Louis Sullivan

Louis Henry Sullivan (September 3, 1856 – April 14, 1924) was an American architect known for helping shape the modern city. He is often called a "father of skyscrapers" and "father of modernism" because of his important work. Sullivan was a key part of the Chicago School and taught many other famous architects, including Frank Lloyd Wright. His ideas inspired a group of architects called the Prairie School.

Sullivan, along with Wright and Henry Hobson Richardson, is considered one of the most important American architects. He is famous for the idea that "form follows function," meaning that a building should look like what it does. This idea helped change how skyscrapers were built. In 1944, even after he passed away, Sullivan was given a very special award called the AIA Gold Medal for his amazing contributions to architecture.

Early life and career

Louis Sullivan was born to a Swiss mother and an Irish father, both of whom had moved to the United States. He finished high school early and entered the Massachusetts Institute of Technology at just sixteen, studying architecture. After a year, he moved to Philadelphia to work with architect Frank Furness, but lost his job during the Depression of 1873.

He then moved to Chicago in 1873, where he joined William LeBaron Jenney, known for building the first steel frame structure. Sullivan later studied in Paris at the École des Beaux-Arts before returning to Chicago. He worked for Joseph S. Johnston & John Edelman and later joined Dankmar Adler in 1879, becoming a partner and beginning his most creative period.

Adler and Sullivan became famous for their theaters, including the grand Auditorium Building in Chicago. They later designed many office buildings, such as the Wainwright Building in St. Louis and the Guaranty Building in Buffalo, New York.

Sullivan and the steel high-rise

Before the late 1800s, tall buildings had to rely on thick walls to hold up their weight. This made it hard to build very tall structures. But then steel became cheap and easy to use. This changed everything! With steel frames, buildings could grow taller and have more windows, letting in lots of light. Walls could be thinner, making more space inside.

Chicago was the perfect place for these new ideas. After a big fire in 1871, the city rebuilt quickly. Louis Sullivan used these new steel frames to design buildings in fresh ways. He dropped old styles and focused on what the building needed to do. He added beautiful designs, like vines, to make the buildings look interesting while still keeping them simple. One famous rule he followed was “form follows function,” meaning a building’s shape should match what it is used for.

Sullivan believed this idea came from an old Roman architect. His buildings often had simple shapes with lots of decoration, like twists of iron or special arches. One of his best-known works is the Guaranty Building in Buffalo, New York. It has three parts: a wide base for shops, a tall middle section showing off the height, and a fancy top with round windows. Sullivan’s designs helped shape how tall buildings look today.

"Form follows function"

Main articles: Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, Roman, De architectura, aesthetics, Art Nouveau, Celtic Revival, terra cotta, Carson Pirie Scott store, State Street, semi-circular arch, Guaranty Building, Buffalo, New York, Palazzo style, Dankmar Adler, Daniel Burnham, John Wellborn Root, Masonic Temple Tower

Later career and decline

In 1890, Sullivan was chosen to build a major structure for the "White City" at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. His Transportation Building and its huge arched "Golden Door" were unique because they were not built in the popular Beaux-Arts style and had a multicolored facade. Sullivan and the fair director, Daniel Burnham, did not agree well. Sullivan later felt the fair slowed down American architecture for many years. His building was the only one to receive special recognition outside America, winning three medals from a French group the next year.

After the Panic of 1893, Sullivan's business partner left, and Sullivan struggled to find new projects. He worked on small banks, wrote books, and shared his ideas about architecture. In 1922, he began writing his life story for a journal. Sullivan passed away in a Chicago hotel room on April 14, 1924. Today, a simple headstone marks his resting place in Graceland Cemetery in Chicago, with a later monument nearby in his honor.

Legacy

Louis Sullivan left behind a special mark in architecture. Some people think he was the first to use modern styles in buildings. His designs were very creative and showed new ideas, but he also liked to add beautiful decorations, which made his work different from later modern styles.

People loved the look of Sullivan’s buildings, like the tall lines on the Wainwright Building and the pretty ironwork on the Carson Pirie Scott store. His buildings showed the spirit of the times and the needs of the people who used them. Today, you can still see some of his work, like the Chicago Stock Exchange trading floor, which is now at The Art Institute of Chicago.

Preservation

During a time when many old buildings were being torn down, people started to care more about saving Louis Sullivan's work. Richard Nickel was one of the most passionate voices, organizing protests to save important buildings. Sadly, he passed away while trying to save parts of one of Sullivan's buildings.

After Nickel's passing, others continued his work. They finished a book about Sullivan's buildings, which was published in 2010. Many photographs and research about his work are kept at The Art Institute of Chicago.

Other people also helped save Sullivan's buildings. Crombie Taylor moved his family to save a building in Clinton, Iowa, and Jack Randall worked hard to protect buildings in St. Louis and Buffalo.

Today, you can see Sullivan's designs in museums and libraries, like the Lovejoy Library and the City Museum in St. Louis. In Buffalo, there is a special museum just for Sullivan inside the Guaranty Building.

Sullivan in Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead

In Ayn Rand's 1943 novel The Fountainhead, the character Henry Cameron is similar to the real-life architect Louis Sullivan. Rand knew a lot about Sullivan because she mentioned his book Autobiography of an Idea in another book she wrote.

In the story, Cameron is a great architect who designs tall buildings but becomes poor and unhappy in the 1920s. This happens because many people started preferring old-style buildings after a big exhibition in 1893, which also affected Sullivan in real life.

The main character, Howard Roark, learns from Cameron. Roark’s ideas and style are based on another famous architect named Frank Lloyd Wright, who was Sullivan’s student for many years. Though their relationship ended, Wright still respected Sullivan and helped him later in life.

Selected projects

See also: Category:Louis Sullivan buildings

Buildings 1887–1895 by Adler & Sullivan:

• Martin Ryerson Tomb, Graceland Cemetery, Chicago (1887)
• Auditorium Building, Chicago (1889)
• Carrie Eliza Getty Tomb, Graceland Cemetery, Chicago (1890)
• Wainwright Building, St. Louis (1890-91)

• Charlotte Dickson Wainwright Tomb, Bellefontaine Cemetery, St. Louis (1892), listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is considered a major American architectural triumph, a model for church buildings, and has been called "the Taj Mahal of St. Louis". The family name does not appear on the tomb.
• Union Trust Building, St. Louis (1893; street-level decoration changed in 1924)
• Guaranty Building (formerly Prudential Building), Buffalo (1894)

Buildings 1887–1922 by Louis Sullivan: (256 total projects)

• Springer Block (later Bay State Building and Burnham Building) and Kranz Buildings, Chicago (1885–1887)
• Selz, Schwab & Company Factory, Chicago (1886–1887)
• Hebrew Manual Training School, Chicago (1889–1890)
• James H. Walker Warehouse & Company Store, Chicago (1886–1889)
• Warehouse for E. W. Blatchford, Chicago (1889)
• James Charnley House (also known as the Charnley–Persky House Museum and the National Headquarters of the Society of Architectural Historians), Chicago (1891–1892)
• Albert Sullivan Residence, Chicago (1891–1892)
• McVicker's Theater, second remodeling, Chicago (1890–1891)
• Bayard Building, (now Bayard-Condict Building), 65–69 Bleecker Street, New York City (1898). Sullivan's only building in New York, with a glazed terra cotta wall showing the steel structure behind it.
• Commercial Loft of Gage Brothers & Company, Chicago (1898–1900)
• Holy Trinity Orthodox Cathedral, Chicago (1900–1903)
• Carson Pirie Scott store, (originally known as the Schlesinger & Mayer Store, now known as "Sullivan Center") Chicago (1899–1904)
• Virginia Hall of Tusculum College, Greeneville, Tennessee (1901)
• Van Allen Building, Clinton, Iowa (1914)
• St. Paul United Methodist Church, Cedar Rapids, Iowa (1910)
• Krause Music Store, Chicago (final project 1922; front design only)

Banks

By the early 1900s, Sullivan mostly designed small banks and commercial buildings in the Midwest. These buildings are now called Sullivan's "Jewel Boxes". All of them are still standing today.

• National Farmers' Bank of Owatonna, Owatonna, Minnesota (1908)
• Peoples Savings Bank, Cedar Rapids, Iowa (1912)
• Henry Adams Building, Algona, Iowa (1913)
• Merchants' National Bank, Grinnell, Iowa (1914)
• Home Building Association Company, Newark, Ohio (1914)
• Purdue State Bank, West Lafayette, Indiana (1914)
• People's Federal Savings and Loan Association, Sidney, Ohio (1918)
• Farmers and Merchants UNion Bank, Columbus, Wisconsin (1919)
• First National Bank, Manistique, Michigan (1919–1920), a remodeling of an existing bank building

Lost buildings

• Grand Opera House, Chicago, 1880 remodel and reconstruction with Dankmar Adler as lead architect and Sullivan as assistant; later remodeled and reconstructed in 1926 by Andrew Rebori; demolished May 1962

• Washington Elementary School, Marengo, Illinois, Adler & Sullivan, 1883, demolished by early 1990s

• Pueblo Opera House, Pueblo, Colorado, 1890, destroyed by fire 1922

• New Orleans Union Station, 1892, demolished 1954

• Dooly Block, Salt Lake City, Utah, 1891, demolished 1965

• Chicago Stock Exchange Building, Adler & Sullivan, 1893, demolished 1972 The entrance and other parts of the building were saved before the demolition and restored in the Art Institute of Chicago in 1977; the entryway arch stands outside on the northeast corner of the AIC site

• Zion Temple, Chicago, 1884, demolished 1954

• Troescher Building, Chicago, 1884, demolished 1978

• Transportation Building, World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, Adler & Sullivan, 1893–94, an exposition building built to last a year

• Louis Sullivan and Charnley Cottages, Ocean Springs, Mississippi, destroyed in Hurricane Katrina; Frank Lloyd Wright also claimed credit for the design

• Schiller Building (later Garrick Theater), Chicago, Adler & Sullivan, 1891, demolished 1961

• Third McVickers Theater, Chicago, Adler & Sullivan, 1883? demolished 1922

• Thirty-Ninth Street Passenger Station, Chicago, Adler & Sullivan, 1886, demolished 1934

• Standard Club, Chicago, Adler & Sullivan, 1887–88, demolished 1931

• Pilgrim Baptist Church, Chicago, Adler & Sullivan, 1891, destroyed by fire January 6, 2006

• Wirt Dexter Building, Chicago, Adler & Sullivan, 1887, destroyed by fire October 24, 2006

• George Harvey House, Chicago, Adler & Sullivan, 1888 destroyed by fire November 4, 2006