The American Skyscraper: Transforming Chicago and the Nation

FAIN: BH-50321-09

Chicago Architecture Foundation (Chicago, IL 60604-2505)
Jean Linsner (Project Director: March 2009 to June 2011)

Two one-week Landmarks workshops for eighty school teachers on the development of the skyscraper in Chicago and the relationship of such buildings to urbanization.

The tall building gives American urban centers distinctive character. In every major city, the skyscraper defines the physical landscape and shapes land use. High-rise construction highlights the role of innovation in architecture and infrastructure across the United States and the world. Chicago's history as a center for the development of the skyscraper from the late nineteenth through mid-twentieth centuries positions the city as the ideal place to explore the tall building's relationship to urbanization.