By the time they received the commission for The Rookery, in 1885, the firm had already established a reputation in tall office buildings. Burnham (1846-1912) and John Wellborn Root (1850-1891) formed their partnership in 1873. The Rookery building, built in 1888 by the Chicago firm of Burnham and Root, is one of Chicago’s most important early tall office buildings. Rookery Oriel Staircase, Photography by James Caulfield Inventions such as the Otis safety elevator, first exhibited at the 1854 New York World’s Fair, ferried visitors upwards to new heights, while manufacturing advances allowed for the mass production of affordable steel for construction. At this time the city of Chicago was at the forefront of tall building design.Īfter the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, Chicago architects began to explore new construction methods and materials to build compact, tall buildings in the city’s business district, the Loop. The origins of these incredible buildings began in America at the end of the nineteenth century. Supertall structures, like the Burj Khalifa tower (Dubai, 2008) designed by the Chicago firm of SOM Architects, reach thousands of feet into the sky. Today, architects across the globe push the boundaries of materials and technology in order to design taller and taller buildings.
0 kommentar(er)
