America at 250: How Chicago's architectural innovation helped shape the nation's future

Chicago helped shape the nation in so many ways, including the pioneering of skyscrapers – the big, beautiful buildings the city of big shoulders introduced to the world.

It's hard to imagine what American cities would look like if Chicago didn't build the way it did.

Chicago's architecture has the power to amplify. It can boost creativity and can also build connections to the past.

A tour guide will tell you history surrounds us in the Loop. We just need to look up.

"I am a big architecture nerd, as you would expect, and I have to say, every single day, I think how lucky I am to live here," said Eleanor Gorski, president and CEO of the Chicago Architecture Center.

Gorski never gets tired of the view from the windows of their offices along the Chicago River.

What stands out to her about Chicago architecture is its innovation, which was first sparked by the Great Chicago Fire.

In 1871, flames consumed more than 17,500 buildings, but Chicago rebuilt better and higher than ever before.

"Skyscrapers; those were developed after the Chicago Fire because we needed to build quickly, cheaply, and to get as much square footage as possible in that time period," Gorski said. "The Monadnock Building is a building that is still existing from that timeframe, where you can see what they were dealing with and how they built back better."

In 1893, the whole world saw how well Chicago could build as the city hosted the World's Columbian Exposition, nicknamed the "White City," because of the massive Beaux Arts-style buildings made from a mixture of plaster, cement, and jute fiber called "staff," which was painted white.

In just five months' time, more than 25 million people visited the World's Columbian Exposition.

"It literally influenced other cities around the U.S. to build in that style," Gorski said.

Little is left from the 1893 world's fair. Most prominently, the fair's Palace of Fine Arts is now the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry.

Chicago's oldest skyscrapers are now dwarfed by new ones, but the world still comes to see the city's towering achievements.

"Everyday Chicagoans give our tours," Gorski said.

As America turns 250, Chicago is building for the future.

"Everyone experiences it. You don't need to go to a museum, to our center, on a tour to experience it," Gorski said.

The city has already proven architecture can amplify the best in us.

America has a big anniversary this year as the U.S. celebrates 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The Chicago Architecture Center is also marking a major milestone, as the nonprofit turns 60 this year.

They offer architecture tours by boat, bus, train or on foot all over the city.