When people think of skyscrapers the usually they never think of how they are structurally built or how is that they came about. Most of us are to busy admiring the size of them and despite of weight hold and do not collapse. For this we have the George Fuller to thank, he worked on fixing the problem of the “load bearing capacities” in buildings. He did that by using Henry Bessemer steel beams, a decarbonization process using a blast of air. This is when air pushed through a molten pig iron to oxidize and the impurities that are not needed are removed. Henry Fuller created steel cages that supported a significant amount of weight in buildings that had been previously thought of.
The first skyscraper that was ever built with Henry Bessemer techniques mentioned was called the Tacoma building. Designed by the architectural firm known as Holabird & Root in 1889. This building was constructed in downtown Chicago, IL on the Northeastern corner of LaSalle and Madison Streets. Although The Tacoma building was demolished in 1929 and replaced by the One North LaSalle building it initially led the way in the unique skyscraper designs that we use today. It had what people call curtain walls. Which are exterior walls hanging off the steel frame.
Skyscrapers play a big roll in our downtowns in major cities. They mesmerize us with their monstrosity . Without George Fuller the giant skyline of Chicago that many take pictures and admire today wouldn’t be possible. I think that steel cage invention singlehandedly changed the way skyscrapers are made today.
My 3D Model was a replica of Wilder Building
Notes
⦁ 1st building was Tacoma
⦁ Located: LaSalle Street and Madison Street
⦁ Downtown Chicago
⦁ Designed by the architectural firm Holabird & Roche
⦁ George Fuller worked on solving the problems of the “load bearing capacities”
⦁ Used Bessemer steel beams
⦁ Fuller created steel cages that supported all the weight
⦁ Bessemer patented a decarbonization process using blast of air
⦁ Air is blown through molten pig iron to oxidize and remove unwanted impurities.
⦁ skyscraper term was 1st used in 1880