barwickmWhite

Visit The Learning Site! www.harcourtschool.com

Copyright © by Harcourt, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage

and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Requests for permission to make copies of any part of the work should be addressed to School Permissions and Copyrights, Harcourt, Inc., 6277 Sea Harbor Drive, Orlando, Florida 32887-6777.

Fax: 407-345-2418.

HARCOURT and the Harcourt Logo are trademarks of Harcourt, Inc., registered in the United States of America and/or other jurisdictions.

Printed in the United States of America

ISBN-13: 978-0-15-352862-0ISBN-10: 0-15-352862-1

If you have received these materials as examination copies free of charge, Harcourt School Publishers retains title to the materials and they may not be resold. Resale of examination copies is strictly prohibited and is illegal.

Possession of this publication in print format does not entitle users to convert this publication, or any portion of it, into electronic format.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 179 11 10 09 08 07 06

Chicago:Birthplace ofSkyscrapers

barwickmBlue

The Fire RagesThe Great Chicago Fire of 1871 was one of the biggest

disasters in the history of the United States. However, this disaster helped bring about a change in the way cities are built. Chicago became the birthplace of the skyscraper.

Wooden Buildings, Dry WeatherIn the late 1800s, Chicago was known as the lumber capital

of the world. Houses, factories, and other buildings were made of wood. So were some streets and even sidewalks.

During the fall of 1871, Chicago’s weather was warmer and drier than usual. Not much rain fell, and gusting winds blew in from the surrounding prairie. The fire began on Sunday night, October 8. Fueled by strong winds, it spread quickly. Eventually, the fire devoured much of the city.

�

The Chicago Fire spread quickly.

barwickmBlue

barwickmBlue

barwickmBlue

barwickmBlue

�

Is a Cow to Blame?Historians do not know

exactly what caused the fire. According to Chicago legend, the fire started when a cow kicked over a lantern in Patrick and Catherine O’Leary’s barn. The legend is still popular today, even though the reporter who first told the story later admitted he made it up!

A City in RuinsBy the time the fire stopped burning, the city had suffered

enormous losses. The fire killed about 300 people. Another 90,000 people were homeless. The fire caused more than $200 million in damage—a huge amount of money at the time. It destroyed 18,000 buildings and left at least one-third of the city in ruins.

The people of Chicago worked hard to recover from the devastation. Before the fire, 344,000 people lived in Chicago. By 1880, the city had grown into a bigger and better place, with more than 500,000 people.

The once busy intersection of Clark and Madison Streets after the fire

The Water Tower SurvivesThe Chicago Water Tower is one of the few downtown buildings that survived the Great Chicago Fire. Today, it stands next to the 100-story John Hancock Center, Chicago’s second-tallest skyscraper. The Water Tower is now Chicago’s downtown visitor’s center.

barwickmBlue

barwickmBlue

barwickmBlue

barwickmBlue

barwickmBlue

�

Chicago’s Early SkyscrapersMany skilled architects helped rebuild Chicago. The fire

cleared out older buildings. It allowed architects to introduce taller buildings, using new methods of construction. Today, Chicago has two skyscrapers that each have 100 stories. Both are more than 1,000 feet high. During the 1880s, the word skyscraper was used to describe the first buildings that had 10 or more stories. Chicago’s first skyscraper, the Home Insurance Building, was 138 feet high.

Home Insurance BuildingBefore the Great

Chicago Fire, most wood and brick buildings were not sturdy enough to sup-port more than five stories. In 1885, William Le Baron Jenney used a strong metal frame to build the ten-story Home Insurance Building. The frame was made of steel columns and beams. It allowed Jenney to make the walls thinner and the windows larger. In 1890, two more stories were added to the building.

The Home Insurance Building

barwickmBlue

barwickmBlue

barwickmBlue

�

The Home Insurance Building was demolished in 1931. However, two other early Chicago skyscrapers are still standing. The two are Daniel Burnham’s Reliance Building and Louis Sullivan’s Carson Pirie Scott Building.

Reliance Building The Reliance Building was

completed in 1895. The 15-story skyscraper is surrounded by a kind of large glass window called a Chicago window. Many believe that Burnham’s Reliance Building inspired the design of modern glass-and-steel skyscrapers.

Carson Pirie Scott BuildingThe Carson Pirie Scott Building

is 14 stories tall. Today, visitors still enjoy the spectacular iron artwork that surrounds the first floor entrance. The rest of the building’s exterior is decorated with terra-cotta tiles. Terra-cotta is a type of fireproof clay. It was used to decorate many of Chicago’s early skyscrapers.

Louis Sullivan used spectacular iron artwork to decorate the Carson Pirie Scott Building.

Large windows surround the outside of the Reliance Building.

barwickmBlue

barwickmBlue

barwickmBlue

barwickmBlue

barwickmBlue

�

How to Build SkyscrapersChicago’s early skyscrapers took several years to complete.

They were carefully planned and built, one part at a time. The part below the ground is called the foundation. The part above the ground is called the superstructure.

FoundationThe underground foundation has to be deep enough to

keep skyscrapers from sinking into the ground. The stability of the ground is measured by a test called a survey. The founda-tions of Chicago’s earliest skyscrapers were usually one or two stories deep. As taller skyscrapers were built, foundations were dug deeper.

The foundations of early skyscrapers were made of steel columns driven into the ground. A pad, called a footing, was placed under each column for extra support.

Building a Skyscraper

Steel Column

Elevator Shaft

Steel Beam

Footing

Supe

rstr

uctu

reFo

unda

tion

barwickmBlue

barwickmBlue

barwickmBlue

barwickmBlue

barwickmBlue

barwickmBlue

barwickmBlue

barwickmBlue

barwickmBlue

barwickmBlue

�

SuperstructureThe first skyscrapers were built for comfort as well as

stability. They included the latest heating and plumbing improvements. After 1900, some skyscrapers even had early air-conditioning systems.

The elevator was one of the most important new inventions installed in early skyscrapers. Without the elevator, people would have had to climb many stairs. Even so, people worried about the safety of early elevators. Elisha Otis of New York introduced his new elevator at the World’s Fair in 1853. During the dem-onstration, an assistant cut the elevator’s cable. The crowd was amazed as Otis’s new braking feature kept him from falling.

In 1887, the first electric elevators were installed in Chicago skyscrapers. Electric elevators gave smoother and faster rides than earlier steam-powered elevators from the 1860s.

Elisha Otis rides the platform on his new safety elevator at the 1853 World’s Fair.

barwickmBlue

barwickmBlue

barwickmBlue

barwickmBlue

Cities in the SkyMany of today’s skyscrapers are so gigantic that they are

as big as some cities. People live, work, shop, and play in them. In fact, Chicago’s John Hancock Center and the Sears Tower have their own post offices and zip codes.

The John Hancock Center and the Sears Tower also have their own banks, restaurants, doctors, and police. The John Hancock Center even has a museum and a broadcast station.

John Hancock CenterWhen the John Hancock Center was

completed in 1969, it was the first building that was 100 stories tall. It was also the fourth building more than 1,000 feet tall. Today, there are more than 700 separate apartments in the John Hancock Center. The John Hancock Center is home to 1,500 people. Another 3,500 people work there.

The highest swimming pool in the world is in the John Hancock Center.

�

John Hancock Center

barwickmBlue

barwickmBlue

barwickmBlue

barwickmBlue

barwickmBlue

The Chicago skyline

People can move up and down inside the skyscraper, using special high-speed elevators. In fact, some of the build-ing’s elevators move at about 2,000 feet per minute. The John Hancock Center has a total of 50 elevators!

The John Hancock Center is so big that it has two lobbies. One lobby is on the ground floor. The other lobby is on the forty-fourth floor. A grocery store, a swim-ming pool, and a restaurant area are also on this floor. The skyscraper’s living spaces are located above the forty-fourth floor. Business offices are located below the forty-fourth floor.

The first six floors are for shopping. A heated parking garage occupies floors 6 through 12. On top of the building are a broadcasting station, a weather center, and an obser-vation deck. Every year, 500,000 people visit the observation deck. It is located on the ninety-fourth floor. When the sky is clear, visitors can see up to 80 miles away.

�

Sears Tower

barwickmBlue

barwickmBlue

barwickmBlue

barwickmBlue

barwickmBlue

10

Windy CityChicago is often called the

Windy City. Visitors can feel the windy conditions at 1,000 feet on the John Hancock Center’s skywalk. The skywalk is an observation deck that has screened windows.

On a normal day, a tall skyscraper can sway back and forth several feet. That swaying can bother people living and working on the upper stories. In high winds, a skyscraper can suffer serious damage.

Wind and Earthquake ProtectionComputer systems track the winds and movement of

the tallest skyscrapers. Some buildings have a counterweight attached to an upper floor or the foundation. The weight is called a mass damper. Computers automatically move the mass damper to reduce any swaying. The mass damper can also counter the vibrations from an earthquake.

People look down on Chicago’s skyscrapers from the John Hancock Center.

Windy City?The nickname Windy City is somewhat misleading. According to the National Weather Service, Chicago is usually not one of the nation’s windiest cities. Some people believe that the nickname refers to the loud boasting of Chicagoans who wanted to host the World’s Fair of 1893.

barwickmBlue

barwickmBlue

barwickmBlue

barwickmBlue

barwickmBlue

The Tube SystemAn engineer named Dr. Fazlur Khan designed a new

type of steel frame to protect the John Hancock Center from Chicago’s winds. Dr. Khan’s design is called the tube system because he used a frame shaped like a hollow tube.

Dr. Khan did not place any support beams across the inside of the steel frame, as in most other skyscrapers. Instead, steel braces were attached diagonally in a cross pattern to the outside of the building. This design left more space inside the building. The braces also added to the John Hancock Center’s visual appear-ance. Even though the cross braces block two windows on each floor, people don’t mind living and working in the obstructed rooms.

The skyscraper’s founda- tion uses hundreds of steel columns. Instead of anchoring the building in the middle of the foundation, Dr. Khan arranged the huge steel piles around the skyscraper’s outside walls.

The cross beams on the John Hancock Center’s exterior strengthen the building’s frame.

11

barwickmBlue

barwickmBlue

barwickmBlue

barwickmBlue

High Wire ActThe Sears Tower has 43,000 miles of telephone cable. If stretched out, that cable would go around Earth one and one-half times.

Sears TowerDr. Khan also worked on the 110-story

Sears Tower. He built it by combining nine tube-shaped frames. This gives the Sears Tower its distinctive architecture. Instead of resembling the boxlike shape of other sky-scrapers, the nine sections of the Sears Tower rise to different heights.

The Sears Tower is 1,451 feet tall. It is more than 300 feet higher than the John Hancock Center. When the Sears Tower was completed in 1974, it was the world’s tallest skyscraper. Today, it is still North America’s tallest skyscraper.

Sears Tower FactsAbout 12,000 people live in the Sears

Tower. Another 25,000 people enter the Sears Tower every day. Each year, 1.5 million people visit the observation deck. The Sears Tower must use the latest computer technology to provide basic electricity, heat, and water to all those people.

1�

Telephone wires

barwickmBlue

barwickmBlue

barwickmBlue

barwickmBlue

barwickmBlue

The Sears Tower has its own power station to supply electricity.

The skyscraper has its own power station. It supplies electric-ity through 1,500 miles of wires. The building also has two backup machines called generators. The generators provide electricity during emergencies.

Heating and air conditioning systems keep the temperatures stable in the Sears Tower. Even in Chicago’s cold winters, the tem-perature inside will not vary much. The air also passes through special filters to keep it fresh.

The building has its own water pumping system, with 25 miles of pipes. The pumping system must carry the water up and down the skyscraper. The Sears Tower also stores 40,000 gallons of water for its fire sprinkler systems.

The Sears Tower even has six automatic window-washing robots attached to the roof. The robots move on tracks on the outside of the skyscraper. They clean all 16,100 windows on the Sears Tower.

13

barwickmBlue

barwickmBlue

barwickmBlue

barwickmBlue

barwickmBlue

1�

Other Notable Skyscrapers In recent years, architects from around the world have

continued to reach for the skies. Two skyscrapers are now taller than the Sears Tower.

The Petronas TowersIn 1998, the Petronas Towers in Malaysia became the

world’s tallest skyscraper. The top floor in the Sears Tower is 200 feet taller than the top floor in the Petronas Towers. However, the decorative towers on top of the Petronas Towers reach 32 feet higher than the very top of the Sears Tower.

Taipei 101, the World’s Tallest BuildingThe world’s tallest building is the Taipei 101. This high-tech

wonder is located in Taipei, the capital of Taiwan. Measuring 1,670 feet, it was completed in 2004. It also boasts the world’s fastest elevator, which zips along at 37.5 miles per hour. A mass damper steadies the building during earthquakes and typhoons.

Skyscrapers Then and Now

Home InsuranceBuilding

1885138 feet

Reliance Building

1890202 feet

Carson Pirie Scott Building

1903207 feet

John Hancock Center 1969

1,127 feet

Sears Tower1974

1,451 feet

Petronas Towers1998

1,483 feet

Taipei 1012003

1,670 feet

barwickmBlue

barwickmBlue

barwickmBlue

barwickmBlue

barwickmBlue

barwickmBlue

barwickmBlue

barwickmBlue

barwickmBlue

barwickmBlue

barwickmBlue

What’s Next?In 1956, Frank Lloyd Wright, a

famous Chicago architect, designed a plan for a mile-high skyscraper. He called the 528-story building The Illinois. Wright’s design was supposed to house the entire Illinois state government. The Illinois was also designed to house 100,000 people.

Even though Wright’s building was never built, architects continue to build big skyscrapers. Recently, work began on a new 93-story skyscraper named after Donald Trump, a New York real estate giant.

When it is finished, the Trump Tower will have a curved exterior. It will be located near Lake Michigan. The Trump Tower will stand tall between the Sears Tower and the John Hancock Center. The Chicago skyline will be changed once again. The designs for

Trump Tower (above) and Wright’s mile-high building (right)

1�

barwickmBlue

barwickmBlue

barwickmBlue

barwickmBlue

1�

1. What two things fueled the Chicago Fire of 1871?

2. What are some benefits of building with steel?

3. Explain the order of steps in which a skyscraper is built.

4. Why is Chicago viewed as a leader in architecture? Explain your answer.

5. How do you think communities should deal with deteriorating historic buildings? Explain your answer.

Imagine you are an architect in Chicago. Draw a design for a skyscraper to be built in a bustling business district. Explain the building materials you will use and the features the skyscraper will contain.

Photo CreditsFront Cover Bettmann/Corbis; 2 Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress; 3 (t) Hulton Archive/Getty Images, (b) Tom Benoit/SuperStock; 4 Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress; 5 (t) AP Photo/The Chicago Sun-Times, Rich Hein, (b) Art Resource, NY; 7 Bettmann/Corbis; 8 Ezra Stoller/Esto Photographics, Inc.; 8-9 Joseph Sohm/PictureQuest; 10 (t) Patrick Ward/Alamy, (b) Corbis; 11 Keith Levit Photography/Index Stock Imagery; 12 (l) Tim Hursley/SuperStock, (r) Bob Rowan, Progressive Image/Corbis; 13 Roger Ressmeyer/Corbis; 15 (l) Scott Olson/Getty Images, (r) The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; Back Cover Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.

Illustration Credits6 and 14 Bill Melvin.

barwickmBlue

barwickmBlue

barwickmBlue

barwickmBlue

barwickmBlue

barwickmBlue

barwickmBlue