The First Reinforced Skyscraper 17

9 inches on a side.* The reinforcing consists of a two-way grid of

longitudinal and transverse bars. The two-column footing is an elon-
gated truncated pyramid with a rectangular plan, the upper face of
which is developed into a massive rib designed to receive the column
pedestals. These footings are more elaborately reinforced than the
single-column forms: the grid of transverse and longitudinal bars is lo-
cated near the upper as well as the lower face, while several planes of
vertical bars strengthen the concrete against crushing and shearing
forces. The maximum footing depth is 3 feet 4 inches.

Above the foundation and party walls—that is, above grade level—
the walls of the building are divided between an open articulated base,
two stories high, consisting essentially of the columns and girders of the
frame, and a system of columns and spandrel wall panels extending from
the third-floor level to the roof. In the base the windows occupy some-
what more than half the area of the street elevations, the glass filling the
width of the bay; above the second floor, however, they are grouped
in pairs in the bays. The mullion separating the pair is a thin post of re-
inforced concrete. The spandrels above the third floor are solid panels
cast monolithically with the floor slabs and the peripheral columns.
These panels are 8 inches thick and are reinforced with vertical bars set
near both the inner and outer surfaces, indicating that they were de-
signed to absorb the bending forces of wind as well as some part of the
vertical wall loads. For the first three stories the walls are faced with a
veneer of Vermont marble carried by a projecting concrete belt course
at each floor level and fixed to the vertical concrete surfaces by means
of wrought-iron anchors. Above the third floor the wall facing is gray
enameled brick supported on similar horizontal courses and fixed to the
panels and column surfaces by means of wire anchors (details of the
spandrel panels and facing are shown in the drawings on the left side of
Fig. 2).

Among the framing members the columns embody the most com-
plex system of reinforcing (Fig. 2). The columns up to the tenth floor
are rectangular in section, a typical one measuring 303 X 34 inches,
although the dimensions vary from 30 to 38 inches on a side. Above the
tenth floor all columns are square in section and 12 inches on a side. The
reduction in cross-sectional area, of course, was dictated by the smaller

23 The so-called floating raft, a widely spread concrete footing reinforced with
grillages of steel rails, was developed by John Wellborn Root initially for the
Montauk Building (1881-82) in Chicago. See Carl W. Condit, The Chicago School
of Architecture (Chicago, 1964), pp. 49, 54-55.