The ordinances by which Chicago, alarmed by the twenty-storey towers of the early 1890s, capped the height of its buildings: 130 feet in 1893, raised to 260 feet in 1902, reduced to 200 feet in 1911.
By 1892 the Masonic Temple had reached twenty-one storeys and some 300 feet, and critics feared that a Loop of such towers would be dark, congested and a fire trap. In 1893 the city council limited new buildings to 130 feet, about ten or twelve storeys. The limit was doubled to 260 feet in 1902 under pressure from property owners, cut back to 200 feet in 1911, and replaced by the zoning ordinance of 1923 with its setbacks and towers. The ceiling explains the flat-topped, even skyline of the Loop in the years around 1900: blocks filled out to the maximum and no higher.
The book, part by part
I The height limits
130 ft (1893), 260 ft (1902), 200 ft (1911).
Rules: A ceiling over the Loop