The very tall building as a type: born in 1880s Chicago and New York from the meeting of the steel frame, the safety elevator and expensive land, given artistic form by Louis Sullivan, competitive glamour by the Art Deco towers, corporate uniformity by the International Style, and global reach by the supertalls of Asia and the Gulf, Burj Khalifa above all. The building most often credited with originating the type, William Le Baron Jenney's Home Insurance Building in Chicago (1885), carries a live dispute over that very claim: the Chicago press of the day never called it the first skyscraper, and other iron-framed contenders, the 1870 Equitable Life Building in New York and the 1882 Montauk Building in Chicago among them, predate it, though the Home Insurance Building is credited as the first to carry its exterior masonry entirely on an iron frame in the way that became the worldwide standard.
Facts
Disputed
Formulated Year1885 is the completion year of the Home Insurance Building in Chicago, often cited as the first skyscraper; the claim is disputed, per this atlas's own voice convention on the first-skyscraper question. Domain
Domain (category) Concept Domain Connections
Associated With
Source Art Deco (Wikipedia)
Source Charles W. Clinton (Wikipedia)
Editorial link from the concept to a related style, element, milestone or figure; no citation attached
The Burj Khalifa is the current holder of the tallest-building record the concept of the skyscraper has chased since the 1880s.
Source Wikipedia
Additional Source Council on Vertical Urbanism (Wikipedia)Lead section
Editorial link from the concept to a related style, element, milestone or figure; no citation attached
Source Encyclopedia Britannica
Without the safety elevator, height had no rental value.
Source Encyclopedia Britannica
Source Encyclopedia Britannica
Editorial link from the concept to a related style, element, milestone or figure; no citation attached
Source Encyclopedia Britannica
Editorial link from the concept to a related style, element, milestone or figure; no citation attached
Building Type Of
Source Ascent MKE (Wikipedia)
Showing 1 to 50 of 99 in Building Type Of, page 1 of 2.
Sources
1. Skyscraper (Wikipedia)
2. Encyclopedia Britannica
3. Wikipedia
Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat Official Site
Council on Tall Buildings and Urban HabitatHeight criteria and building classification pageView the Source Home Insurance Building (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationHome Insurance Building, introduction section
The Home Insurance Building was an early skyscraper that stood in Chicago from 1885 to its demolition in 1931.
Home Insurance Building, Status as first skyscraper section
The Chicago press at the time of its construction did not refer to it as the first skyscraper in Chicago.
View the Source Ascent MKE (Wikipedia)
Building Type Of: Ascent MKE, Lead, building typeQuote, Building Type Of: Ascent MKE, Lead, building type
is a mass timber hybrid high-rise apartment building
View the Source Charles W. Clinton (Wikipedia)
Associated With: Charles W. Clinton, CommissionsQuote, Associated With: Charles W. Clinton, Commissions
a cluster of four early skyscrapers on Wall Street
View the Source Art Deco (Wikipedia)
Associated With: Art Deco, Lead sectionQuote, Associated With: Art Deco, Lead section
Art Deco has influenced buildings from skyscrapers to cinemas, bridges, ocean liners, trains, cars, trucks, buses, furniture, and everyday objects, including radios and vacuum cleaners.
View the Source Council on Vertical Urbanism (Wikipedia)
Associated With: Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, Lead sectionQuote, Associated With: Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, Lead section
Its stated mission is to study and report "on all aspects of the planning, design, and construction of tall buildings."
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