• International Journal of High-Rise Buildings
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2024

Today, most architectural and engineering historians no longer consider the Home Insurance Building to be the first skyscraper. Despite this, the popular belief remains that William Le Baron Jenny invented the first skyscraper when he designed the Home Insurance Building in 1884. This paper recounts the history of how Jenney won the public debate starting in 1896, despite his building being only a small evolutionary step forward. In that year, a series of letters in The Engineering Record allowed Jenney and his colleagues to engage in a public relations campaign to recast the debate about the first skyscraper to place the Home Insurance Building as the pivotal structure in skyscraper history.

• International Journal of High-Rise Buildings
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.17-41
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• 2020

In Part One, I documented the evolution of the use of the elevator and the iron frame to build ever-taller buildings that would eventually be called "skyscrapers," to offset the ever-increasing cost of Manhattan real estate. By the start of the Great Depression of the 1870s in 1873, New York architects had erected two ten-storied skyscrapers. In Part Two I document the major events, designers, and buildings in New York, Chicago, and other American cities that eventually culminated in the ability to erect 20 story skyscrapers by 1890.

• International Journal of High-Rise Buildings
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.1-14
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• 2022

Debates on what is the first skyscraper have been ongoing from time to time since the construction of the Home Insurance Building in Chicago in 1885, which is generally recognized as the first built skyscraper. This paper attempts to verify this assertion through a detailed investigation after identifying the criteria that characterize a skyscraper. By considering and examining several competing buildings for the title of "first skyscraper" in terms of their levels of satisfying these criteria, the paper reconfirms that the Home Insurance Building in Chicago indeed qualifies as the first skyscraper and is the harbinger of future skyscrapers. By introducing technological and associated architectural innovations in this pioneering building, its designer William Le Baron Jenney paved the way for the construction of future skyscrapers. In traditional construction, heavy masonry walls especially at lower levels did not allow large window openings in exterior walls that would permit ample daylight. For the Home Insurance Building, originally built with 10 stories, Jenney created a metal-framed skeletal structure that carried the building's loads, making the building lighter and allowed for large windows permitting ample natural light to the building's interior. The exterior iron columns were encased in relatively small masonry piers mainly for fireproofing, weather-protection and façade aesthetics. Relying on the structural framing on the building's perimeter, the exterior masonry thus turned into a rudimentary "curtain wall" system, heralding the use of curtain wall construction in future skyscrapers. This building's innovative structural system led to what is known as the "Chicago Skeleton," and eventually produced remarkable skyscrapers all over the world.