by means of today's standards, Chic...

by means of today's standards, Chicago's Reliance Building is a unmixed wisp of a skyscraper--all of 80000 square feet stretching to fill 15 floors.

unless the 102-year-old building had a towering impact onward the evolution of the high-rise, its skeletal frame and transparent skin the forebears of recent steel structures and curtain walls.

Reputedly the first skyscraper to hang thin stone against a steel frame, the Reliance was also among the first to make liberal use of glass as a facade treatment. Forgoing the heftier stone and mortar coats of his day, Reliance architect Charles B Atwood