The Chicago type of architecture has greatly influenced that of the American architecture as a whole. The most known city in Illinois, Chicago features and offers prominent buildings of varied forms and styles shaped and created by important architects. The buildings and skyscrapers of Chicago are very much known for their original design rather than antiquity because most of the early buildings in the city were burned or damaged by the Great Chicago Fire that unfortunately happened in 1871.

The history of Chicago architecture began in the decades of 1880s and 1890s with the Chicago School starting the trend of construction utilizing the steel frame and large pieces of glass plate. From this pioneering construction emerged the first and original modern Chicago skyscrapers. In 1885, the Home Insurance building of William Jenney was the first one to utilize steel instead of iron for its frame. However, the building still used stones and large bricks. Also in the 1890’s, architects Daniel Burnham and John Welborn Root designed more modern steel frames incorporated with glass and was built by a group of engineers led by Shankland and contractor George Fuller. This new and modern type of architecture by Burnhan and Jenney came to be known as the Commercial Form of architecture, but was later renamed by historians as the Chicago School.

During 1892, the new Chicago building the Masonic Temple was able to surpass the New York World Skyscraper, which in the records was listed as the tallest building in the world for two years. After a few years the Masonic Temple was displaced by another New York skyscraper from the title of tallest building.

Many outstanding Chicago architects worked, either alone or in partnership with other architects, to the creation of most of the city’s original buildings. With Daniel Burnham actively leading the architects in shaping the skyline of the city of Chicago, many historians claim about this group as being responsible for the revival of the Neo Classical type of architecture that swept not only the city but the whole United States as well. Burnham’s design of the White City was said to be specifically responsible for this architectural revival. It was Burnham who developed the 1909 city plan, a comprehensive plan based on Neo Classical form and style. Still, most of the city’s more modern buildings and skyscrapers were built and constructed after the closure of the Exposition, which was between the years 1894 and 1898.

Louis Sullivan, another influential and prominent architect was likewise greatly responsible not only for the Chicago architecture but that of the United States as well. The Prairie Scholl of Frank Lloyd Wright has also influenced the general building style and design as well as the furnishing style. Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, head of the school of architecture at Illinois Institute of Technology and widely considered as a leading expert in modern architecture has worked labeled under the Modern or International style. Van der Rohe’s architectural work is also known as the Second Chicago School. There is also what is called the Chicago Seven, so-called because the group had seven members, all of which are the prominent architects of Chicago. The architects belonging to the Chicago Seven are Larry Booth, James Nagle, Ben Weese, James Freed, Stanley Tigerman and Tom Beeby and Stuart Cohen.

Some of the United States’ famous buildings and skyscrapers can be found in Chicago. The Sears Tower, which stands at 1451 feet, was the tallest skyscraper in the world which lasted for 24 years, starting in 1974 up to the year 1998. The Sears has an antenna which is 278 feet in height, and this has contributed immensely to the overall height of the tower. The city of Chicago also lays claim to the record of being the first in having more than one skyscraper building that contains more than one hundred floors. The skyscraper John Hancock building, on the other hand, boasts of a number of floors housing the condominiums. Such condominium is found between the restaurants and business floors of the buildings.

Some of Chicago’s other notable skyscrapers are the Aon Center (1,451 feet), AT&T Corporate Center (1,007 feet), the Two Prudential Bank (995 feet) and 900 N. Michigan Avenue (871 feet).

• The Skyscraper Capital of the World — It’s Not New York