Inland Steel Building

Inland Steel Building Review

A runt compared to today's tall buildings, this crisp, sparkling structure from Skidmore, Owings & Merrill was a trailblazer back in the late 1950s. It was the first skyscraper built with external supports (allowing for wide-open, unobstructed floors within); the first to employ steel pilings (driven 85 feet down to bedrock); the city's first fully air-conditioned building; and the first to feature underground parking. As for looks, well, you might say it combines the friendly scale of the Reliance Building with the cool rigor of a high-rise by Mies van der Rohe.