![]() ![]() Willis Tower, formally known as the Sears Tower, is the tallest building in Chicago, standing at 1,451 feet with 108 floors. The building was located at the corner of Adams and LaSalle Streets, and was designed by engineer William LeBaron Jenney, according to the History Channel. Guinness World Records said the so-called "Father of the Skyscraper" towered all of 10 stories with its peak at 138 feet, miniature by today's standards but gargantuan at that time. The first skyscraper in the world was the Home Insurance Building, built in Chicago in 1885. ![]() They often define a city's skyline - such as in Chicago - but they've only been around for about the last 130 years. RELATED: New skyscrapers set to transform Chicago's skyline In cities where space is a premium, skyscrapers allow developers to build upwards rather than take up a lot of land. They're called skyscrapers because they tower over other buildings and look like they literally scrape the sky. Observed each year on September 3, National Skyscraper Day is a time to appreciate the beautiful architecture and construction of some of the world's tallest buildings. Chicago's skyline may look a lot different in the next 10 years. īanner image courtesy Max Bender on Unsplash. * If you’re NOT from Chicago, you might know it as the Willis Tower, but here in Chicago, it’ll always be the Sears Tower. Jenneys nine-story Home Insurance Building, completed in 1885, was the first building fully framed with metal columns and beams, and so is considered to be. If you’re looking for something fun to do in Chicago however, you CAN check out Chicago’s best escape room. ![]() ![]() So, unfortunately, you can’t visit the Home Insurance Building today. the LaSalle National Bank Building) in 1931. It WAS demolished to make way for the Field Building (a.k.a. William Le Baron Jenney’s architectural brilliance sustains. It is - or rather, it was located on the northeast corner of the Adams and LaSalle Streets in The Loop.Īnd it stood there proudly as the world’s first skyscraper till 1931. Image courtesy Dariusz Sankowski on Unsplash. It also set the standard for various other building innovations like elevators and modern plumbing systems. The building was completed in 1885, with ten floors.Īnd Jenney’s design was studied by other architects and engineers, paving the way for modern skyscraper development. This enabled him to design a high building, with more windows than were typically possible at the time. He created a (then) revolutionary design, with a steel ‘skeleton’ that would support the building, with a stone and brick exterior ‘wrapped’ around it. This is where Jenney, the engineer and architect, showed his brilliance. The project called for the new building to be tall and fireproof. Did it simply follow the trend or was there something UNIQUE about the Home Insurance Building? Partly as a response to the fire and partly due to (then) emerging engineering and architectural concepts, new Chicago buildings were largely made of stone, iron and steel.Īnd the Home Insurance Building followed this trend. It was during this period that the Home Insurance Building was commissioned and built in Chicago. However, it would also give rise to a construction boom. Hundreds of lives were lost, properties gutted and enormous losses suffered. Image courtesy Franco Antonio Giovanella on Unsplash.ġ870’s and earlier Chicago had a lot of buildings with wood as a key building material. Interesting! What else was remarkable about this particular building? The Home Insurance Building project would earn him lifelong fame as the ‘Father of the American Skyscraper’. He was also a visiting professor at the University of Michigan. The contract was won by William Le Baron Jenney, who’d been an engineer in the army, and then opened his own architecture firm upon retiring. It was commissioned by the Home Insurance Company of New York in 1883 to serve as their Chicago headquarters. That is widely thought to be the first skyscraper in the world. Maybe the Empire State building, speaking from an all-American perspective?īut, chances are, you wouldn’t think of the Home Insurance Building. The Sears Tower * skydeck, right, if you’re from Chicago? Looking down from the Sears Tower skydeck. Collections of the Historical Society of Berkeley Heights. Think ‘skyscraper’ and what comes to mind? ![]()
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