- published: 31 Aug 2015
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The architecture of Chicago has influenced and reflected the history of American architecture. The city of Chicago, Illinois features prominent buildings in a variety of styles by many important architects. Since most buildings within the downtown area were destroyed (the most famous exception being the Water Tower) by the Great Chicago Fire in 1871, Chicago buildings are noted for their originality rather than their antiquity.
Beginning in the early 1880s, architectural pioneers of the Chicago School explored steel-frame construction and, in the 1890s, the use of large areas of plate glass. These were among the first modern skyscrapers. William LeBaron Jenney's Home Insurance Building was completed in 1885 and is considered to be the first to use steel in its structural frame instead of cast iron, but this building was still clad in heavy brick and stone. However, the Montauk Building, designed by John Wellborn Root Sr. and Daniel Burnham, was built in 1882–1883 using structural steel. Daniel Burnham and his partners, John Welborn Root and Charles Atwood, designed technically advanced steel frames with glass and terra cotta skins in the mid-1890s, in particular the Reliance Building; these were made possible by professional engineers, in particular E. C. Shankland, and modern contractors, in particular George A. Fuller.
Chicago (i/ʃɪˈkɑːɡoʊ/ or /ʃɪˈkɔːɡoʊ/) is the largest city in the US state of Illinois and the third most populous city in the United States after New York City and Los Angeles. The city has around 2.7 million residents. Its metropolitan area, sometimes called "Chicagoland", is the third largest in the United States, with an estimated 9.8 million people. Chicago is the county seat of Cook County, though a small portion also extends into DuPage County.
Chicago was incorporated as a city in 1837, near a portage between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River watershed. Today, Chicago is listed as an alpha+ global city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network, and ranks seventh in the world on the 2012 Global Cities Index. The city retains its status as an international hub for finance, industry, telecommunications and infrastructure, with O'Hare International Airport being the second busiest airport in the world in terms of traffic movements. In 2008[update], the city hosted 45.6 million domestic and overseas visitors. Among metropolitan areas, Chicago has the 4th largest Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the world, ranking just behind Tokyo, New York City, and Los Angeles. Chicago is one of the most important Worldwide Centers of Commerce and trade.
Nikolas Wallenda, known as Nik Wallenda born January 24, 1979 is an American high wire artist, acrobat, daredevil and Guinness Book of Records world record-holder. A direct descendant of Karl Wallenda (founder of the The Flying Wallendas), Nik is known for performing death-defying stunts on highwire without a safety net. On October 15, 2008, during a live broadcast of Today, Wallenda walked and then bicycled across a suspended highwire 13 and 1/2 stories above the ground off the roof of the Prudential Center in Downtown Newark, New Jersey for a Guinness Book of Records world record for longest and highest bicycle on a highwire.
Wallenda, born in Sarasota, Florida, began performing with his family at an early age. As the seventh generation of the Wallenda Family, he first performed at the age of two (dressed as a clown), began walking the wire at age 4 and had his first professional wire performance at 13. In 1998, while 19 years old, he participated in the re-creation of Karl Wallenda's seven-person pyramid on the highwire in Detroit, Michigan by his father Terry and mother Delilah and decided to make a career of it.