Modern wood framing interrupts those lines. As Chicago elevated the vertical frontier of its first skyline, balloon frames set the stage for the Great Fire of 1871.

When most Americans imagine a home, they picture a wood-framed house. But in an era of high housing costs and extreme weather events, precast concrete offers a mix of durability and efficiency.

The work involved in a balloon-frame construction fire doesn’t necessarily end when the seat of the fire is extinguished. As Mike Kirby and Tom Lakamp point out, balloon-frame construction holds ...

Designed in 1833 in Chicago by George W. Snow to answer the need for more rapid house building, balloon construction consists of 2-by-4 or 2-by-6-inch boards that run continuously from the ...

Though wood has been used in post-and-beam construction for thousands of years throughout the world, balloon framing (which eventually gave rise to modern platform framing) has been used only ...

Balloon construction, MacKenzie said, was popular from the 1830s until the end of the Second World War, until the preferred standard method of constructing homes was changed to do it floor by floor.

Cheap stick framing has led to a proliferation of blocky, forgettable mid-rises—and more than a few construction fires. By Justin Fox February 13, 2019 at 3:00 AM PST Translate ...

In the 1830s, wood construction underwent a significant shift with the introduction of balloon framing. This system used standardized, sawed lumber and mass-produced nails, allowing much smaller ...