“Make no little plans they have no magic to stir men’s blood…make big plans…aim high in hope and work.” ~ Daniel H. Burnham

I think all Chicagoans will agree that we have a beautiful city with a skyline second to none with our beautiful tall buildings – skyscrapers.  Chicago never fails to impress with its massive giants of steel and glass and to top (pun intended) it off we can proudly state we have the tallest building in the country and 7^th tallest in the world – the Willis Tower (formerly Sears Tower).

Willis Tower (Photo from www.kevincharnas.com)

New Yorkers may have a hard time admitting it but Chicago is the birthplace of the skyscraper.  The building known as the Home Insurance Building is the skyscraper that started it all and was located at the northeast corner of LaSalle and Adams.  Originally, it was 10-stories but later expanded to 12.  After this building was erected it would be four years before New York had its first skyscraper.  By then Chicago had at least five of these marvelous structures. 

Home Insurance Building - Chicago's First Skyscraper

Skyscrapers were born out of the building frenzy that followed the Great Chicago Fire.  Our city which was formerly built out of wood was being rebuilt in stone, iron and a new material called steel.  The problem that architects and engineers ran into was that as their buildings grew in height they also became thicker, darker and less attractive.  This left less space for windows in an era before air conditioning, advanced ventilation and anything more than basic electric lighting. 

A man by the name of William Jenney, who wasn’t an architect but an engineer, had the solution.  He figured that if you built a skeleton of iron, you could have the stability, rigidity and height without the thickness of structural stone.  In fact, the frame of the building would be so strong that it could support a stone skin.  His tower was being built with iron but switched to the new then exotic material we know as steel.  Sadly, the building was demolished in 1931 but remains a major milestone in our architectural history.  Jenney’s idea was totally revolutionary and as they say… the rest is history.

Now there have been many claims and counter-claims over the years regarding the birthplace of the skyscraper but the issue was put to rest by the investigation of the The Engineering Record.  It declared that in spite of patents and innovations in other parts of the country and world that William Jenney did in fact design and erect the world’s first skyscraper right here in our great city of Chicago.

To know more about Chicago’s architecture and history, I invite you to go to 224 South Michigan Avenue and check out the Chicago Architecture Foundation (CAF) and the many wonderful tours they offer.  CAF is a non-profit organization dedicated to educating the public about Chicago’s world-class architecture.  With more than 85 boat, bus, bike, walking and Segway tours, CAF offers the world’s largest and most diverse architecture tour program.

Just as Picasso used a canvas to convey his genius, architects use stone, glass and steel to express theirs.  This is no where more evident than in Chicago… the home of big shoulders. 

Man About Town has lived in Chicago most of his life, is recently hitched and forgets more than you will ever know about… well, anything!  He is on a weekly search for all things interesting to guys (well, and the ladies too!).