Architect and architectural philosopher Louis Sullivan (upper left) was the first to recognize the new form of architecture, discarding historical precedent and emphasizing verticality. Jenney, Burnham, and Sullivan developed the Chicago School, which is also known as the Commercial Style.
Chicago School skyscrapers feature steel-frame construction with masonry cladding, usually terra cotta. Most are based on the model of a column, with the first floor as a base, simpler middle floors as the shaft, topped by a more ornamental capital and cornice.
They use large areas of plate glass, often in a three-part design consisting of a large fixed center panel flanked by smaller double-hung sash windows. The effect is a grid pattern and allows for both light and ventilation.
Daniel Burnham (center left), with his partners John Welborn Root and Charles Atwood, designed the Reliance Building (lower left), a prime example of the technically advanced steel frame with glass and terra cotta of the mid-1890s.
But Sullivan accused Burnham of setting architecture back two decades as the leader of the group that designed the “White City,” site of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. Though the building techniques were modern, their decoration led to a neoclassical revival in Chicago which spread to the entire country.
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