The earliest stage of skyscraper design encompasses buildings built between 1884 and 1945, predominantly in the American cities of New York and Chicago. Cities in the United States were traditionally made up of low-rise buildings, but significant economic growth after the American Civil War and increasingly intensive use of urban land encouraged the development of taller buildings beginning in the 1870s. Technological improvements enabled the construction of fireproofed iron-framed structures with deep foundations, equipped with new inventions such as the elevator and electric lighting. These made it both technically and commercially viable to build a new class of taller buildings, the first of which, Chicago's 138-foot (42 m) tall Home Insurance Building, opened in 1885. Their numbers grew rapidly, and by 1888 they were being labelled "skyscrapers".
The Flatiron Building, New York City, shortly after its construction in 1903
The Produce Exchange of 1884 made structural advances in metal frame design.
Early skyscraper caisson foundations, 1898
Chicago's Home Insurance Building, often considered the world's first skyscraper, was completed in 1885
A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Modern sources define skyscrapers as being at least 100 meters (330 ft) or 150 meters (490 ft) in height, though there is no universally accepted definition, other than being very tall high-rise buildings. Historically, the term first referred to buildings with between 10 and 20 stories when these types of buildings began to be constructed in the 1880s. Skyscrapers may host offices, hotels, residential spaces, and retail spaces.
Completed in 2009, the Burj Khalifa, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates is currently[update] the tallest building in the world, with a height of 829.8 meters (2,722 ft). The setbacks at various heights are a typical skyscraper feature.
By some measures, what came to be known as a "skyscraper" first appeared in Chicago with the 1885 completion of the world's first largely steel-frame structure, the Home Insurance Building. It was demolished in 1931.
Built in 1864, Oriel Chambers in Liverpool is the world's first metal framed glass curtain walled building. The stone mullions are decorative.
Wainwright Building (1891) in St. Louis