Chicago Skyline

About the Skyline

The Chicago skyline is world-famous for its innovative architecture and towering skyscrapers. Home to the Willis Tower, John Hancock Center, and other architectural marvels, Chicago's skyline represents the birthplace of modern skyscraper design.

Chicago's skyline traces its identity to the years after the Great Fire of 1871, when rebuilding and rising land values encouraged taller construction. The Home Insurance Building, completed in 1885 to a design by William Le Baron Jenney, is widely cited as the first skyscraper, though the claim is disputed because other buildings used metal framing in partial forms. Later structures extended the pattern: the Tribune Tower in 1925, the Willis Tower in 1973, which held the title of world's tallest building for nearly a quarter century, and the Aon Center and John Hancock Center along the lakefront. Today the lakeshore profile appears on city tourism materials and architectural boat tours, and it functions locally as shorthand for Chicago's role in the invention of the tall building.