The Home Insurance Building was a skyscraper that stood in Chicago from 1885 to 1931. Originally ten stories and tall, it was designed by William Le Baron Jenney in 1884 and completed the next year. Two floors were added in 1891, bringing it to. It is frequently noted as the first tall building to be supported both inside and outside by a fireproof structural steel and metal frame, which included reinforced concrete. It is thus often considered the world's first skyscraper, although this is disputed. The building opened in 1885 and was demolished 46 years later in 1931.
History
The building was designed in 1884 by Jenney for the Home Insurance Company of New York. Construction began on May 1, 1884. Because of the building's unique architecture and weight-bearing frame, it is considered one of the world's first skyscrapers. It had 10 stories and rose to a height of ; two floors were added in 1891. The building weighed one-third as much as a masonry building and city officials were so concerned they halted construction while they investigated its safety.
Demolition and replacement
In April 1929 the building was reported as having a 90 percent occupancy rate, compared to an occupancy rate of the surrounding financial district estimated at at least 96 percent. In September 1929 plans were made by Marshall Field's to construct a large office building spanning Adams, Clark, and LaSalle Streets. This building would be constructed and opened in parts, the first part occupying the western part of the lot and the site of the Home Insurance Building. All told six buildings were demolished to make way for the Field Building, including the Home Insurance Building. In 1932, owners placed a plaque in the southwest section of the lobby reading:
Status as first skyscraper
The Home Insurance Building is often considered the first skyscraper, although this status is disputed. Its main claim to that status is as the first tall building supported by an iron frame as a skeleton. It was the first multistory building in the United States to largely use iron in its exterior to support the masonry since Badger had constructed similar grain elevators between 1860 and 1862. The status of the Home Insurance Building as the first skyscraper had been accorded by the time of its centennial in 1985. The Chicago press at the time of its construction did not refer to it as the first skyscraper in Chicago. An 1884 list of buildings considered skyscrapers in Chicago listed three buildings whose final heights would be taller than the Home Insurance Building's. Iron framing of multistory buildings had originated in England in the late 18th century and was able to replace exterior load-bearing walls by 1844, although social movements and legal regulations hindered their use at that time. An example is the Ditherington Flax Mill, which is nevertheless only five stories tall. The Broad Street Station in Philadelphia, a six-story building designed by Wilson Brothers & Company built in 1881, had a structural steel frame and was one of the first buildings in America to use masonry not as structure, but as curtain wall. It was later greatly expanded by Frank Furness. In the United States iron framing had been developed in New York in the 1850s but was not fireproof. The buildings in Chicago were able to solve this problem, supporting the external masonry entirely on the iron frame. Peter B. Wright had constructed such a column in Chicago in 1874. Leroy Buffington of Minneapolis developed a system of using wrought iron to frame buildings and had it patented in 1888. It has been argued by critics of the Home Insurance Building that its fame originated in an attempt to defeat Buffington's patent. Other candidates for first skyscraper include 1882's Montauk Building also in Chicago and 1870s Equitable Life Building in New York. The concept of a "first skyscraper" has itself been criticized for being too narrow and poorly reflecting the nuances of urban architectural history.
