William Le Baron Jenney

A native of Massachusetts, William Le Baron Jenney (1832-1907) served as an engineer in the Civil War, where he designed fortifications at Corinth, Shiloh, and Vicksburg. He came to Chicago in 1867, forming the firm of Jenney, Schermerhorn and Bogart. Together with landscape architects Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, Jenney's firm helped develop Riverside, Illinois, the nation's first planned "railroad suburb." Jenney also was involved in the planning of Chicago's extensive boulevard system, most notably Douglas, Garfield, and Humboldt parks.

However, Jenney's greatest impact came in his role in the development of the steel-framed skyscraper, in such designs as the Leiter I Building (1879; demolished), the Home Insurance Building (1884; demolished), and the Leiter II, Ludington, and Manhattan buildings. Jenney's architectural office was a well-known training ground for young architects, including Daniel H. Burnham, William Holabird, Irving K. Pond, Martin Roche, and Louis H. Sullivan.