Website by: Mandy Phelps & Jillian Wilson

Chicago School is an architectural style that was created by a group of architects from Chicago during the early 1880s. These architects designed the very first skyscrapers; steel-frame buildings with masonry cladding, such as terra cotta. The same architects also created the "Chicago window", which is a three-part window consisting of a large fixed center panel flanked by two smaller double-hung sash windows. The exterior of a Chicago School style building was simplistic and displayed large window areas.

Some of the architects that developed the Chicago School style include Dankmar Adler, Daniel Burnham, William Holabird, William LeBaron Jenney, Martin Roche, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, John Root, and Louis Sullivan. More information about these designers can be found on the third page.

Among the buildings designed in this style are the Auditorium Building (Adler and Sullivan), the Monadnock Building (Burnham and Root), and the second Leiter Building (Jenney). Pictures of these Chicago School buildings and more of the same style are located on the second page. Because of these buildings and their engineers, the city of Chicago has been called the "birthplace of modern architecture."