Home Insurance Building vs 35 East Wacker Building

Comparing the Home Insurance Building and the 35 East Wacker Building is interesting because they both rise in Chicago, IL, yet they were conceived by two different design teams, William Le Baron Jenney and Joachim Giæver & Frederick P. Dinkelberg, and were completed at different points in time. They were finished over two decades apart.

This contrast within the same city allows us to see how different creative minds interpreted the evolving needs of Chicago across time.

Let's take a closer look!

The 35 East Wacker Building is clearly the larger tower of the two, both in terms of height and number of floors. It rises to 522ft (159m) with 40 floors above ground, while the Home Insurance Building reaches 138ft (42m) with 10 floors above ground.

Of course, each project may have faced different briefs or regulatory constraints, which we don't really know about and could also explain the outcome.

Both the Home Insurance Building and the 35 East Wacker Building were designed in line with the aesthetic conventions of the Neoclassical style.

Back then, theNeoclassical was still an emerging movement, so both giving it a pioneering role. By contrast, the 35 East Wacker Building came later, when the style was already more established.

Both the Home Insurance Building and the 35 East Wacker Building were designed to serve as commercial towers, and that has remained their main use since their completion, serving similar roles in the urban fabric.

Both the Home Insurance Building and the 35 East Wacker Building rely on a Frame structural system.

A frame structure uses a grid of columns and beams to carry the building's loads. This frees the walls from structural duties, allowing for flexible floor plans and larger windows.

They also employ the same type of facade, a Masonry facade.

A masonry facade gives the building a heavier, more traditional appearance. It often conceals a frame structure behind it, creating the look of solid walls without carrying the main loads.