Manhattan Building, Chicago

After the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 turned downtown into a giant bonfire of hopes and timber, a curious thing happened: architects flocked to the smoldering ruins like bees to a blueprint. Why? Well, it was a designer’s dream—no pesky rules, endless demand, and a wide-open playing field. As the ashes were still warm, a certain William Le Baron Jenney stepped up, rolled up his sleeves, and quietly began inventing the future.

Now, Jenney wasn’t just some guy with a drawing board—he was the grand architect-dad of the Chicago School. His genius move was ditching the massive stone walls and using an internal steel skeleton to hold up the building instead. It was revolutionary, it was bold... and sadly, his 1885 Home Insurance Building—the so-called first skyscraper—no longer graces the skyline. But despair not, architectural fans! His Manhattan Building of 1891 still stands tall and proud, like an elderly titan flexing its bones of steel.

Back in the day, people called it “Hercules” when they saw it at the 1893 World’s Fair—and not without reason. This beauty was the first tall building to go full skeleton-mode, the first U.S. structure to hit sixteen stories, and even enjoyed a brief moment as the tallest building on Earth. It also introduced fancy new wind bracing—because even Hercules needs help standing up in Chicago’s famous gusts. The bay windows—smart move. Granite on the bottom, brick on top—even smarter. Cantilevered bays, so the neighboring buildings didn’t crumble—the smartest.

In short, the Manhattan Building wasn’t just ahead of its time—it practically invented it.