Home Insurance Building by William LeBaron Jenney | Architecture Enthusiast |

Architecture Enthusiast Presents: Home Insurance Building by William LeBaron Jenney
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The Home Insurance Building was a skyscraper in Chicago designed by William Le Baron Jenney in 1884, for the Home Insurance Company based in New York. Completed a year later, the building is generally noted as the first tall building to be supported both inside and outside by a fireproof structural steel and metal frame, which included reinforced concrete. The building opened in 1885 and was demolished 46 years later in 1931.
The building was the first tall building to use structural steel in its frame, but the majority of its structure was composed of cast and wrought iron. Because of the building's unique architecture and weight-bearing frame, it is considered one of the world's first skyscrapers. It had 10 stories and rose to a height of 138 ft (42.1 m). In 1890, two additional floors were added at the top, bringing the total height to 180 feet (55 meters). In addition to being the first of a new generation of steel-framed skyscrapers built in cities across America and the world, the building set the standard for various other building innovations, including rapid, safe elevators, wind bracing and modern plumbing. In traditional construction, exterior walls, along with interior columns and beams, bore a structure's weight. Additional floors required heavier, thicker walls, resulting in smaller windows and limited natural light--a significant disadvantage before the widespread use of electricity.
To admit the maximum amount of natural light to the Home Insurance Building, architect William Le Baron Jenney used an internal cage of iron and steel to free the exterior from its load-bearing role. The building's outermost iron columns were clad in masonry, but solely to fireproof them. The exterior now could be nothing more than a "curtain wall," made almost exclusively of glass.
The building weighed only one-third as much as a masonry building would have; city officials were so concerned, they halted construction while they investigated its safety. The Home Insurance Building is an example of the Chicago School of Architecture. The building set precedents in skyscraper construction. Jenney’s achievement paved the way for the work of a group of architects and engineers that would become known as the Chicago School; together they would develop the modern skyscraper over the last years of the 19th century and the first years of the 20th. Several important members of this group worked at one time in Jenney’s office, including Daniel Burnham (who would go on to design New York City’s iconic Flatiron Building), John Root and Louis Henri Sullivan. Though New York would later become known for taking skyscrapers to new heights, Chicago has retained its title as the birthplace of the skyscraper, thanks to Jenney and the rest of the Chicago School.
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Home Insurance Building by William LeBaron Jenney | Architecture Enthusiast |
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