The Modern Steel-Girder Skyscraper

Paper Summary:

This paper specifies that the author thinks the most remarkable American technological engineering achievement is the steel-girder-based skyscraper first erected in the 1880s by William le Baron Jenney. The author feels this way because the building shows the capacity of Americans to ingeniously find new ways of making products serve practical purposes. The paper describes Jenney's 1883 Home Insurance Building, constructed in Chicago, which is the very first building to employ steel skeleton construction and to resemble, in a rudimentary sense, the quintessential modern skyscraper. The paper relates that this building is a prototypical example of nineteenth-century American capitalism and industry at work.

From the Paper:

"Unsurprisingly, the earliest tall structures were comprised of masonry characterized by "the thick walls of the lower stories usurping a disproportionate amount of floor space." Obviously, it became imperative to design structures that would permit thinner walls to exist throughout the entire height of the building. Initially, architects used cast iron along with masonry; later, they used cage construction whereby an iron frame supported the floors of the structure and the masonry walls had only to bear their own weight."

Sample of Sources Used:

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• Public Broadcasting System. "Home Insurance Building." Wonders of the World Databank. 2001. WGBH Educational Foundation. 12 Sept. 2007 <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/buildingbig/wonder/structure/home_insurance.html>
• "Skyscraper." Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia. Columbia University Press. 12 Sep. 2007 <http://www.reference.com/browse/columbia/skyscrap>.

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