Location Chicago, Illinois Architectural style Skyscraper Designated CL July 7, 1978 Opened September 1891 Added to NRHP 16 March 1976 | Built 1888 NRHP Reference # 76000697 Height 52 m Phone +1 312-922-1117 Architect William Le Baron Jenney | |
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Address 431 S Dearborn St, Chicago, IL 60605, USA Similar Gage Group Buildings, Fisher Building, Old Colony Buildings, New York Life Insurance, Heyworth Building | ||
The Manhattan Building is a 16-story building at 431 South Dearborn Street in Chicago, Illinois. It was designed by architect William Le Baron Jenney and constructed from 1889 to 1891. It is the oldest surviving skyscraper in the world to use a purely skeletal supporting structure. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on March 16, 1976, and designated a Chicago Landmark on July 7, 1978.
Architecture
The distinctive bow windows provide light into the building's interior spaces, and the combination of a granite facade for the lower floors and brick facade for the upper stories helps lighten the load placed on the internal steel framework. The north and south walls of tile are supported on steel cantilevers that carry the load back to the internal supporting structure.
The versatility and strength of metal frame construction made the skyscraper possible, as evidenced by this structure, which reached the then-astounding height of 16 stories in 1891. Its architect was a pioneer in the development of tall buildings.