Construction History: The State Of The Art

One of the pleasures of reading old professional journals is seeing what people who are now on pedestals had to say when they were alive. A good example is “The Dangers of Tall Steel Structures,” published in Cassier’s Magazine in 1898 and written by William Le Baron Jenney. I make no secret of my opinion that much of the Jenney hagiography is wrong – if he “invented the skyscraper,” what exactly did he invent? – but I also agree that he was an immensely talented and influential engineer. In 1898, he was 66 and on the downslope of his career, but he was still working.

The article summarizes a lot of the issues with steel-frame buildings as they were understood when the technology was about a decade old. Jenney discusses the effects of water, fire, wind, and earthquakes in a tone somewhere between that of a professional article and a magazine essay. If you’re familiar with the discussions prior to this article in professional journals, it’s clear that he’s not saying anything new, but if you’re not it’s a useful introduction.

The best part of the article, in my opinion, was the decision – whether by Jenney or Cassier’s editor – to illustrate it with construction photos showing skyscrapers under construction in 1897 and 1898. All of the sites are in New York, although one was a Jenney design, so I lean towards thinking the editor may have picked them. The picture above shows the Hotel Royalton on West 44th Street, with the frame topped out. Here’s the foundation work on the Park Row Building. (How do I know it’s Park Row? It was the only 30-story building in the world at the time.)

Park Row’s top, seen from the roof of the St. Paul Building, with the dome of the World Building and the American Tract Society building in the background:

Here’s some of Jenney’s work:

Here’s a building type that was very much a New York phenomenon, the high-rise steel-frame loft. Also, Cleverdon & Putzel is on my short list of great names for an architecture firm, along with Harde & Short, and Reed & Stem.

The Dun Building at Broadway and Reade Street, a few blocks north of the downtown cluster of skyscrapers:

And finally, they went as far afield as downtown Brooklyn. Note that this is a cage-frame building: the spandrel beams are set inboard of the columns because they are not supporting the exterior walls.