Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "Skyscraper" in English language version.
"In my view, we can no longer argue that the Home Insurance Building was the first skyscraper," says Carl W. Condit, now retired from Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., and author of several books on Chicago architecture. "The claim rests on an unacceptably narrow idea of what constitutes a high-rise commercial building," he says. "If there is a building in which all these technical factors—structural system, elevator, utilities—converge at the requisite level of maturity," argues Condit, "it's the Equitable Life Assurance Building in New York." Completed in 1870, the building rose 7½ stories, twice the height of its neighbors.
The word skyscraper, in its architectural context, was first applied to the Home Insurance Building, completed in Chicago in 1885.
Skyscraper, very tall, multistoried building. The name first came into use during the 1880s, shortly after the first skyscrapers were built, in the United States. The development of skyscrapers came as a result of the coincidence of several technological and social developments. The term skyscraper originally applied to buildings of 10 to 20 stories, but by the late 20th century the term was used to describe high-rise buildings of unusual height, generally greater than 40 or 50 stories.
In the annals of the American skyscraper there was, perhaps, nothing more daring than John McArthur, Jr.'s design for the Jayne Granite building, erected on lower Chestnut Street near the Philadelphia riverfront, just a century ago (FIG. 2). More than a generation older than the celebrated works of Louis Sullivan in Chicago and St. Louis. [..] Sullivan was for several months a cub draftsman in Furness and Hewitt's office just across the street. Although he does not seem to have mentioned in his writings Dr. Jayne's "proud and soaring" patent medicine headquarters, we may well wonder if some of the famous skyscraper designs of Chicago and St. Louis do not owe a real debt to Philadelphia.
"In my view, we can no longer argue that the Home Insurance Building was the first skyscraper," says Carl W. Condit, now retired from Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., and author of several books on Chicago architecture. "The claim rests on an unacceptably narrow idea of what constitutes a high-rise commercial building," he says. "If there is a building in which all these technical factors—structural system, elevator, utilities—converge at the requisite level of maturity," argues Condit, "it's the Equitable Life Assurance Building in New York." Completed in 1870, the building rose 7½ stories, twice the height of its neighbors.
In the annals of the American skyscraper there was, perhaps, nothing more daring than John McArthur, Jr.'s design for the Jayne Granite building, erected on lower Chestnut Street near the Philadelphia riverfront, just a century ago (FIG. 2). More than a generation older than the celebrated works of Louis Sullivan in Chicago and St. Louis. [..] Sullivan was for several months a cub draftsman in Furness and Hewitt's office just across the street. Although he does not seem to have mentioned in his writings Dr. Jayne's "proud and soaring" patent medicine headquarters, we may well wonder if some of the famous skyscraper designs of Chicago and St. Louis do not owe a real debt to Philadelphia.
No one is certain which was the first true skyscraper, but Chicago's ten-story Home Insurance Building (1885) is a top contender.
The thirteen-story Tower Building (1889) just down the avenue at 50 Broadway, was the first New York skyscraper to use skeletal steel construction.
Mies van der Rohe, one of the great figures of 20th-century architecture.
...their eleventh proper skyscraper, that is by definition buildings above 150 metres
No one is certain which was the first true skyscraper, but Chicago's ten-story Home Insurance Building (1885) is a top contender.
The thirteen-story Tower Building (1889) just down the avenue at 50 Broadway, was the first New York skyscraper to use skeletal steel construction.
...their eleventh proper skyscraper, that is by definition buildings above 150 metres
