<P> The Monadnock belongs to the Printing House Row District , a National Historic Landmark which includes the Manhattan Building , the Old Colony Building , and the Fisher Building , some of Chicago 's seminal early skyscrapers . The Manhattan Building , built by William LeBaron Jenney in 1890 , was the first building in Chicago with a complete steel skeleton or `` Chicago '' construction , an innovation Jenney had introduced in the Home Insurance Building in 1884 . The first 16 - story building in America , at the time it was `` regarded with awe and fear '' . Jenney 's masterpiece , the Manhattan was considered a technical triumph in construction . The 17 - story Old Colony , built by Holabird & Roche in 1894 , was considered one of the structural masterpieces of its time for its revolutionary portal form of bracing . It is the only survivor of a group of Chicago school buildings with rounded corner bays . The Fisher Building , built by Burnham in 1894 , was an engineering miracle -- the first tall commercial building to be built almost entirely without bricks . Its steel frame and thin terracotta curtain wall allowed two - thirds of the surface to be covered with glass . </P>
who designed the first truly modern skyscraper using steel framework covered in masonry
William LeBaron Jenney