Chicago School

Skyscrapers in the East Loop, Chicago, USA. The Loop is at the centre of Chicago's business district, and is so named after the ‘loop’ defined by the elevated rail track.

In architecture, 19th-century North American movement, centred in Chicago, which heralded the arrival of the skyscraper with its emphasis on verticality. The practice of Daniel H Burnham (1846–1912) and John Welbourn Root (1850–1891) produced two noted exemplars: the 16-storey Monadnock building (1889–91) and the Reliance building (1890–94), both in Chicago. The latter comprised a steel frame with glass infill – an obvious precursor of many 20th-century skyscrapers. The school's greatest exponent, however, was Louis Sullivan.

Developing in the wake of the Chicago fire in 1871, which demonstrated the need for alternatives to the traditional exposed cast-iron frame, the school found an early proponent in William Le Baron Jenney (1832–1907), whose Home Insurance building, Chicago, (1883–85), had a metal frame sheathed in brick. This allowed for multi-storey construction, although the facade of the building had little in common with the verticality later associated with the school. The unity of design evident in subsequent works owed much to the Revivalist influence of Henry Hobson Richardson (1838–1886), but this was superseded from 1890 by the simple grid-like structures of Burnham and Root. Louis Sullivan's designs for the Carson, Pirie and Scott Store (1899) and part of the Gage building (1898–99), both in Chicago, incorporate elements of art nouveau as well as providing model examples of how to integrate structure and form.

Chicago School

In economics, a school of thought advocating the merits of free markets, minimal government intervention, and the importance of the money supply in determining inflation. It is particularly associated with Milton Friedman, who was professor of economics at the University of Chicago, USA. See also monetarism.