Home Insurance Company Building | building, Chicago, Illinois, United States | Britannica (original) (raw)
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Jenney’s design innovations
In William Le Baron Jenney Jenney designed the Home Insurance Company Building, Chicago (1884–85; enlarged 1891; demolished 1931), generally considered to be the world’s first tall building supported by an internal frame, or skeleton, of iron and steel rather than by load-bearing walls and the first to incorporate steel as a structural material.… Read More
building construction
In construction: Early steel-frame high-rises …this challenge with the 10-story Home Insurance Company Building (1885), which had a nearly completely all-metal structure. The frame consisted of cast-iron columns supporting wrought-iron beams, together with two floors of rolled-steel beams that were substituted during construction; this was the first large-scale use of steel in a building. The… Read More
framed building
In framed building …Le Baron Jenney in the Home Insurance Company Building (1884–85). This building featured a frame of both iron and steel. In the 20th century reinforced concrete emerged as steel’s main competitor. Read More
modern architecture
In Western architecture: Construction in iron and glass …Baron Jenney, developed in the Home Insurance Company Building a metal skeleton of cast-iron columns—sheathed in masonry—and wrought-iron beams, carrying the masonry walls and windows at each floor level. While technically innovative, the building retained masonry sidewalls, making its elevations disunified and inept. Read More
skyscraper development
In the Loop …was the site of the Home Insurance Company Building (completed 1885; demolished 1931), generally considered to be the first metal-frame building and, at 10 stories, the world’s first skyscraper. Several other buildings constructed during the late 19th and early 20th centuries also introduced innovative techniques, including those by Daniel Burnham,… Read More
In skyscraper William Le Baron Jenney’s 10-story Home Insurance Company Building (1884–85) in Chicago was the first to use steel-girder construction. Jenney’s skyscrapers also first employed the curtain wall, an outer covering of masonry or other material that bears only its own weight and is affixed to and supported by the steel… Read More
