William Le Baron Jenney
1889
| Jenney's Home Insurance Building, 1885, (demolished in 1931) was one of the first buildings to use steel-frame construction and was thus a precursor to the modern skyscraper. Here the simple proportions and blocky shape reflect the steel frame underneath; in addition, windows are larger than was possible in a masonry building. Jenney used a heavy plain entablature, corner piers that seem like pilasters, and piers which separate the bays--the only decoration being the small capitals which form their tops. | |
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