“‘There’s not a city that’s considered a city that doesn’t have a skyscraper, and Chicago really set the stage for the at after the Chicago fire,’ said Eleanor Esser Gorski, president and CEO of the Chicago Architecture Center.
“‘This was a city that was a crossroads of commerce, or railroads, or meatpacking, of shipping, so the city needed to get back on its feet very quickly in order to still achieve all of that economic progress,’ Esser Gorski said. “What better way to do it than to build fast, build high, create density in the downtown area where it was needed? So, the city fathers, the captains of industry brought in architects and engineers from all over the country to help rebuild the city, and the skyscraper was born out of that.’
“One of those architects was William Le Baron Jenney. He designed the first steel frame skyscraper, the Home Insurance Building, in 1855. It was demolished in 1931, but plenty of examples of the first generation of skyscrapers – and their innovations – remain.
“The elevators made the buildings practical; the windows made them beautiful. The Fine Arts Building on South Michigan Ave. was constructed in 1884 – and is home to the city’s last manually operated elevator.
“‘A big part of that, too, and you can look around the Loop and see this, is a Chicago style window, and what that is is a single pane of glass and on either side there are operable windows,” Esser Gorski said. ‘That allowed light and air to come into these buildings before the advent of a lot of lighting or air conditioning.’
“The Loop’s living museum of skyscrapers – anchored by the Monadnock building and its 6-foot-thick brick base. “That is before the innovative steel construction came into play in full force, the second part has those larger windows and has developed more of that skyscraper look,’ Esser Gorski said.
“Across Dearborn Street is the Fisher Building, perhaps the purest expression of what became known as the Chicago School of architecture.
“‘A steel frame, white terra cotta cladding, big Chicago windows, but the thing that’s cool about that is they’ve incorporated, because of the owner’s name, Fisher, a lot of motifs of fish and aquatic life, and you’ll see that in the building,’ Esser Gorski said.
“That school of architects pioneered the use of steel skeletons, large “Chicago Windows,” and covered with hollow brick called terra cotta to create functional, high-rise commercial spaces.
“And the 1950s to the 1970s, led by architect Mies van der Rohe – and his modernist mantra ‘less is more’ – allowed the steel frames to take center stage, creating functional minimalist structures.
“‘Chicago is the home to international style modernism like the structurally expressive buildings that you see steel and glass, not hidden behind ornament, but it’s pushed to the front of the building,’ said Lee Bey, an architecture critic and author.
“The skyline is now defined by super tall towers 875 North Michigan Avenue (formerly the Hancock Tower) and the 110-story Willis tower (formerly known as the Sears Tower), an architectural marvel that stood as the world’s tallest building for 25 years, and has become an enduring symbol of Chicago, according the building’s director of operations and construction Barbara Hickey.
“‘The Willis Tower is not just an icon for Chicago, but really for the United States,’ she said.
“‘Architecture fits that framework, not just in the engineering and structural but also the design it continues to evolve, and I think Chicago is the world capitol or architecture and will continue to be,’ Esser Gorski said. (Lowe, WGN 9 Chicago, 5/28/26)