolished in 1931), was 138 feet tall and 10 stories. It was built for the World’s Fair to demonstrate that iron could be as strong as stone while being infinitely lighter. Located at the corner of Wacker Drive and Michigan Avenue, it is still used as an office tower by a plethora of companies.The Eiffel Tower was the tallest building in the world when it was completed in 1889. Fortunately, the building lasted long enough to stand the test of time, and is now one of the city’s most recognizable landmarks. It was also the most impressively constructed skyscraper of its era. ![]() It was the first ten-story building to utilize a skeleton construction method that utilised steel columns and beams to carry the weight of its occupants. In terms of technology and innovation, the Home Insurance Building was the first ten-story building in the United States. It also boasted a number of other innovations such as the most efficient use of space, a green roof and a skylight. The building featured a clever use of metal to support the weight of the ten stories that it contained. It sprang from the imagination of civil engineer and architect William Le Baron Jenney. The first ten-story building built in the United States was the Home Insurance Building, erected in Chicago in 1885. As a result, his first project after the First World War was a competition entry for a site on Friedrichstrasse in Berlin that included storey-high sheets of glass hanging off the edges of the floor plates. However, the building was demolished in 1931 and its architectural legacy has largely been lost.Īs an architect, Mies van der Rohe understood that glass was a material that could be manipulated in many ways. ![]() ![]() It also incorporated a number of innovative ventilation and lighting techniques. In addition, the glass facade was the first to span all floor-to-floor heights without using intermediate mullions and connecting bars. It was also a pioneering structure that set the standard for commercial skyscrapers to come. The Home Insurance Building, designed by William Le Baron Jenney in 1884, was the first glass-clad building built in the United States. City officials were concerned and stopped construction while they investigated its safety. The Home Insurance Building was a ten-story, steel-framed structure that weighed one-third as much as a traditional masonry building. The exterior use of iron skeleton framing was not unusual at this time but was new to Chicago. It was constructed with a cast iron frame and masonry walls at each floor level. It was completed in 1885 and stood ten stories high. The Home Insurance Building, designed by William Le Baron Jenney, was the first skeleton construction building built in the United States. It was the first skeleton construction building These were all introduced during the same period in which electricity was harnessed. It also paved the way for other innovations that would eventually become central to skyscraper construction, including elevators and wind bracing. This spawned a new type of construction that would evolve into the core of skyscraper design. The building was designed by architect William Le Baron Jenney, and it incorporated a revolutionary steel frame that supported both the walls and their immense weight. It was a 10-story structure that topped out at 138 feet (miniature by today’s standards but gargantuan in its time). In 1885, Chicago’s Home Insurance Building was built, regarded by some as the world’s first skyscraper. It was also the world’s first fireproof metal-framed building. It was designed by William Le Baron Jenney in 1884.Īlthough the Home Insurance Building was not visually appealing as compared to the Wainwright Building, it was the first of its kind. Located at the northeast corner of Adams and La Salle streets in Chicago, Illinois, the Home Insurance Building was the first skyscraper to be built using skeleton construction. ![]()
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