architecture of Chicago history of architecture school architects Chicago modernism structural systems tube-frame structure postmodernism Frank Lloyd Wright Philip Johnson Frank Gehry Maya Lin Frederick Law Olmstead I.M. Pei Stanford White architecture intern steel
The uniquely American "Chicago School" refers to two architectural styles derived from the architecture of Chicago. In the history of architecture, the first Chicago School was a school of architects active in Chicago in the late 19th, and at the turn of the 20th century. They were among the first to promote the new technologies of steel-frame construction in commercial buildings, and developed a spatial aesthetic which co-evolved with, and then came to influence, parallel developments in European modernism. Much of its early work is also known as "Commercial Style". A "Second Chicago School" with a modernist aesthetic emerged in the 1940s through 1970s, which pioneered new building technologies and structural systems, such as the tube-frame structure. The tide of modernism and then postmodernism has brought global fame to American architects such as Frank Lloyd Wright, Philip Johnson, and Frank Gehry. Other Americans who have had dramatic influences on national and international architecture include Maya Lin, Frederick Law Olmstead, I.M. Pei, and Stanford White.
