Daniel Burnham, Chicago Architect. (1864-1912) Director of Works for the Columbian Exposition of 1893, Architect of the Chicago Masonic Temple, which was, in 1891, at 22 stories, the tallest skyscraper in the world.
 
The Masonic Temple  Height: 302 feet (92 meters) to roof. Original owners: Free and Accepted Masons of the State of Illinois. Constructed: 1891-1892. Arguably the birthplace of the skyscraper, Chicago has held the title of tallest building twice in skyscraper history. In 1892, the Masonic Temple rose twenty-two stories at the corner of Randolph and State Streets. With its high pitched gables and flat-topped roof leveling off at 302 feet, the structure was shorter than New York's World Building with its lantern, but boasted the highest occupied floor.  Designed by Burnham and Root, Chicago's most prominent commercial architects, it featured a central court ringed by nine floors of shops with offices above and meeting rooms for the Masons at the very top.

 

The Masonic Temple employed a rigid steel frame with wrought iron wind-bracing placed diagonally between the structural members above the 10th floor. As light was a prime concern, large windows were installed from top to bottom, clearly illustrating the practicality of a steel-framed building. It was described as "perhaps the frankest admission of a structural and economic necessity ever expressed in architectural form."

 

Due to height regulations enacted in 1892, The Masonic Temple remained Chicago's tallest building until the 1920's when the city's new zoning laws permitted towers. In 1939, The Masonic Temple was demolished, in part due to its poor internal services, but also due to the construction of the new State Street subway, which would have necessitated expensive foundation retrofitting. In 1939, its offices and stores considered old fashioned, The Masonic Temple was demolished.