William Holabird

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William Holabird (born September 11, 1854 in Amenia , New York , † July 19, 1923 in Evanston , Illinois ) was an American architect .

Together with Martin Roche he was a representative of the Chicago school . In the Tacoma Building (Chicago, 1886–89) they introduced the steel framework as the basis for high-rise buildings, a further development of the use of metal reinforcements in the construction of the Home Insurance Building by William Le Baron Jenney (Chicago, 1884–85).

Holabird attended West Point Military Academy , but dropped out of it in 1875 and moved to Chicago . He worked as an engineering draftsman for Jenney, then Burnham and Root . In 1880 he started his own business with Ossian C. Simonds ; however, he then turned to landscape architecture. Roche joined the company in 1881. One of the two innovations was the glass facade , as in their Marquette Building (1894, Chicago). The Gage Building (1898, Chicago), also planned by them , with a facade by Louis Sullivan , was designated a Chicago architectural landmark in 1962 . The two continued the Chicago style after the emergence of other styles, including the Republic Building (Chicago, 1905).

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