American Architecture: The Skyscraper

What is this structure?

-Home insurance building

What is there to know about the Home Insurance Building?

-Date: 1884-85 (19th Century)

-Location: Chicago, Illinois

-Architect: William Le Baron Jenney

What is this structure?

-Wainwright Building

What is there to know about the Wainwright Building?

-Date: 1890-1891 (19th Century)

-Location: St. Louis, Missouri

-Architect: Dankmar Adler and Louis Sullivan

What is a skeleton frame?

-A frame of steel or iron that lays the structure of a building

What is a curtain wall?

-When tera cotta is added from the bottom up to the skeleton frame

What is tera cotta?

-Baked clay

Why were cities originally built?

-So you can walk to wherever you needed

-Dense

Why were downtowns created?

-Transportation went up

-So city area went up

-All large buildings in downtown

Who invented the elevator? How did it allow advancements?

-Elisha Graves Otis

-Created safety elevator with brake it cables broke

-Ppl trust it so used to make taller buildings

Why was the first floor of the Home Insurance Building lowered/half sunk?

-To charge more for rent

Why were skyscrapers invented?

-To make more $$ with rent

Why is the Home Insurance Building considered the first skyscraper?

-Because not built with load bearing techniques

Did ppl like the Home Insurance Building?

-No

-Thought it was ugly

What is the Wainwright Building made of?

-Granite

-Sandstone

-Tera cotta

-Brick

Who was Dankmar Adler?

-Born in Germany, immigrate to US

-Jewish

Who was Louis Sullivan?

-Irish, but born in Boston

-Went to arch school (now MIT)

-Went to Ecole des Beaux Arts but dropped out

Is the Home Insurance or Wainwright Building taller?

-About the same height

Where are the bathrooms located in the Wainwright Building? Why?

-Top floor

-Because cant collect money off of bathrooms so try to maximize $$ w/ less space

Why are there so many windows at the Wainwright Building?

-Needed a window for every office

Is the decorative border at the Wainwright Building the same material for the whole structure?

-No

-First floor is tera cotta

-Above that is brick

Is the outside decoration the same for every floor of the Wainwright Building?

-No

-Changes every story

Why are the vertical lines emphasized on the Wainwright Building?

-To make the building look taller

Who did Sullivan copy in his writing?

-Lincolns Gettysburg address