Holabird, William

SUBJECT AREA: Architecture and building, Civil engineering

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b. 11 September 1854 American Union, New York, USA

d. 19 July 1923 Evanston, Illinois, USA

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American architect who contributed to the development of steel framing, a type of structure that rendered possible the erection of the skyscraper.

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The American skyscraper was, in the 1870s and 1880s, very much the creation of what came to be known as the Chicago school of architecture. It was the most important American contribution to the urban architectural scene. At this time conditions were ripe for this type of office development, and in the big cities, notably Chicago and New York, steeply rising land values provided the incentive to build high; the structural means to do so had been triggered by the then low costs of making quality iron and steel. The skyscraper appeared after the invention of the passenger lift by Otis and the pioneer steel-frame work of Jenney. In 1875 Holabird was working in Jenney's office in Chicago. By 1883 he had set up in private practice, joined by another young architect, Martin Roche (1855–1927), and together they were responsible for the Tacoma Building (1887–9) in Chicago. In this structure the two front façades were entirely non-load-bearing and were carried by an internal steel skeleton; only the rear walls were load-bearing. The design of the building was not revolutionary (this had to wait for L.H. Sullivan) but was traditional in form. It was the possibility of being able to avoid load-bearing outer walls that enabled a building to rise above some nine storeys, and the thirteen-storeyed Tacoma Building pointed the way to the future development of the skyscraper. The firm of Holabird \& Roche continued in the following decades in Chicago to design and construct further high-quality, although lower, commercial buildings such as those in South Michigan Avenue and the McClurg Building. However, they are best remembered for their contribution in engineering to the development of high-rise construction.

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Further Reading

F.Mujica, 1929, History of the Skyscraper, Paris: Archaeology and Architecture Press. C.W.Condit, 1964, The Chicago School of Architecture: A History of Commercial and

Public Building in the Chicago Area 1875–1925, Chicago: University of Chicago Press. J.W.Rudd (compiler), 1966, Holabird and Roche: Chicago Architects, American Association of Architectural Bibliographers.

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