The Ingalls Building, built in 1903 in

Cincinnati, Ohio Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

, is the world's first

reinforced concrete Reinforced concrete (RC), also called reinforced cement concrete (RCC) and ferroconcrete, is a composite material in which concrete's relatively low tensile strength and ductility are compensated for by the inclusion of reinforcement having hig ...

skyscraper A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Modern sources currently define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition. Skyscrapers are very tall high-ris ...

. The 16-story building was designed by the Cincinnati

architectural Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing buildings o ...

firm Elzner & Anderson and was named for its primary financial investor,

Melville E. Ingalls Melville Ezra Ingalls (1842–1914), commonly abbreviated M. E. Ingalls, was a Massachusetts state legislator who went on to become president of the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad (the Big Four Railroad). Career Ingalls was ...

. The building was considered a daring

engineering Engineering is the use of scientific method, scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad rang ...

feat at the time, but its success contributed to the acceptance of concrete

construction Construction is a general term meaning the art and science to form objects, systems, or organizations,"Construction" def. 1.a. 1.b. and 1.c. ''Oxford English Dictionary'' Second Edition on CD-ROM (v. 4.0) Oxford University Press 2009 and com ...

in high-rise buildings in the United States. It was converted to a hotel, the Courtyard by Marriott Cincinnati Downtown, in 2021. The Ingalls building is bordered by East 4th Street and Vine Street in the Cincinnati

Central Business District A central business district (CBD) is the commercial and business centre of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides with the "city ...

Overcoming skepticism

Prior to 1902, the tallest reinforced concrete structure in the world was only six stories high. Since

concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most wi ...

possesses very low tensile (pulling) strength, many people from both the public and the engineering community believed that a concrete tower as tall as the plan for the Ingalls Building would collapse under wind loads or even its own weight. When the building was completed and the supports removed, one reporter allegedly stayed awake through the night in order to be the first to report on the building's demise. Ingalls and engineer Henry N. Hooper were convinced, however, that

Ernest L. Ransome Ernest Leslie Ransome (1844–1917) was an English-born engineer, architect, and early innovator in reinforced concrete building techniques. Ransome devised the most sophisticated concrete structures in the United States at the time. Ernest was ...

's system of casting twisted steel bars inside of concrete slabs as reinforcement (patented in 1884) and casting slab, beams and joists as a unit would allow them to create a rigid structure. The architects also prized the cost savings and fireproofing advantages of concrete over

steel Steel is an alloy made up of iron with added carbon to improve its strength and fracture resistance compared to other forms of iron. Many other elements may be present or added. Stainless steels that are corrosion- and oxidation-resistant ty ...

frame construction. Finally, after two years of convincing, city officials issued Ingalls a building permit and the work began.

Construction

Hooper designed a monolithic "concrete box of eight-inch 00 mmwalls, with concrete floors and roof, concrete beams, concrete columns, concrete stairs -- no steel. It consists merely of bars embedded in concrete, with the ends interlaced." (Ali) The amount of concrete produced during construction—100 cubic yards (76 m³) in each ten-hour shift—was limited by the rate at which the builders could place it. An extra wet mix was used to ensure complete contact with the rebars and uniform density in the columns. Floor slabs were poured without joints at the rate of three stories per month. Columns measured 30 by 34 inches (760 by 860 mm) for the first ten floors and 12 inches (300 mm) square for the rest. Three sets of forms were used, rotating from the bottom to the top of the building when the concrete had cured. Completed in eight months, the finished building measures 50 by 100 feet (15 by 30 m) at its base and 210 feet (64 m) tall. The exterior concrete walls are eight inches thick (200 mm) in unbroken slabs 16 feet (5 m) square with a

veneer Veneer may refer to: Materials * Veneer (dentistry), a cosmetic treatment for teeth * Masonry veneer, a thin facing layer of brick * Stone veneer, a thin facing layer of stone * Wood veneer, a thin facing layer of wood Arts and entertainment * ' ...

4 to 6 inches (100 to 150 mm) thick. The Beaux Arts Classical exterior is covered on the first three stories with white

marble Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or Dolomite (mineral), dolomite. Marble is typically not Foliation (geology), foliated (layered), although there are exceptions. In geology, the ...

, on the next eleven stories with glazed gray

brick A brick is a type of block used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a block composed of dried clay, but is now also used informally to denote other chemically cured cons ...

, and on the top floor and

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...

with glazed white

terra cotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based unglazed or glazed ceramic where the fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, and architecture, terracotta ...

Landmark status

Still in use today, the building was designated a

National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark __NOTOC__ The following is a list of Historic Civil Engineering Landmarks as designated by the American Society of Civil Engineers since it began the program in 1964. The designation is granted to projects, structures, and sites in the United State ...

in 1974 by the

American Society of Civil Engineers American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

. In 1975, it was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

Proposed Condominium Conversion

The building was purchased on January 17, 2013 by CLA OH LLC (an affiliate of Claremont Group, a New York City-based real estate development firm) from CapCar Realty 1.1 LLC, for $1.45 million. In November 2013, Claremont Group CEO Perry Chopra disclosed his intentions to convert the office building into 40 to 50 condos, with ground-floor retail. However, in April 2015, a real estate broker announced that the building was again for sale, after Claremont Group decided not to execute the condominium project. It was converted to a hotel, the Courtyard by Marriott Cincinnati Downtown, in 2021.

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