Architecture and The Great Chicago Fire

A Currier and Ives lithograph showing the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. From the Chicago History Museum

An incredibly destructive fire that artists processed through sculptures, lithographs, and paintings. This fire had a profound impact on literature and many books and movies were made about the fire. However the biggest artistic influence the Chicago Fire caused was in architecture.

Immediately after the fire many people rebuilt structures the way they were familiar with, mostly wooden 4 story buildings with some concrete. These newly built buildings had to adhere to a more strict fire code than before. The clearing out of old buildings left room for new growth in architectural style. The reconstruction and Chicago's meat processing and steel production were so successful that they brought many new people to the city. This resulted in a land rush that resulted in the city beginning to experiment with skyscrapers.

Now briefly, skyscrapers weren't a popular building style before because the structural style of the time was to have outer walls bear the weight. Therefore to build a taller building the walls had to increase in thickness. Also the water pressure often wasn't strong enough to go up past the 6th floor in most places. Then in 1864 Peter Ellis designed Oriel Chambers in England, the first building to be mostly made of iron and glass, a precursor to the modern skyscraper. This helped lead more to experiment with an iron frame in order to increase height of buildings.

Ok back to Chicago. William LeBaron Jenney was commissioned by the New York based Home Insurance Company to create a tall building that was fireproof. Jenney designed a structure with a steel frame which allowed the building to be tall and have more windows. This is considered to be the first skyscraper completed in 1884. The skyscraper began to get more and more popular and is now an important part of many city skylines.

The first skyscraper, The Home Insurance Building created by William Le Baron Jenny in 1884. Picture from History.com

Works cited:

“Memories of the Chicago Fire in 1871.” Terra Foundation for American Art, www.terraamericanart.org/learning/art-study-memories-of-the-chicago-fire-in-1871/.

“Buildings of Chicago.” Chicago Architecture Center - CAC, 2018, www.architecture.org/learn/resources/buildings-of-chicago/.

“Early Skyscrapers - Construction of First Skyscrapers.” List of Skyscrapers – Early Skyscrapers in Chronological Order of Construction, www.historyofskyscrapers.com/skyscraper-history/first-skyscraper/.