ions to support the structure (Wiseman 75). Indeed, pioneering modernist architect Louis H. Sullivan proclaimed in 1896 that a tall building, which would signify the very future, was meant to be a "proud and soaring thing" (Wiseman 74) that would dominate cities.
Although the skyscraper is normally associated with the New York City skyline, Sullivan's city was Chicago. The so-called "Chicago School" is the name given to the commercial-architecture style of buildings constructed in and around Loop (downtown Chicago) in the years following the famous fire in the last part of the nineteenth century. It was in Chicago, indeed, that the first skyscraper so-called rose in 1885, the Home Insurance Company Building, designed by William Le Baron Jenney. At nine stories, it was constructed almost entirely of metal, beginning with a cast-iron-column frame and wrought-iron beams overlaid by brick or clay-tile sheath to protect against fire. The Home Insurance building marked the first significant use of steel in construction and proved that masonry could be used
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