The birth of the tall steel framed building in the USA

The development of the tall steel frame was encouraged by the prevailing economic circumstances in New York and Chicago. The forms of tall steel frame have subsequently evolved and we can establish that the development of today's skyscraper depended upon a number of separate developments, each of which combined to give us the basis of the steel frame as it is known today.

There was, however, no clear sequential development. For example, there were some late examples of tall masonry buildings, the first Monadnock building being the most striking example.

As in the UK it also took some time for wrought iron and steel to replace cast iron as the generally adopted material for columns. This is typical of many technological developments, where there is considerable hesitancy in the adoption of new ideas. The evolution of forms used in the skyscraper is a story that depends upon certain external developments which created both pressures and opportunities for constructing tall buildings. These pressures were in addition to the developments more directly related to the improvement of the technology of steel frames to solve the particular structural problems that these buildings presented.