The Home Insurance Building was built in 1884 in Chicago, Illinois, USA and destroyed in 1931 to make way for the Field Building (now the LaSalle National Bank Building). It was the first building to use structural steel in its frame, but the majority of its structure was composed of cast and wrought iron. It is generally noted as the first tall building to be supported, both inside and outside, by a fireproof metal frame.[2] Although the Ditherington Flax Mill, also a fireproof-metal-framed building, was built earlier, it was only five stories tall.[3]
Due to the Chicago building's unique architecture and unique weight-bearing frame, it is considered the first skyscraper in the world;[4] however, it was never the tallest building in the world or Chicago. It had 10 stories and rose to a height of 42 m (138 feet).[5] In 1890, two additional floors were built on top of the original 10-story building. A forensic analysis done during its demolition purported to show that the building was the first to carry both floors and external walls entirely on its metal frame, but details and later scholarship have arguably disproved this, and it has been asserted that the structure must have relied upon both metal and masonry elements to support its weight, and to hold it up against wind. Although the Home Insurance Building made full use of steel framing technology, in this theory it was not a pure steel-framed structure since it rested partly on granite piers at the base and on a rear brick wall.
