Quote:
Originally Posted by edale
My initial reaction was "what's so special about Chicago's collection of pre-war skyscrapers?" because lots of other cities have historic skyscrapers that are even more notable than the ones listed here. Detroit comes to mind, specifically. However, when digging in a little further, it's pretty remarkable that all these buildings are from before 1900. That's significantly older than Detroit's famous skyscrapers, and ones that come to mind for Cincinnati, SF, Pittsburgh.
|
The buildings listed aren't necessarily the most famous Chicago skyscrapers, but IMO they should become more recognized among the most famous. Of course skyscraper nerds are probably more or less aware of half of them.
A NY vs Chicago comparison that I read on wikipedia recently really intrigued me:
Quote:
|
By 1893, Chicago had built 12 skyscrapers between 16 and 20 stories tall, tightly clustered in the center of the financial district. In comparison, New York trailed behind Chicago, having only four buildings over 16 stories tall by 1893.
|
I have started to compile a list of existing skyscrapers built before 1900 just because I am really interested in this. In this process, I've found a few things I'd like to share.
First, there's a really amazing "Bird's eye view" map of Chicago from 1898 that you can look at in pretty amazing detail here:
https://www.loc.gov/resource/g4104c....,0.247,0.158,0
It gives you a great sense of the scale of the city at the time and the impact of these skyscrapers.
Also, I just
ordered a book titled, "The Structure of Skyscrapers in America, 1871–1900; Their History and Preservation" By Donald Friedman.
Quote:
In this long-awaited book, award-winning author Donald Friedman presents an illustrated history of the development of the structure of skyscrapers during the last quarter of the nineteenth century. In the first 190 pages, he details the context for the emergence of this new building type and thoroughly explains the cutting-edge technology of construction. Preservation problems are examined in depth.
A separate 200-page section provides construction dates and images for every known building taller than nine stories erected in the United States between 1871 and 1900—a total of 443 individual buildings, both extant and demolished, in 36 cities all across the country, from Boston and New York to San Francisco.
|
I'm sure I'll share some tidbits here when I receive it including a presumably complete list of the extant ones.