¶ … origins of skyscrapers, their design, and some major architects. ORIGINS OF SKYSCRAPERS

Skyscrapers flourished in Chicago for a variety of reasons. "The main technological advancement that made skyscrapers possible was the development of mass iron and steel production. New manufacturing processes made it possible to produce long beams of solid iron. Essentially, this gave architects a whole new set of building blocks to work with" (Harris). The development of elevators also played in the development of skyscrapers, because people could move more quickly and efficiently between floors, which is why skyscrapers are sometimes called "elevator buildings."

Chicago was located near large producers of steel, and it was an industrial and commercial hub for the whole Midwest. Land was at a premium, and so building designers had to find new ways to put more buildings on less land. One solution was for the building to go up, instead of out. When the Chicago fire destroyed much of the city, the old cast iron buildings literally melted. Architects needed to build with materials that would resist fire, like steel and brick.

In addition, the soil near Lake Michigan was very poor, and could not support a brick building over ten stories, so the building materials needed to be lighter. Skyscrapers helped solve all of these problems, and while they were being built in other areas, Chicago was the premier building area at the end of the 19 the and early 20th centuries.

There were several architects who led skyscraper development in Chicago, and they became known as the "Chicago School." They included Louis Sullivan, Daniel Burnham, William Holabird, and Martin Roche, who all trained under William Jenney at one time or another. "George B. Post had come very close to perfecting the free-standing metal skeleton designed to carry all building...

They built the Tacoma Building in Chicago, from 1886-89, and created several new building techniques. They "used cantilevered window oriels to express the lightness of the frame," (Roth 184) and typical "Chicago" bay windows that allowed more light on each of the thirteen floors. It was topped with an elaborate cornice, and was a very stylish building. It has since been torn down.
Holabird and Roche also built the Marquette Building, during 1893-94. "The building is hollow around a light court in the shape of an E. with the long strokes representing rows of offices and the short center stroke representing the elevator banks. Externally the tripartite organization is clear. It begins with a rusticated base of ground floor and mezzanines. Above this are eleven stories of offices between slightly projected rusticated corner piers; in this middle zone no horizontal lines break the upward movement. An upper intermediate floor, an attic floor, and a heavy cornice terminate the building…And though the Marquette Building uses many classical ornamental features, most notably the Renaissance cornice, the near-irreducible logic of its straightforward expression of internal arrangements maximizing comfort and use makes it a paradigm of the Chicago School skyscraper" (Roth 184-5).

Chicago influenced New York building in technique and technology, but not in style. Chicago designers tended to top their buildings with cornices, and use large Chicago windows. New York was more concerned with height, and designers in New York were building taller buildings than…