Louis Sullivan

Louis Henry [sometimes Henri] Sullivan (September 3, 1856 - 1924) was the American architect who is called the "father of modernism" and is considered by many to be the creator of the Prairie School of Architecture.

Biography

Louis Sullivan was born in Boston, studied architecture briefly at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and is associated with the first generation of American skyscrapers, as steel technology and the invention of the elevator allowed taller and more spacious buildings than were previously possible. He was one of the leading figures of the Chicago School of architecture, and a mentor to Frank Lloyd Wright.

Learning that he could both graduate from high school a year early and pass up the first two years at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) by passing a series of examinations, Sullivan proceeded to do just that and entered MIT at the age of 16. One year was enough of that and probably with letters of recommendation he moved to Philadelphia and gained employment with architect Frank Furness. The Depression of 1873 dried up much of Furness’s work and he was forced to let Sullivan go. At that point Sullivan moved to Chicago in 1873, to take part in the building boom that followed in the wake of the Great Fire of 1871. In Chicago he was employed by William LeBaron Jenney, the architect often credited with erecting the first steel frame building. After less than a year with Jenney, Sullivan moved to Paris where he enrolled in the École des Beaux-Arts, where, once again, one year was enough schooling for the independent-minded young man, who then found himself back in Chicago and not yet out of his 18th year. His next few years passed working for various architects, but in 1879 Dankmar Adler hired Sullivan and a year later he was a partner in the firm. Thus began what were to be some of Sullivan’s most productive years.

In 1890 Sullivan was one of 10 architects, five from the East and five from the West, chosen to build a major structure for the World Columbian Exposition, held in Chicago in 1893. He was assigned the Transportation Building and his "Golden Door" was one of the architectural standouts of the Exhibition. Hs was, in fact, the only building to receive extensive recognition outside America, receiving three medals from the Union Centrale des Artes Decoratifs the following year.

One of the traits found in his designs that made Sullivan a revolutionary in his day was his insistence on allowing the structure of his buildings, especially the tall ones, to be seens, in fact, to be reveled in. However this practice was soon adopted by most architects. What makes Sullivan's designs unique to this day was the style of ornamentation that he devised. The combination of geometric and organic forms that he developed was what has sometimes had Sullivan regarded as a Art Nouveau artist. Except for some designs by his long time draftsman Geogre Elmslie and the occasional tribute to Sullivan such as Schmit, Garden and Martin's First National Bank in Pueblo, built across the stereet from Adler and Sullivan's Pueblo Opera House, one does not find this style of ornamentation.

Selected Projects

Buildings through 1895 are by Adler & Sullivan.

• Auditorium Building, Chicago (1889)
• Wainwright Building, St. Louis (1890)
• Guaranty Building, Buffalo (1894)
• Bayard Building, (now Bayard-Condict Building), 65-69 Bleecker Street, New York City (1898). Sullivan's only building in New York, with a terra cotta curtain wall expressing the steel structure behind it.
• Carson, Pirie, Scott store, Chicago (1899)

The Banks

[All still standing]

By the end of the first decade of the 20th century, Sullivan's star was well on the descent and for the remainer of his life his ourput consisted primarily of a series of small bank and commercial buildings in the Midwest. Yet a look at these buildings clearly reveals that Sullivan's muse had not abandoned him. When the director of a bank that was considering hiring him asked Sullivan why they should engage him at a cost higher than the bids received for a conventional Neo-Classic styled building from other architects, Sullivan is reported to have replied, "A Thousand architects could design those buildings. Only I can design this one." He got the job. Today these commisions are collectivly referred to as Sullivan's "Jewel Boxes."

• National Farmer's Bank, Owatonna, Minnesota (1908)
• Peoples Savings Bank, Cedar Rapids, Iowa (1911)
• Henry Adams Building, Algona, Iowa (1913)

• Merchants' National Bank, Grinnell, Iowa (1914)
• Home Building Association Bank, Newark, Ohio (1914)
• Purdue State Bank, West Lafayette, Indiana (1914)
• Peoples Saving and Loan Association Bank, Sidney, Ohio (1918)
• Farmers and Merchants Bank, Columbus, Wisconsin (1919)

Lost Sullivan

• Grand Opera House, Chicago, 1880 – 1927
• Pueblo Opera House, Pueblo, Colorado, 1890- 1922 Destroyed by fire.
• Chicago Stock Exchange Building, Adler & Sullivan 1893 – 1972

The Trading Room from the Stock Exchange was removed intact prior to the building’s demolition and was subsequently restored in the Art Institute of Chicago in 1977.

• Zion Temple, Chicago 1884 - ??
• Transportation Building 1893-94 –an exposition building, it was only built to last a year.