Originally ten stories and 138 ft (42.1 m) tall, it was designed by William Le Baron Jenney in 1884 and completed the next year.

[6] In September 1929 plans were made by Marshall Field's to construct a large office building spanning Adams, Clark, and LaSalle Streets.

[11] It was the first multistory building in the United States to largely use iron in its exterior to support the masonry since Badger had constructed similar grain elevators between 1860 and 1862.

[13] Iron framing of multistory buildings had originated in England in the late 18th century and was able to replace exterior load-bearing walls by 1844, but social movements and legal regulations hindered their use at that time.

[17] Later buildings in Chicago were able to solve these problems by supporting the external masonry entirely on the iron frame, which later became the standard worldwide.

[18] However, the design of the Home Insurance Building, supporting the external masonry entirely on the iron frame, was used more by architects worldwide.