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Concrete Projects > Ingalls Building - Cincinnati, Ohio
 Ingalls
Building - Cincinnati, Ohio
The First Reinforced Concrete High Rise Building, 1902
Before the construction of Cincinnati, Ohio's Ingalls Building,
the tallest reinforced concrete building was a mere six stories
in height. This made the use of reinforced concrete for a
210 foot tall building a controversial decision in 1902. The
architect for the Ingalls project, W.P. Anderson of Anderson
and Eizner, decided to go with concrete construction despite
the fact that detractors feared a concrete building would
not be able to withstand wind and concrete shrinkage. Legend
has it that people were so sure the building would collapse
that a local reporter once stayed all night outside the building,
waiting for it to fall down.
Before the first bucket of concrete was poured, a major battle
took place just to get the necessary permits to build the
structure. Melville E. Ingalls, president of the Big Four
Railroad and the building's namesake, and Anderson fought
for two years with Cincinnati's building department before
finally convincing them of the building's stability and durability.
Anderson chose concrete because it was fireproof and it would
be less expensive to build a structure of this size with concrete
than with steel. Henry N. Hooper of The Ferro-Concrete Construction
Company in Cincinnati was the concrete contractor chosen to
carry out Anderson's vision. Hooper employed methods perfected
and patented by Ernest L. Ransome, the man who had designed
and built the world's first reinforced concrete bridge, Alvord
Lake Bridge, in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park in 1889.
The Ingalls is a massive structure, consisting of solid columns
and foundations reinforced with the square-twisted steel bars
that Ransome patented. According to the American Portland
Cement Manufacturers Association, the Ingalls Building accounted
for about one-half of one percent of all the cement used in
the United States in 1902 to 1903.
During construction, one hundred cubic yards of concrete
were produced on each 10-hour shift. While that was below
capacity, it was all the workers could handle in that time
period. The concrete had to be wet enough to ensure that spaces
around the reinforcements could be filled and the columns
would have uniform density around the reinforcements. The
concrete contractor also cast beams and girders monolithically
with floor slabs, which acted as a diaphragm to deal with
the force of the high winds.
Rising at a rate of three stories per month, the Ingalls
was completed in just eight months and has been in constant
use ever since. It was the tallest reinforced concrete building
in the world until the 281-foot tall Medical Arts Building
in Dallas, Texas was built in 1923.
The Ingalls Building was declared a National Historical Civil
Engineering Landmark in 1974 and was added to the National
Register of Historic Places in 1975.
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