Home Insurance Building

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The Home Insurance Building was built in 1885 in Chicago, Illinois and demolished in 1931 to make way for the Field Building (now the LaSalle Bank Building). It was the first building to use structural steel in its frame, but the majority of its structure was composed of cast and wrought iron. Due to the building's unique architecture and unique weight bearing frame, it is considered to be the first skyscraper in the world. It had 10 stories and rose to a height of 138 feet (42 m) high. A forensic analysis done during its demolition purported to show that the building was the first to carry both floors and external walls entirely on its metal frame, but details and later scholarship have largely disproved this, and it has been shown that the structure must have relied upon both metal and masonry elements to support its weight, and to hold it up against wind. The architect was William LeBaron Jenney, an engineer. In fact the building weighed only one-third as much as a stone building would have; city officials were so concerned that they halted construction while they investigated its safety. The Home Insurance Building is an example of the Chicago School in architecture.

In 1890, two additional floors were built on top of the original 10-story building.

The LaSalle Bank Building (former Field Building), where the Home Insurance Building once stood, contains a plaque in the lobby that reads:

This section of the Field Building is erected on the site of the Home Insurance Building which structure, designed and built in eighteen hundred and eighty four by the late William LeBaron Jenney, was the first high building to utilize as the basic principle of its design the method known as skeleton construction and, being a primal influence in the acceptance of this principle was the true father of the skyscraper, 1932

Source

• 1885 First Skyscraper ; Chicago Public Library

See also

• Chicago architecture

Theodore Turak, "William Le Baron Jenney: A Pioneer in Modern Architecture," Ann Arbor, Michigan: UMI Research Press, 1986

Carl Condit, "The Chicago School of Architecture," The University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London, 1964

External links

• Information and Pictures at Emporis(English)
• Information and Drawings at SkyscraperPage(English)

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Last updated on Saturday March 08, 2008 at 13:48:05 PST (GMT -0800)
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