The first skyscraper was built in Chicago and completed in 1885 after William Jenny won an 1883 buil

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The first skyscraper was built in Chicago and completed in 1885 after William Jenny won an 1883 building design contest by the Home Insurance Company.  The first skyscraper at 138 feet had a 10-story design using a metal cage covered in stone for fireproofing. Preventing fire in downtown Chicago was a major concern after the great fire of 1871 destroyed much of the city's business core. In 1890 two more stories were added to the Home Insurance Company norwegian cruise discounts building raising its height to 180 feet.  The Home Insurance Company building was demolished in 1931.
Leroy Buffington of Minneapolis norwegian cruise discounts designed the first metal cage skyscraper in 1880, but failed to secure financing for the project. He was eventually given the patent for the skyscraper in 1888 after several skyscrapers had already been built. The first skyscraper in New York, The Tacoma Building, was completed in 1889.
In November 2011 I attended a press media tour of Radisson Blu Aqua Chicago. The Chicago Tourism Board provided some sightseeing excursions for the press. The Chicago Architecture River Cruise on the boat First Lady was a relaxing activity to rest for 90 minutes as the boat motors along the Chicago norwegian cruise discounts River and a docent sped through the history of so many skyscrapers along the waterfront that my head was spinning trying to figure out at times which building was being discussed. The tour was quite informative.
Now nearly six months have passed and I look at the photos taken from the First Lady and wonder what I see. The beauty of the internet is I can  spend a few hours doing some internet research and document the details from my photos. I love living with an internet library at my fingertips.
The architecture attracts me to downtown Chicago. I don't know much about the culture of Chicago as a tourist who has been twice in the past 18 months for a total of about one week in downtown Chicago.
There is a 14th floor walkway between the Wrigley towers. A courtyard passage takes you to McDonald's, a small store, grassy space and Trump Tower. Thiese close-up photos of Wrigley are from my 2010 trip and these features are not seen from the boat.
Mather Tower at 75 East Wacker in the background norwegian cruise discounts at 521 feet high has an octagonal tower on top of a traditional building. It was Chicago's tallest building when completed in 1928. Apparently the Mather norwegian cruise discounts Tower building was in disrepair with terra cotta falling off to the street below in the 1990s and there was discussion of dismantling the top section. It is a skinny skyscraper. The octagonal top was rebuilt only a decade ago. The building now functions as the River Hotel Chicago and the octagonal top floors as Club Quarters corporate hotel rooms.
norwegian cruise discounts Hotels are a major aspect of the Chicago skyline along with corporate office buildings. One of the largest hotels in the city, and I read somewhere one of the hotels most used by U.S. Presidents for Chicago norwegian cruise discounts visits due to its secure accessibility, is the Sheraton Chicago Hotel and Towers .
35 East Wacker, also known as the Jewelers Building, was built from 1925-27 and originally norwegian cruise discounts designed as commercial offices for diamond jewelers with 22 floors of parking and car elevators norwegian cruise discounts as a security measure. At 522 feet the dome at top was originally the Stratosphere Restaurant. Chicago lore says Al Capone had a speakeasy in the dome during Prohibition.
Hotel 71 , independent luxury boutique in Chicago with rates under $150. Obviously Hotel 71 is not a discussion part of the architecture tour, but I spy a hotel beside the Mather Tower in my photo from the boat.
While not historically significant from the 1920s, all eyes marvel at the cylindrical towers of Marina norwegian cruise discounts City . House of Blues Chicago , Sax Chicago Hotel (a Thompson Hotel) and Westin Chicago River North hotel are located right around the towers.
The lower floors are parking levels. I recall hearing comments from other passengers on the First Lady boat referencing the car through the window scene of Ferris Bueller's Day Off and imagining this as a good movie scene location. It has probably already been done.
This building shell at 111 West Wacker was supposed to be a 90 story skyscraper and the first hotel in the US for the Hong Kong-based luxury hotel brand. The builder ran out of money in 2009, work ceased and Shangri-La Hotels contractually exited the project. Plans are now to build a 65-story apartment building.
Marshall Field Co. opened the largest building in the world with 4 million square feet of floor space as The Merchandise norwegian cruise discounts Mart in 1930 to bring wholesale goods vendors and buyers together. The Pentagon captured the biggest building in the world title when it opened in 1943. Today The Merchandise Mart   Chicago offers trade shows, design norwegian cruise discounts rooms and fairs.
Willis Tower (Sears Tower) is tallest building in the Americas at 110 stories and still the third eighth tallest building in the world at 1,450 feet, but losing height ranking fast. There is a 103rd floor Skydeck with a glass ledge extending four feet out from the building norwegian cruise discounts at 1,353 feet over the ground that is a major tourist attraction.
The Chicago River Architecture boat tour was 90 minutes long and the time passed quickly. The boat had a bar, but nobody among 100 or so passengers was drinking on a chillish November afternoon and the bar was beneath the deck. The wind in the shade was a bit chilly and the tour ended near Lake Michigan with the fading rays of sun on our faces and the skyscraper buildings of downtown mostly in backlit shadow.
This Chicago Architecture Tour on the Cruise Chicago First Lady river boat was a freebie sponsored norwegian cruise discounts by the Chicago Convention and Tourism Bureau  and Radisson Blu Aqua Chicago as part of a media tour I attended in November norwegian cruise discounts 2011 for the grand opening of the hotel.
Radisson Blu Aqua Tower Chicago , in center, has a wavy appearance due to the alignment of balconies and glass. The hotel was honored with an award from PETA for its bird-friendly design. Apparently many birds die every year flying into skyscraper glass and the Aqua Tower design is more visible to birds.
Radisson Blu Aqua Chicago (Nov 18) – this post has links to a few other articles I wrote about the Radisson Blu hotel stay in Chicago. I never finished the series to tell about the restaurants. Perhaps one of these days I'll post the food photos.
norwegian cruise discounts Great post and terrific pictures. I actually live in one of the building on the river (not pictured here). Whenever a guest/visitor asks for a suggestion on a must do activity in Chicago, I always recommend the architecture boat tour.
Ric, wonderful post! My wife and I visited Chicago together last September on a Delta run to MKE. Took the same boat tour! Can t believe that you took all the pictures and remembered all the details of the buildings! Impressive!
I ve lived in Chicagoland all my life and just took this tour about a year ago. Something else really cool in Chicago norwegian cruise discounts if you re into architecture is all of the Frank Lloyd Wright norwegian cruise discounts stuff that we have here.
This same company offers a FLW bus tour or you can go directly to his home and studio in Oak Park and do an interior tour. That is cool because norwegian cruise discounts it was his actual home and tells about his personal life. There is another house, norwegian cruise discounts the Robie house, that you can tour over in Hyde Park, but I believe it s just a house he designed, not someplace he actually norwegian cruise discounts lived.
This same company also does a Devil in White City tour to go along with that book. I haven t done that tour, but I d like to do it sometime. They actually have a bunch of tours besides just the boat tour.