William Le Baron Jenney

William Le Baron Jenney (born September 25, 1832 in Fairhaven , Massachusetts , † June 14, 1907 in Los Angeles , California ) was an American architect and engineer , who is also regarded as the "father of the skyscraper".

Live and act

The 1885 Home Insurance Building in Chicago

The 1891 Manhattan Building on South Dearborn Street in Chicago

Jenney graduated from Phillips Academy , then attended Lawrence Scientific School at Harvard to train as an engineer. Dissatisfied with the educational standards there, he went to Europe, where he assumed the better schools, and graduated from the École Centrale Paris in 1856 . After graduating, he took a job as an engineer with a Mexican railroad company. In 1861 he returned to the United States to serve as a fortress engineer on the Union side during the Civil War . He served as a captain under General Ulysses S. Grant in Vicksburg and then on the staff of General William T. Sherman on his march to the sea. He left the army with the rank of major.

After the war, in 1867, Jenney moved to Chicago and opened his own architectural office there. In 1869, with his partner, Sanford E. Loring , he published Principles and Practice of Architecture (46 plates). His first commissions included a series of designs for parks and boulevards in Chicago. In 1878 Jenney designed the "Ladder I Building". This building, also known as the “First Ladder Building”, represents an important milestone in the history of architecture. It was the first building to combine all four elements of a modern skyscraper: a very large seven-storey high for the time load-bearing steel skeleton , fire protection measures for the entire supporting structure using terracotta molded parts and an efficient vertical transport infrastructure using the safety elevator invented by Elisha Graves Otis in 1853 .

Two years later, Jenney designed the 10-story Home Insurance Building , which was based on the same elements as the First Ladder Building and is now widely regarded as the first skyscraper . These and similar buildings, which he was to build in his further career, earned Jenney the reputation of being the "father of the skyscraper".

In 1872 Jenney became a member of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), and in 1885 he became a "Fellow". He was Vice President from 1898 to 1899.

In 1893 he designed for the World's Columbian Exposition , the Horticulture Building Horticultural Building , which was considered one of the most beautiful buildings.

From 1876 to 1880 he taught architecture at the University of Michigan . He trained numerous apprentices in his office. After three short partnerships and working as the sole architect, he entered into a partnership again in 1891 under Jenney & Mundie. In 1905 it became the Jenney, Mundie & Jensen company until Jenney's death.

His students should include the greatest of the emerging Chicago school (architecture) : William Holabird , Martin Roche, Daniel Burnham , John W. Root and, last but not least, the most famous of them, Louis Sullivan .

Web links

Commons : William Le Baron Jenney  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Biography (English)
• Head of I Building
• Biography in Visual Arts