Manhattan Building

building, Chicago, Illinois, United States

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June 30, 2026

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The Manhattan Building, completed in 1891 in Chicago, Illinois, was a pioneering skyscraper designed by William Le Baron Jenney. It was notable for being the first 16-story structure and for incorporating vertical truss bracing to resist wind forces, a significant advancement in high-rise construction. This building was part of the development of steel-frame architecture in Chicago, a city that led the way in creating taller buildings due to rising land values. The use of steel frames, along with innovations in foundations like caissons, allowed for the construction of these massive structures on Chicago's challenging soil conditions.123

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bay window
An interesting example is Jenney’s Manhattan Building (Chicago, 1890), which displays both polygonal bay windows and bow windows.
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An interesting example is Jenney’s Manhattan Building (Chicago, 1890), which displays both polygonal bay windows and bow windows.
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William Le Baron Jenney
…buildings in Chicago are the Manhattan Building (1889–90), said to be the first 16-story structure in the world and the first in which wind bracing was a principal aspect of the design; the Ludington Building (1891); the Fair Store (1891–92; later remodelled as the Loop store of Montgomery Ward); and…
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…buildings in Chicago are the Manhattan Building (1889–90), said to be the first 16-story structure in the world and the first in which wind bracing was a principal aspect of the design; the Ludington Building (1891); the Fair Store (1891–92; later remodelled as the Loop store of Montgomery Ward); and…
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construction
Early steel-frame high-rises
Jenney’s Manhattan Building (1891) had the first vertical truss bracing to resist wind forces; rigid frame or portal wind bracing was first used in the neighboring Old Colony Building (1893) by the architects William Holabird and Martin Roche. The all-steel frame finally appeared in Jenney’s Ludington…
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Jenney’s Manhattan Building (1891) had the first vertical truss bracing to resist wind forces; rigid frame or portal wind bracing was first used in the neighboring Old Colony Building (1893) by the architects William Holabird and Martin Roche. The all-steel frame finally appeared in Jenney’s Ludington…
Read More