William Le Baron Jenney's Home Insurance Building in Chicago, completed in 1885, carried its floors and much of its walls on an internal metal frame rather than on masonry, and at ten stories is conventionally counted the first skyscraper. Demolished in 1931, it survives as the starting point of the tall building; the title of first is debated, as parts of its load still ran through masonry.
Facts
Milestone Year FAQs
Was the Home Insurance Building really the first skyscraper?
It is the traditional answer, but architectural historians dispute it.
It is the traditional answer, but architectural historians dispute it. Gerald Larson and Roula Geraniotis showed in 1987 that the building's lower floors still carried load-bearing masonry and that it used no wind bracing, and traced the "first skyscraper" claim to an 1896 publicity campaign by William Le Baron Jenney and his Chicago colleagues, a decade after the building opened, rather than to anything claimed when it was built.
Connections
Associated With
Source Sir Banister Fletcher's A History of ArchitectureBanister Fletcher, edited by Dan Cruickshank (20th edition)
Its metal frame mixed cast and wrought iron with early structural steel.
Source Encyclopedia Britannica
Disputed as the definitive first skyscraper, per the buildings own milestone record, but not disputed as an early landmark in load bearing structural steel and iron frame construction.
Source Encyclopedia Britannica
The Home Insurance Building, frequently cited as the first skyscraper, was a direct product of the Chicago School the post-fire rebuilding boom produced.
Source Encyclopedia Britannica
William Le Baron Jenney designed the Home Insurance Building; its internal metal frame is the basis of its conventional claim to be the first skyscraper.
Source Wikipedia: William Le Baron Jenney
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Sources
1. Encyclopedia Britannica
Sir Banister Fletcher's A History of Architecture
Banister Fletcher, edited by Dan Cruickshank (20th edition), Architectural Press, 1996Associated With: Chicago School
Wikipedia: William Le Baron Jenney
WikipediaAssociated With: William Le Baron Jenney, Home Insurance BuildingView the Source Dissenting Readings (1 dissenting reading)
Description
In a 1987 paper, "Toward a Better Understanding of the Evolution of the Iron Skeleton Frame in Chicago," architectural historians Gerald Larson and Roula Geraniotis argued the Home Insurance Building's status as the first skyscraper is a myth rather than an engineering fact: its lower floors still carried load-bearing masonry, it used no wind bracing, and the "first" claim traces to an 1896 publicity campaign Jenney and colleagues including Daniel Burnham ran in The Engineering Record, a decade after the building opened, rather than to any contemporary 1885 claim. Near-universal scholarly consensus by the 1980s held the traditional claim false, though the popular account has outlived the correction.
A dissenting reading, from Gerald Larson and Roula GeraniotisHome Insurance Building (Wikipedia), Wikimedia Foundation
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