The Monadnock Building is a 16-story skyscraper located at 53 West Jackson Boulevard in the south Loop area of Chicago. The north half of the building was designed by the firm of Burnham & Root and built starting in 1891. At 215 feet, it is the tallest load-bearing brick building ever constructed. It employed the first portal system of wind bracing in the United States. Its decorative staircases represent the first structural use of aluminum in building construction. The later south half, constructed in 1893, was designed by Holabird & Roche and is similar in color and profile to the original, but the design is more traditionally ornate. When completed, it was the largest office building in the world. The success of the building was the catalyst for an important new business center at the southern end of the Loop.
Building seen from Dearborn Street in 2005. The north half in the foreground is the earliest section (1891).
1885 sketch of preliminary design showing a smaller, more ornate building with Egyptian-style detailing
Sketch of vastly simplified 1889 design, abolishing ornamentation entirely in favor of plain contoured brick
The decorative cast aluminum staircases, shown here in 1893, were the first use of aluminum in building construction.
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