People living in high-rise Chicago condos and those who make earn their livelihood by designing and managing high-rise Chicago condos owe a debt to the Home Insurance Building. Without its construction in Chicago, Illinois in 1885, there would be no high-rise Chicago condos today. The architectural innovations it used in its frame and design made high-rise Chicago condos and other skyscrapers possible.

The Home Insurance Building, in fact, was considered to be the first skyscraper in the world and the predecessor to the Sears Tower, John Hancock Building, and the high-rise Chicago condos spread all throughout the Chicago Loop. It was the first building where the architects and builders used structural steel in its frame, though the majority of its structure was composed of cast and wrought iron.

It rose up ten stories to a height of 138 feet high, which is not considered very tall by the standards of today's high-rise Chicago condos and skyscrapers, but, for its time, was an impressive stature.

Originally, according to a forensic analysis done at the time of the building's demolition, the Home Insurance Building was thought to be the first building to carry both floors and external walls entirely on its metal frame. Later details and research into the matter have disproved that theory. It is now thought that the building structure must have relied upon both metal and masonry elements to not only support its own weight, but also hold it up against the wind, which can be especially strong in Chicago.

An engineer named William LeBaron Jenney served as the main architect and he can be thought to be the father of all modern skyscrapers and high-rise Chicago condos. There was little confidence in Jenney's abilities as an architect, evidenced by the fact that city officials halted construction due to safety concerns. The building only weighed one-third as much as a stone building should. However, this was an early example of the Chicago school, or Commercial style, in architecture.

Some of the distinguishing features of the Chicago school, which can still be seen sometimes in today's skyscrapers and high-rise Chicago condos, are the usage of steel-frame buildings with masonry cladding. This allowed large plate-glass windows the use of limited areas for exterior ornament.

Neoclassical elements of architecture can also be seen in the Chicago (and in modern skyscrapers and high-rise Chicago condos). Such skyscrapers and other building have been built in the shape of a classical column. Also notable is the development of the "Chicago window."