Developments in Tall Steel Buildings

Dr. N. Subramanian, Consulting Engineer, Gaithersburg, MD 20878, USA

Introduction

World's first tall, steel framed building is the 10-storey, 42 m tall The Home Insurance Building, which was built in Chicago (Fig.1), Illinois, USA during 1884. It was designed by engineer William Le Baron Jenney. In 1890, two additional floors were added, increasing its height to 54.9 m. It was the tallest building in the world from 1884 to 1889 and was demolished 47 years later in 1931 to make way for another skyscraper, the Field Building (now known as the LaSalle Bank Building). In addition to being the first of a new generation of steel-framed skyscrapers built in the world, the building set the standard for various other building innovations, including rapid, safe elevators, wind bracing and modern plumbing (www.history.com). It has to be noted that this building relied on its masonry cladding for stability-the iron columns were merely embedded in the walls, and their load carrying capacity was considered to be secondary to the capacity of the masonry, particularly for wind loads.

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