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Skyscraper
HISTORY & CULTURESbeginner
Definition
A very tall multi-storey building, typically with a steel or reinforced concrete frame, made possible by the invention of the passenger lift (elevator) in the 1850s and the development of iron and steel framing. The skyscraper typology originated in Chicago in the 1880s and has come to define the urban skyline.
Example
The Home Insurance Building in Chicago by William Le Baron Jenney (1885) is often credited as the first skyscraper — a 10-storey building with an iron and steel frame that transferred loads away from load-bearing masonry walls.