Home Insurance Building

Home Insurance Building
The Home Insurance Building
General information
TypeOffice
LocationChicago, United States
Coordinates41°52′47″N 87°37′55″W / 41.8796°N 87.6320°W / 41.8796; -87.6320
Completed1885
Demolished1931
Height
RoofOriginally 138 ft (42 m)
Top floorAfter addition of the final two floors – 180 feet (54.9 meters)
Technical details
Floor count10 (later 12)
Design and construction
ArchitectWilliam Le Baron Jenney
References

The Home Insurance Building was a skyscraper in Chicago, Illinois. It was the first building to be called a skyscraper. It was also the first tall building to be supported, both inside and outside, by a fireproof metal frame. It used to stand at 138 ft (42 m). William Le Baron Jenney designed the building.

History

The Home Insurance Building was built in 1884 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was the first tall building to use structural steel in its frame. Most of its structure was made of cast and wrought iron. While the Ditherington Flax Mill was an earlier fireproof-metal-framed building, it was only five stories tall.

The site

The Field Building, later known as the La Salle Bank Building and now the Bank of America Building, built in 1931, now stands on the site. In 1932, owners placed a plaque in the southwest section of the lobby reading:

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 Le Baron 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.

References

  1. ↑ Smith, Chrysti M. (2006). Verbivore's Feast: Second Course: More Word & Phrase Origins. Farcountry Press. p. 289. ISBN 9781560374022. Retrieved 19 January 2012. The word skyscraper, in its architectural context, was first applied to the Home Insurance Building, completed in Chicago in 1885.
  2. ↑ "Home Insurance Building". SkyscraperPage.
  3. ↑ Smith, Chrysti M. (2006). Verbivore's Feast: Second Course: More Word & Phrase Origins. Farcountry Press. p. 289. ISBN 1-56037-402-0. Retrieved 2012-01-19. The word skyscraper, in its architectural context, was first applied to the Home Insurance Building, completed in Chicago in 1885.
  4. ↑ "Home Insurance Building". Emporis.com. Archived from the original on 2007-03-21. Retrieved 2013-11-08.
  5. ↑ Broad Street Station (1881) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a 6-story building designed by Wilson Brothers & Company, had a structural steel frame, and was one of the first buildings in America to use masonry not as structure, but as a curtain wall. It was later greatly expanded by Frank Furness. See: George E. Thomas, "Broad Street Station," in James F. O'Gorman, et al., Drawing Toward Building: Philadelphia Architectural Graphics, 1732–1986 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1986), pp. 140–42.
  6. ↑ Kennedy, Maev (8 April 2005). "World's first iron-framed building saved". The Guardian. Retrieved 2013-11-08.

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