A native of Massachusetts, William Le Baron
Jenney (1832-1907) served as an engineer in the Civil War, where he designed
fortifications at Corinth, Shiloh, and Vicksburg. He came to Chicago in
1867, forming the firm of Jenney, Schermerhorn and Bogart. Together with
landscape architects Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, Jenney's firm
helped develop Riverside, Illinois, the nation's first planned "railroad
suburb." Jenney also was involved in the planning of Chicago's extensive
boulevard system, most notably Douglas, Garfield, and Humboldt parks.
However, Jenney's greatest impact came in his role in the development of the
steel-framed skyscraper, in such designs as the Leiter I Building (1879;
demolished), the Home Insurance Building (1884; demolished), and the Leiter
II, Ludington, and Manhattan buildings. Jenney's architectural office was a
well-known training ground for young architects, including Daniel H.
Burnham, William Holabird, Irving K. Pond, Martin Roche, and Louis H.
Sullivan.
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The Home Insurance Building was built in 1885
in Chicago, Illinois and demolished in 1931 to make way for the Field
Building (now the LaSalle Bank Building). It was the first building to use
structural steel in its frame, but the majority of its structure was
composed of cast and wrought iron. Due to the building's unique architecture
and unique weight bearing frame, it is considered by some to be the first
skyscraper in the world, but this claim has been widely disputed due to its
hybrid construction. It had 10 stories and rose to a height of 138 feet (42
m) high. A forensic analysis done during its demolition purported to show
that the building was the first to carry both floors and external walls
entirely on its metal frame, but details and later scholarship have largely
disproved this, and it has been shown that the structure must have relied
upon both metal and masonry elements to support its weight, and to hold it
up against wind. The architect was William LeBaron Jenney, an engineer. In
fact the building weighed only one-third as much as a stone building would
have; city officials were so concerned that they halted construction while
they investigated its safety. The Home Insurance Building is an example of
the Chicago School in architecture.
In 1890, two additional floors were built on top of the original 10-story
building. |
