Louis Sullivan
1
Louis Sullivan
Louis Henry Sullivan
Born
September 3, 1856
Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Died
April 14, 1924 (aged 67)
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Occupation
Architect
Influenced by Henry Hobson Richardson
Influenced
Frank Lloyd Wright
Louis Henry Sullivan (September 3, 1856 – April 14, 1924)[1] was an American architect, and has been called the
"father of skyscrapers"[2] and "father of modernism"[3] He is considered by many as the creator of the modern
skyscraper, was an influential architect and critic of the Chicago School, was a mentor to Frank Lloyd Wright, and
an inspiration to the Chicago group of architects who have come to be known as the Prairie School. Along with
Henry Hobson Richardson and Frank Lloyd Wright, Sullivan is one of "the recognized trinity of American
architecture".[4] He received the AIA Gold Medal in 1944.
Biography
Louis Henry Sullivan was born to an Irish-born father, Patrick Sullivan, and a Swiss-born mother, née Andrienne
List, both of whom had immigrated to the United States in the late 1840s.[5] He grew up living with his grandmother,
Anna Mattheus List, in South Reading (now Wakefield), Massachusetts. Louis spent most of his childhood learning
about nature at his grandparent’s farm. In the later years of his primary education, his experiences varied quite a bit.
He would spend a lot of time by himself wandering around Boston. He explored every street looking at the
surrounding buildings. This was around the time when he developed his fascination with buildings and he decided he
would one day become a structural engineer/architect. While attending high school Sullivan met Moses Woolson,
whose teachings made a lasting impression on him, and nurtured him until his death. After graduating from high
school, Sullivan studied architecture briefly at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 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 by passing a series of examinations, Sullivan entered MIT at the age of sixteen. After one year of study,
he moved to Philadelphia and talked himself into a job with architect Frank Furness.
Louis Sullivan
The Depression of 1873 dried up much of Furness’s work,
and he was forced to let Sullivan go. At that point Sullivan
moved on to Chicago in 1873 to take part in the building
boom following the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. He
worked for 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 and
studied at the École des Beaux-Arts for a year. Renaissance
art inspired Sullivan’s mind, and he was influenced to
direct his architecture to emulating Michelangelo's spirit of
creation rather than replicating the styles of earlier periods.
He returned to Chicago and began work for the firm of
Joseph S. Johnston & John Edelman as a draftsman.
Johnston & Edleman were commissioned for the design of
the Moody Tabernacle, with the interior decorative "fresco
secco" stencils (stencil technique applied on dry plaster)
designed by Sullivan.[6] In 1879 Dankmar Adler hired
Sullivan; a year later, he became a partner in the firm. This
marked the beginning of Sullivan's most productive years.
And it was at this firm that Sullivan would deeply
influence a young designer named Frank Lloyd Wright,
who came to embrace Sullivan's designs and principles as
the inspiration for his own work.
2
Louis Sullivan in middle age, circa 1895.
Adler and Sullivan initially achieved fame as theater
architects. While most of their theaters were in Chicago, their fame won commissions as far west as Pueblo,
Colorado, and Seattle, Washington (unbuilt). The culminating project of this phase of the firm's history was the 1889
Auditorium Building (1886-1890-opened in stages) in Chicago, an extraordinary mixed-use building which included
not only a 4,200-seat theater, but also a hotel -The Auditorium Hotel and an office building with a 17-story tower,
with commercial storefronts at the ground level of the building fronting Congress and Wabash Avenues. The
Auditorium Building with its magnificent theater and hotel, literally put Chicago on the cultural map and raised the
city's profile and helped to pave the way for the city to host the Columbian Exposition-the Chicago World's Fair of
1893. Adler and Sullivan reserved the top floors of the tower for their own office. After 1889 the firm became
known for their office buildings, particularly the 1891 Wainwright Building in St. Louis, The Schiller (later Garrick)
Building and theater (1890) in Chicago, along with the Chicago Stock Exchange Building (1894), the Guaranty
Building (also known as the Prudential Building) of 1895-1896 in Buffalo, New York and the 1899-1904 Carson
Pirie Scott Department Store by Sullivan on State Street in Chicago. Louis Sullivan is considered by many to be the
first architect to fully imagine and realize a rich architectural vocabulary for a revolutionary new kind of building:
the steel high-rise or tall building, with its distinct verticality and its expression, with a defined base, midsection and
cornice or top.
Louis Sullivan
3
Sullivan and the steel high-rise
Prior to the late 19th century, the weight of a multistory
building had to be supported principally by the strength
of its walls. The taller the building, the more strain this
placed on the lower sections of the building; since there
were clear engineering limits to the weight such
"load-bearing" walls could sustain, large designs meant
massively thick walls on the ground floors, and definite
limits on the building's height.
The development of cheap, versatile steel in the second
half of the 19th century changed those rules. America
was in the midst of rapid social and economic growth
that made for great opportunities in architectural
design. A much more urbanized society was forming
and the society called out for new, larger buildings. The
mass production of steel was the main driving force
behind the ability to build skyscrapers during the mid
1880s. As seen with the data below the prices dropped
significantly during this period.
Price of Steel at Bessemer Steel Rails from 1867 to
1895 ($/ton)
1867- $166; 1870- $107; 1875- $69; 1880- $68; 1885$29; 1890- $32; 1895- $32
Prudential Building, also known as the Guaranty Building, Buffalo,
New York, 1894
The people in Midwestern America felt less social
pressure to conform to the ways and styles of the
architectural past. By assembling a framework of steel girders, architects and builders could suddenly create tall,
slender buildings with a strong and relatively delicate steel skeleton. The rest of the building's elements—the walls,
floors, ceilings, and windows—were suspended from the steel, which carried the weight. This new way of
constructing buildings, so-called "column-frame" construction, pushed them up rather than out. The steel
weight-bearing frame allowed not just taller buildings, but permitted much larger windows, which meant more
daylight reaching interior spaces. Interior walls became thinner, which created more usable floor space.
Chicago's Monadnock Building (which was not designed by Sullivan) straddles this remarkable moment of
transition: the northern half of the building, finished in 1891, is of load-bearing construction, while the southern half,
finished only two years later, is column-frame. (While experiments in this new technology were taking place in
many cities, Chicago was the crucial laboratory. Industrial capital and civic pride drove a surge of new construction
throughout the city's downtown in the wake of the 1871 fire.)
The technical limits of weight-bearing masonry had always imposed formal as well as structural constraints; those
constraints were suddenly gone. None of the historical precedents were any help, and this new freedom created a
kind of technical and stylistic crisis.
Sullivan was the first to cope with that crisis. He addressed it by embracing the changes that came with the steel
frame, creating a grammar of form for the high rise (base, shaft, and pediment), simplifying the appearance of the
building by breaking away from historical styles, using his own intricate flora designs, in vertical bands, to draw the
eye upwards and emphasize the building's vertical form, and relating the shape of the building to its specific purpose.
All this was revolutionary, appealingly honest, and commercially successful.
Louis Sullivan
Louis Sullivan coined the phrase "form ever follows function", which, shortened to "form follows function," would
become the great battle-cry of modernist architects. This credo, which placed the demands of practical use above
aesthetics, would later be taken by influential designers to imply that decorative elements, which architects call
"ornament," were superfluous in modern buildings. But Sullivan himself neither thought nor designed along such
dogmatic lines during the peak of his career. Indeed, while his buildings could be spare and crisp in their principal
masses, he often punctuated their plain surfaces with eruptions of lush Art Nouveau and something like Celtic
Revival decorations, usually cast in iron or terra cotta, and ranging from organic forms like vines and ivy, to more
geometric designs, and interlace, inspired by his Irish design heritage. Terra cotta is lighter and easier to work with
than stone masonry. Sullivan used it in his architecture because it had a malleability that was appropriate for his
ornament. Probably the most famous example is the writhing green ironwork that covers the entrance canopies of the
Carson Pirie Scott store on South State Street. These ornaments, often executed by the talented younger draftsman in
Sullivan's employ, would eventually become Sullivan's trademark; to students of architecture, they are his
instantly-recognizable signature.
Another signature element of Sullivan's work is the massive, semi-circular arch. Sullivan employed such arches
throughout his career—in shaping entrances, in framing windows, or as interior design.
All of these elements can be found in Sullivan's widely-admired Guaranty Building, which he designed while
partnered with Adler. Completed in 1895, this office building in Buffalo, New York is in the Palazzo style, visibly
divided into three "zones" of design: a plain, wide-windowed base for the ground-level shops; the main office block,
with vertical ribbons of masonry rising unimpeded across nine upper floors to emphasize the building's height; and
an ornamented cornice perforated by round windows at the roof level, where the building's mechanical units (like the
elevator motors) were housed. The cornice crawls with Sullivan's trademark Art Nouveau vines; each ground-floor
entrance is topped by a semi-circular arch.
Because of Sullivan's remarkable accomplishments in design and construction at such a critical point in architectural
history, he has sometimes been described as the "father" of the American skyscraper. In truth, many architects had
been building skyscrapers before or contemporarily with Sullivan. Chicago itself was replete with extraordinary
designers and builders in the late years of the 19th century, including Sullivan's partner Dankmar Adler, as well as
Daniel Burnham, and John Wellborn Root. Root was one of the builders of the Monadnock Building (see above).
That and another Root design, the Masonic Temple Tower (both in Chicago), are cited by many as the originators of
skyscraper aesthetics of bearing wall and column-frame construction respectively.
It may be that Sullivan's prominence in skyscraper history can be credited not only to his brilliance, but in some
degree to the myth-making skills of his disciple, Frank Lloyd Wright, and to the impact of Sullivan's own book, The
Autobiography of an Idea. He may also owe some of his legend to the tragic tint of his later years, which lend this
great innovator's story a poignancy which has captured the imagination of student and historian alike.
Later career and decline
In 1890 Sullivan was one of the ten architects, five from the Eastern U.S. and five from the Western U.S., chosen to
build a major structure for the "White City", the World's Columbian Exposition, held in Chicago in 1893. Sullivan's
massive Transportation Building and huge arched "Golden Door" stood out as the only forward-looking design in a
sea of Beaux-Arts historical copies, and the only multicolored facade in the White City. Sullivan and fair director
Daniel Burnham were vocal about their displeasure with each other. Sullivan was later (1922) to claim that the fair
set the course of American architecture back "for half a century from its date, if not longer."[7] His was the only
building to receive extensive recognition outside America, receiving three medals from the Union Centrale des Arts
Decoratifs the following year.
4
Louis Sullivan
Like all American architects, Adler and Sullivan saw a precipitous
decline in their practice with the onset of the Panic of 1893.
According to Charles Bebb, who was working in the office at that
time, Adler borrowed money to try to keep employees on the
payroll.[8] By 1894, however, in the face of continuing financial
distress with no relief in sight, Adler and Sullivan dissolved their
partnership. The Guaranty Building was considered the last major
project of the firm.
By both temperament and connections, Adler had always been the
one who brought in new business to the partnership, and after the
rupture Sullivan received few large commissions after the Carson
Pirie Scott Department Store. He went into a twenty-year-long
financial and emotional decline, beset by a shortage of
commissions, chronic financial problems and alcoholism. He
obtained a few commissions for small-town Midwestern banks
(see below), wrote books, and in 1922 appeared as a critic of
Raymond Hood's winning entry for the Tribune Tower
competition, a steel-frame tower dressed in Gothic stonework that
Sullivan's monument in Graceland Cemetery, Chicago,
Illinois. Note the alternative spelling of his middle
Sullivan found a shameful piece of historicism. He and his former
name on the memorial.
understudy Frank Lloyd Wright reconciled in time for Wright to
help fund Sullivan's funeral after he died, poor and alone, in a
Chicago hotel room on April 14, 1924. He left a wife, Mary Azona Hattabaugh, from whom he was separated. A
modest headstone marks his final resting spot in Graceland Cemetery in Chicago's Uptown and Lake View
neighborhoods. Only yards away from his resting-place, some of Chicago's lesser-known but much wealthier dead
are entombed in handsome and distinctive tombs designed by Sullivan himself. A monument (shown) was later
erected in Sullivan's honor, a few feet from his headstone.
Sullivan's legacy is contradictory. Some consider him the first modernist. His forward-looking designs clearly
anticipate some issues and solutions of Modernism. However, his embrace of ornament makes his contribution
distinct from the Modern Movement that coalesced in the 1920s and became known as the "International Style". To
experience Sullivan's built work is to experience the irresistible appeal of his incredible designs, the vertical bands
on the Wainwright Building, the burst of welcoming Art Nouveau ironwork on the corner entrance of the Carson
Pirie Scott store, the (lost) terra cotta griffins and porthole windows on the Union Trust building, the white angels of
the Bayard Building. Except for some designs by his long time draftsman George Grant Elmslie, and the occasional
tribute to Sullivan such as Schmidt, Garden & Martin's First National Bank in Pueblo, Colorado (built across the
street from Adler and Sullivan's Pueblo Opera House), his style is unique. A visit to the preserved Chicago Stock
Exchange trading floor, now at The Art Institute of Chicago, is proof of the immediate and visceral power of the
ornament that he used so selectively. Original drawings and other archival materials from Sullivan are held by the
Ryerson & Burnham Libraries in the Art Institute of Chicago and by the Drawings and Archives Department in the
Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library at Columbia University. Fragments of Sullivan buildings are also held in
many fine art and design museums around the world.
5
Louis Sullivan
Preservation
During the postwar era of urban renewal, Sullivan's works fell into disfavor, and many were demolished. In the
1970s growing public concern for these buildings finally resulted in many being saved. The most vocal voice was
Richard Nickel, who organized protests against the demolition of architecturally significant buildings.[9] Nickel and
others sometimes rescued decorative elements from condemned buildings, sneaking in during demolition. This
practice led to Nickel's death inside Sullivan's Stock Exchange building, when a floor above him collapsed. Nickel
had compiled extensive research on Adler and Sullivan and their many architectural commissions, which he intended
to publish in book form. Nickel's death led to the creation in 1972 of the Richard Nickel Committee, which arranged
the completion of Nickel's book and its publication in 2010. The book features all 256 commissions of Adler and
Sullivan. The extensive archive of photographs and research that underpinned the book was donated to the Ryerson
and Burnham Libraries at The Art Institute of Chicago. More than 1,300 photographs are viewable on their website
and more than 15,000 photograhs are part of the collection at The Art Institute of Chicago. As finally published, the
book "The Complete Architecture of Adler & Sullivan" was authored by Richard Nickel, Aaron Siskind, John Vinci
and Ward Miller.
Another champion of Sullivan's legacy was the architect Crombie Taylor (1907–1991), of Crombie Taylor
Associates, who, with single-minded determination, led the effort to save the Van Allen Building in Clinton, Iowa
from demolition.[10] Taylor, acting as an aesthetic consultant, had worked on the renovation of the Auditorium
Building (now Roosevelt University) in Chicago.[11] When he read an article about the planned demolition, he
uprooted his family from their home in Southern California (long after he had left Chicago, after heading the famous
"Institute of Design" - later known as the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) - in the 1950s and early 1960s) and
moved them to Clinton. With the vision of a destination neighborhood comparable to Oak Park, Illinois, he set about
creating a non-profit to save the building, and was successful in doing so. Another advocate both of Sullivan
buildings and of Wright structures was Jack Randall, who led an effort to save the Wainwright Building in St. Louis,
Missouri at a very critical time and then relocated his family to Buffalo, New York to save Sullivan's Guaranty
Building and Frank Lloyd Wright's Darwin Martin House from possible demolition. His efforts were successful in
both St. Louis and Buffalo.
Sullivan in Fiction
That the fictional character of Henry Cameron in Ayn Rand's 1943 novel The Fountainhead was similar to the
real-life Sullivan was noted, if only in passing, by at least on contemporary journalist.[12]
More recent study of Rand's posthumously published journal notes as well as a close comparison of the respective
careers of the real and fictional architects by Heynick [13] has explored this connection in some detail. Although
Rand's journal notes contain in toto only some 50 lines directly referring to Sullivan, it is clear from her mention of
Sullivan's Autobiography of an Idea (1924) in her 25th anniversary introduction to her earlier novel We the Living
(first published in 1936, and unrelated to architecture) that she was intimately familiar with his life and career.[14]
Indeed, the term "the Fountainhead," which appears nowhere in Rand's novel proper, is found twice (as "the
fountainhead" and later as "the fountain head") in Sullivan's autobiography, both times used metaphorically.[15]
The fictional Cameron is, like Sullivan (whose physical desciption he matches), a great innovative skyscraper
pioneer late in the 19th century who dies impoverished and embittered in the mid-1920s (which is still early in the
novel). Cameron's rapid decline is explicitly attributed to the wave of classical Greco-Roman revivalism in
architecture in the wake of the 1893 Columbian World's Exhibition, just as Sullivan in his autobiography attributed
his own fall to the same event.[16]
The major difference between novel and real life was in the chronology of Cameron's relation with his protégé
Howard Roark, the novel's hero, who eventually goes on to redeem his vision. That Roark's uncompromising
individualism and his innovative organic style in architecture was drawn from the life and work of Frank Lloyd
6
Louis Sullivan
7
Wright is clear from Rand's journal notes, her correspondence and various contemporary accounts.[17] However, in
the novel, the 23-year-old Roark, a generation younger than the real-life Wright, becomes Cameron's protégé in the
early 1920s, when Sullivan was long in decline. The young Wright, by contrast, was Sullivan's protégé for seven
years, beginning in 1887, when Sullivan was at the height of his fame and power. The two architects would sever
their ties in 1894 due Sullivan's angry reaction to Wright's private moonlighting in breach of contract.[18] After
decades of estrangement, Wright would again become close to (the now destitude) Sullivan in the early 1920s, the
time when Roark first comes under (the likewise impoverished) Cameron's tutelage in the novel. [19] Wright,
however, was now in his fifties. Nevertheless, both the young Roark and middle-aged Wright had in common at that
time that they both faced a decade of struggle ahead. After the triumphs earlier in his career, Wright came
increasingly to be viewed as a has-been -- until his career would experience a renaissance in the latter half of the
1930s with such projects as Fallingwater and the Johnson Wax complex.[20]
Selected projects
• See also: 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)
• Charlotte Dickson Wainwright Tomb, Bellefontaine
Cemetery, St. Louis (1892) which is lised on the
National Register of Historic Places [21][22][23][24] is
considered a major American architectural
triumph,[25] a model for ecclesiastical
architecture,[26] a "masterpiece",[27] and has been
called "the Taj Mahal of St. Louis." Interestingly,
the family name appears nowhere on the tomb.[28]
Transportation Building, Chicago 1893–94
• Union Trust Building (now 705 Olive), St. Louis
(1893; street-level ornament heavily altered 1924)
• Guaranty Building (formerly Prudential Building),
Buffalo (1894)
Buildings 1887–1895 by Louis Sullivan, with Dankmar
Adler until 1895.
• Springer Block (later Bay State Building and
Burnham Building) and Kranz Buildings, Chicago
(1885–1887)
Wainwright Tomb
• The Auditorium Building, Auditorium Hotel and Auditorium Theater (now Roosevelt University), Chicago
(1886–1890)
• Selz, Schwab & Company Factory, Chicago (1886–1887)
• Commercial Loft for Wirt Dexter, Chicago (1887)
• Standard Club of Chicago, Chicago (1887–1888)
• Hebrew Manual Training School, Chicago (1889–1890)
• James H. Walker Warehouse & Company Store, Chicago (1886–1889)
Louis Sullivan
8
• Warehouse for E. W. Blatchford, Chicago (1889)
• Kehilath Anshe Ma'ariv Synagogue (also known as the K.A.M. Temple, later known as the Pilgrim Baptist
Church), Chicago (1890–1891)
• James Charnley House (also known as the Charnley–Persky House Museum Foundation and the National
Headquarters of the Society of Architectural Historians), Chicago (1891–1892)
• Albert Sullivan Residence, Chicago (1891–1892)
• Transportation Building, World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago (1891–1893)
• 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 curtain wall expressing the steel structure behind it.
• Commercial Loft of Gage Brothers & Company, Chicago (1898–1900)
• Holy Trinity Russian Orthodox Cathedral and Rectory, 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[29]
• Van Allen Building, Clinton, Iowa (1914)
• St. Paul's Methodist Church, Cedar Rapids, Iowa (1910)
• Krause Music Store, Chicago (final commission 1922; front façade only)
256 total commissions and projects of Dankmar Adler and Louis Sullivan
The banks
By the end of the first decade of the 20th century,
Sullivan's star was well on the descent and for the
remainder of his life his output 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
commissions are collectively referred to as Sullivan's
"Jewel Boxes." All are still standing.
A portion of the National Farmer's Bank's west face, Owatonna,
Minnesota (1908)
• National Farmer's Bank, 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 Bank, Columbus, Wisconsin (1919)
• First National Bank, Manistique, Michigan (1919–1920) A remodeling of an existing bank building.[30]
Louis Sullivan
9
Lost Sullivans
• Grand Opera House, Chicago. 1880. Demolished
1927.
• 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 Trading room from the Stock
Exchange was removed intact prior to the
Entrance from the 1893 Chicago Stock Exchange building,
building's
demolition
and
was
reinstalled at The Art Institute of Chicago
subsequently restored in the Art Institute of
Chicago in 1977; the entryway arch (seen at right) 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, it was only 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.[31]
• 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. Adler & Sullivan. 1891. Destroyed by fire January 6, 2006.
• Wirt Dexter Building. Adler & Sullivan. 1887. Destroyed by fire October 24, 2006.
• George Harvey House. Adler & Sullivan. 1888. Destroyed by fire November 4, 2006.
Images
Union
Trust
Building
Wainwright
Building
Wainwright
Building cornice
Auditorium Building
Chicago
Stock
Exchange
Building
Louis Sullivan
10
Getty Tomb
Bayard-Condict
Building
Carson Pirie
Scott store
The Van
Allen
Building
Detail of ornamentation
of the Van Allen Building
Gage
Building
(on right)
Holy
Trinity
Russian
Orthodox
Cathedral,
exterior
Holy
Trinity
Russian
Orthodox
Cathedral,
interior
National Farmer's Bank
of Owatonna
People's Federal
Savings and Loan
Association
Merchants'
National
Bank
Peoples Savings Bank
Harold C. Bradley House,
Wisconsin
Louis
Sullivan
Jewel Box,
Grinnell,
Iowa
Krause
Music Store
References
Notes
[1] The spelling of Sullivan's middle name (whether Henry or Henri) has caused confusion. According to Robert Twombly, "Louis Sullivan –
His Life and Work" (Elizabeth Sifton Books, New York City, 1986), his birth certificate read Henry Louis Sullivan, though he was always
called Louis Henry. Sullivan himself helped propagate confusion over his middle name by announcing, in his book "Autobiography of an
Idea", which he wrote at the end of his life, at a time when professional failure and alcohol may have clouded his judgment, that he had been
named Louis Henri after his grandfather Henri List (see footnote below). The latter spelling was in turn enshrined by the designers of his
funerary monument (see picture in text).
[2] Kaufman, Mervyn D. (1969). Father of Skyscrapers: A Biography of Louis Sullivan. Boston: Little, Brown and Company.
[3] Chambers Biographical Dictionary. London: Chambers Harrap, 2007. s.v. "Sullivan, Louis Henry," http:/ / www. credoreference. com/ entry/
chambbd/ sullivan_louis_henry (subscription required)
[4] O'Gorman, James F. (1991). Three American Architects: Richardson, Sullivan, and Wright, 1865-1915. Chicago: University of Chicago
Press. p. xv. ISBN 978-0-226-62071-8.
[5] Sullivan, Louis H. Autobiography of an Idea. Mineola, New York: Dover Publications, 2009 (reprint of 1924 edition), p. 31. (http:/ / books.
google. com/ books?id=KmvHQGSP3JQC& printsec=frontcover& source=gbs_ge_summary_r& cad=0#v=onepage& q=louis henri sullivan&
f=false) This reference illustrates Sullivan's adoption of the "Henri" speling of his middle name towards the end of his life.
[6] Louis Sullivan (http:/ / www. prairiestyles. com/ lsullivan. htm) at www.prairiestyles.com
[7] Sullivan, Louis (1924). Autobiography of an Idea. New York City: Press of the American institute of Architects, Inc.. p. 325.
[8] Jeffrey Karl Ochsner and Dennis Alan Andersen, Distant Corner: Seattle Architects and the Legacy of H.H. Richardson (Seattle and London:
University of Washington Press, 2003), 287-288.
Louis Sullivan
[9] Cahan, Richard (1994). They All Fall Down - Richard Nickel's Struggle to Save American's Architecture. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons.
p. 90. ISBN 0-471-14426-6.
[10] Nickel, Richard; Aaron Siskind, John Vinci and Ward Miller (2010). The Complete Architecture of Adler and Sullivan. Chicago: Richard
Nickel Committee. p. 428. ISBN 978-0-9660273-2-7.
[11] Siry, Joseph M. (2002). The Chicago Auditorium Building - Adler and Sullivan's Architecture and the City (http:/ / press. uchicago. edu/
ucp/ books/ book/ chicago/ C/ bo3623050. html). Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. pp. 318, 398, 411. ISBN 0-226-76133-9. .
[12] Life magazine; Sept. 2, 1946; reply by editor to reader's letter, p.22
[13] Frank Heynick "Al 65 jaar lang vloeit 'De Eeuwige Bron' (in Dutch; "'The Fountainhead' still gushing after 65 years"; Product: Tijdschrift
voor Productontwikkelaars; 16(3); May 2008; pp.13-15; see also Frank Heynick "Henry Cameron's last hour"; http:/ / www. theatlasphere.
com/ columns/ 100916-heynick-cameron-buildings. php
[14] "My view of what a good autobiography should be is contained in the title that Louis H. Sullivan gave to the story of his life: The
Autobiography of an Idea." Ayn Rand "Forward" (1958) to We The Living (1936); New American Library; 2009; p.xiii. This is the total
mention by Rand; she does not bother to tell the reader that Sullivan was an architect or anything else about him.
[15] Louis H. Sullivan Autobiography of an Idea 1924; reprint 2009; Dover Publications; p.20, p.213
[16] Ayn Rand; The Fountainhead; Bobbs-Merrill; 1943; pp. 34-5; Louis H. Sullivan; The Autobiography of an Idea; pp. 324-7
[17] Ayn Rand; The Journals of Ayn Rand; Plume; 1999; Section 5; Ayn Rand; The Letters of Ayn Rand; 1995; Dutton; Section 3
[18] Frank Lloyd Wright; Genius and Mobocracy; Duell Sloan & Pearce; 1949; pp.66-7
[19] ibid; pp. 71-76
[20] Franklin Toker; Fallingwater Rising; Alfred A. Knopf; pp.14-5
[21] Charles Dickinson Wainwright Memorial, Tomb, including photograph (http:/ / www. findagrave. com/ cgi-bin/ fg. cgi?page=gr&
GRid=1066) at Find a Grave.
[22] Architectural Plans for Wainwright tomb, The Steedman Exhibit. (http:/ / exhibits. slpl. org/ steedman/ data/ Steedman240102106.
asp?thread=240093347)
[23] Charlotte Wainwright Tomb, American Waymarks. (http:/ / www. waymarking. com/ waymarks/
WM31N8_Wainwright_Tomb_St_Louis_Missouri)
[24] Historic Americal Buildings Survey, MO-1637A, Wainwright Tomb. (http:/ / memory. loc. gov/ pnp/ habshaer/ mo/ mo0600/ mo0668/ data/
mo0668. pdf)
[25] http:/ / www. nytimes. com/ 1999/ 04/ 16/ arts/ on-the-road-st-louis-the-river-runs-by-it-history-through-it. html?pagewanted=all R. W.
Apple Jr. ON THE ROAD; St. Louis: The River Runs by It, History Through It By R. W. Apple Jr. Published: April 16, 1999. New York
Times
[26] Rome of the West. (http:/ / www. romeofthewest. com/ 2007/ 11/ two-by-sullivan. html)
[27] http:/ / www. archive. org/ stream/ markers05asso/ markers05asso_djvu. txt Chase, Markers V, Theodore, Journal of the Association for
Gravestone Studies 1988 Lapham Maryland: University Press of America, Inc. at Internet Archive.
[28] St. Louis' Historic Cemeteries Offer Final Rest for the Rich and Famous. (http:/ / www. explorestlouis. travel/ media/ pressKit/
historicCemeteries. asp)
[29] Tusculum College (http:/ / www. tusculum. edu/ tour/ campus/ tvirginia. html)
[30] Twombly. Robert, ‘’Louis Sullivan: His life and work’’, Elisabeth Sifton Books, New York, 1986 p. 458
[31] Chicago Architecture, Schiller Building. (http:/ / tigger. uic. edu/ depts/ ahaa/ imagebase/ intranet/ slide_scans/ Schiller_Building/
Schiller_Building. html)
Sources
•
•
•
•
Columbian Gallery – A Portfolio of Photographs of the World’s Fair, The Werner Company, Chicago, IL, 1894.
Condit, Carl W., The Chicago School of Architecture, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL, 1964.
Connely, Willard, Louis Sullivan as He Lived, Horizon Press, Inc., NY, 1960.
Engelbrecht, Lloyd C., "Adler and Sullivan’s Pueblo Opera House: City Status for a New Town in the Rockies",
The Art Bulletin, Published by the College Art Association of America, June 1985.
• Gebhard, David (May 1960). "Louis Sullivan and George Grant Elmslie". Journal of the Society of Architectural
Historians 19 (2): 62–68. JSTOR 988008.
• Hoffmann, Donald (January 13, 1998). Frank Lloyd Wright, Louis Sullivan, and the skyscraper (http://books.
google.com/books?id=DflckSNm3H4C). Courier Dover Publications. ISBN 978-0-486-40209-3. Retrieved
March 27, 2011.
• Morrison, Hugh, Louis Sullivan – Prophet of Modern Architecture, W.W. Norton & Co., Inc. New York City,
1963.
• Nickel, Richard, Aaron Siskind, John Vinci and Ward Miller. "The Complete Architecture of Adler & Sullivan",
Richard Nickel Committee, Chicago, Illinois, 2010.
11
Louis Sullivan
• Sullivan, Louis, The Autobiography of an Idea, Press of the American institute of Architects, Inc., New York
City, 1924.
• Sullivan, Louis, Kindergarten Chats and Other Writings, Dover Publications, Inc., New York City, 1979.
• Sullivan, Louis H. Louis Sullivan: The Public Papers Ed. Robert Twombly, Chicago University Press, Chicago &
London, 1988
• Thomas, Cohen and Lewis, Frank Furness – The Complete Works, Princeton Architectural Press, New York City,
1991.
• Twombly, Robert, Louis Sullivan – His Life and Work, Elizabeth Sifton Books, New York City, 1986.
• Vinci, John, The Art Institute of Chicago: The Stock Exchange Trading Room, The Art Institute of Chicago, 1977.
• Weingarden, Lauren S. "Louis H. Sullivan: A System of Architectural Ornament" [1924]. Co-published by the
Art Institute of Chicago and Ernst Wasmuth Verlag (Germany); distributed by Rizzoli International (U.S.),
Wasmuth (Germany), Mardaga (France), 1990.
• Weingarden, Lauren S. "Louis H. Sullivan: The Banks". Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1987.
External links
• Book: "The Complete Architecture of Adler & Sullivan" by Richard Nickel, Aaron Siskind, John Vinci and Ward
Miller (http://richardnickelcommittee.org/)
• Film: Louis Sullivan: the Struggle for American Architecture by Mark Richard Smith (2010) (http://
louissullivanfilm.com/home/)
• Lieber-Meister – The Louis Sullivan Page (http://web.archive.org/web/20091028152838/http://geocities.
com/SoHo/1469/sullivan.html)
• Sullivan at 150 – extensive list and photos (http://www.chicagohistory.org/sullivan150/credits/index.php)
• Tribute to Louis Sullivan – 150 Years (http://www.aptne.org/louissullivanevent.html)
• Louis Sullivan at 150, Chicago History museum. (http://www.chicagohistory.org/sullivan150/about/
buildings.php)
• Atlantic.com slideshow, "The Architecture of Louis Sullivan," with photographs by Richard Nickel and others
(http://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2011/02/slideshow-the-architecture-of-louis-sullivan/70108/)
• Article on fragments of Adler and Sullivan Buildings in Chicago (http://www.mrdankelly.com/
sullivanfragments.html)
• Louis Sullivan (http://www.dmoz.org/Arts/Architecture/History/Architects/S/Sullivan,_Louis//) at the
Open Directory Project
• Louis Sullivan (http://www.prairiestyles.com/lsullivan.htm) at www.prairiestyles.com
• "Sullivan's Banks" documentary by Heinz Emigholz (http://www.pym.de/index.php?option=com_content&
task=view&id=144&Itemid=70)
• Louis Sullivan (http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=1003) at Find a Grave
• Graceland Cemetery Biography (http://www.gracelandcemetery.org/pages/architects.html)
• Louis Sullivan Collection (http://www.artic.edu/aic/libraries/research/specialcollections/sullivan/index.
html) – images, bio
• Louis Sullivan Buildings Extant in Chicago (http://www.artic.edu/aic/libraries/research/specialcollections/
sullivanbldgs/index.html) – photographs, descriptions, maps
• Louis H. Sullivan Ornaments (http://collections.carli.illinois.edu/cdm4/index_sie_arch.php?CISOROOT=/
sie_arch) – digital photographs of ornaments with historic photographs of the original buildings
12
Article Sources and Contributors
Article Sources and Contributors
Louis Sullivan Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=517186239 Contributors: 21655, 7&6=thirteen, 842U, A. B., Ahoerstemeier, Amandajm, Arjuncm3, Asi013, Aspects, Aude,
Bibliosoph, Bigturtle, Boing! said Zebedee, Brazzouk, BrooklynBrendan, Brosi, Bthutch, Burnhamandroot, Carl Boyd, Carptrash, Cburnett, Chamal N, Chesterct, Chochopk, Clariosophic,
Computerman45, Cynicism addict, D6, DARTH SIDIOUS 2, DIDouglass, DS1953, Daderot, DanielVonEhren, Dapsv, Delirium, Design, Diannaa, Dismas, Dmadeo, Doczilla, Dominicarepublic,
Doncram, Dralwik, Dreamahighway2000, Dvulture, Edward, EurekaLott, FLWfan, Fabrictramp, Fizzlesbach, Frankie Rae, Fredrik, Fuck you Very Much, Fuzlogic, Gary Joseph, Gatemansgc,
Genaria07, Gloriamarie, GoingBatty, Gregbard, Guerillero, Guy Harris, Halter73, HewhoknowstheTruth, Hoursmany123, Ian Pitchford, Infocidal, Irdepesca572, Iridescent, Isnow, Isomorphic,
IvoShandor, Jahsonic, James Russiello, Jauhienij, Jcrocker, JeremyA, JimVC3, Jivecat, Jkeene, Jokestress, Jonathan.s.kt, Jonathunder, Jorunn, Jwillbur, K123456, Karl Dickman, Kazubon,
Khazar, Kirachinmoku, Kiril Simeonovski, Krosewood, Kumioko (renamed), Kungming2, Lambiam, Laurinavicius, Linuxerist, Lockley, Logan, Look2See1, Lotje, LowLife332244, Lswlhs,
Madhero88, Manop, Marcbela, Marcus2, Martpol, Mattisse, Maximillion Pegasus, Meelar, MikeJKearney, Mokubenim, Mr. Pink, MrDanKelly, Nandt1, NewEnglandYankee, Niceguyedc, Olof,
Omnipaedista, Orangepushup!, Philip Trueman, Pjm dwbh, Poroubalous, Prodego, Psychofish, Purslane, QuiteUnusual, Qxz, RA0808, Raven in Orbit, Retiono Virginian, Riana, Richard Arthur
Norton (1958- ), Rjwilmsi, Rmhermen, RobertG, Rogolo, Ronhjones, Rosiestep, Sam Hocevar, Sesu Prime, Shlimozzle, Shsilver, SidP, SimonP, Sluzzelin, Smallman12q, Sparkit, Srich32977,
Srsjones, Sry85, Studly123, Sun Creator, Tassedethe, Tdenzer, Tempodivalse, Textorus, The Mystery Man, The Thing That Should Not Be, Tide rolls, Tim Messer, Trollderella, TutterMouse,
Tysto, Usafclc3, Vardion, Viscount Flesym, Vladimor, Vleermuisman, Wars, Wetman, Whitebox, WikiPuppies, Wikievil666, Zoicon5, ‫ﺯﺭﺷﮏ‬, 270 anonymous edits
Image Sources, Licenses and Contributors
File:LouisSullivan.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:LouisSullivan.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: Albertomos, EurekaLott, Infrogmation, Iznogood, 1
anonymous edits
File:Louis Sullivan circa 1895.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Louis_Sullivan_circa_1895.jpg License: unknown Contributors: Unknown (Life time: Unknown)
File:Prudential buffalo louis sullivan.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Prudential_buffalo_louis_sullivan.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: Jack E. Boucher
File:SullivanGraceland.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:SullivanGraceland.jpg License: GNU Free Documentation License Contributors: User:Carptrash
File:LSTransportation2.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:LSTransportation2.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: EurekaLott, Frank Schulenburg, Iznogood,
Look2See1
File:LSWainwright Maus.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:LSWainwright_Maus.jpg License: GNU Free Documentation License Contributors: File:WestFaceDetail.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:WestFaceDetail.jpg License: GNU Free Documentation License Contributors: Tshearer at en.wikipedia
File:ChicagoStockExchange01.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:ChicagoStockExchange01.jpg License: Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 2.5 Contributors:
User:JeremyA
File:2010-07-04_1800x2700_stlouis_705_olive_street building.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:2010-07-04_1800x2700_stlouis_705_olive_street_building.jpg
License: unknown Contributors: J. Crocker
File:Wainwright building st louis USA.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Wainwright_building_st_louis_USA.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: EurekaLott,
Holger.Ellgaard, Infrogmation, JeremyA, Mattis, Publichall, Urban, Xnatedawgx
File:Louis Sullivan - cornice detail - Wainwright Building, Seventh + Chestnut Streets, Saint Louis, St. Louis City County, MO.jpg Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Louis_Sullivan_-_cornice_detail_-_Wainwright_Building,_Seventh_+_Chestnut_Streets,_Saint_Louis,_St._Louis_City_County,_MO.jpg License:
Public Domain Contributors: Blahedo, Daderot, Dogears, EurekaLott, Look2See1, Peteforsyth
File:Auditorium Building Chicago.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Auditorium_Building_Chicago.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: EurekaLott, FSII,
Filnik, Frode Inge Helland
File:Oldchicagostockexchange.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Oldchicagostockexchange.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: Adler & Sullivan (1881-1895)
File:Getty tomb chicago louis sullivan.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Getty_tomb_chicago_louis_sullivan.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: EurekaLott,
Frode Inge Helland, JeremyA, Sanfranman59
File:Bayard-condict bldg crop.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Bayard-condict_bldg_crop.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: Original uploader was Lockley
at en.wikipedia; cropped by Beyond My Ken (talk) 05:29, 18 November 2010 (UTC)
File:Carsons Pirie Scott & Co.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Carsons_Pirie_Scott_&_Co.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: AnRo0002, EurekaLott,
Infrogmation, JeremyA, Shaqspeare, Urban
File:Van Allen July 18, 2005 249.JPG Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Van_Allen_July_18,_2005_249.JPG License: Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 2.5
Contributors: Michael Kearney
File:Van Allen 3.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Van_Allen_3.jpg License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported Contributors:
Michael_Kearney
File:Gage Buildings - Chicago, Illinois.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Gage_Buildings_-_Chicago,_Illinois.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: Daderot,
Dogears, EurekaLott, JeremyA, Sanfranman59, Xnatedawgx
File:Louis Sullivan - exterior - Holy Trinity Russian & Greek Orthodox Church, 1121 North Leavitt Street, Chicago, Cook County, IL.jpg Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Louis_Sullivan_-_exterior_-_Holy_Trinity_Russian_&_Greek_Orthodox_Church,_1121_North_Leavitt_Street,_Chicago,_Cook_County,_IL.jpg
License: Public Domain Contributors: Daderot, EurekaLott, Infrogmation, JeremyA, Man vyi, Massalim, Sanfranman59, Shakko, Wouterhagens, 5 anonymous edits
File:Louis Sullivan - interior - Holy Trinity Russian & Greek Orthodox Church, 1121 North Leavitt Street, Chicago, Cook County, IL.jpg Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Louis_Sullivan_-_interior_-_Holy_Trinity_Russian_&_Greek_Orthodox_Church,_1121_North_Leavitt_Street,_Chicago,_Cook_County,_IL.jpg
License: Public Domain Contributors: Harold Allen, photographer Louis Sullivan (architect)
File:OwatonnaBank.JPG Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:OwatonnaBank.JPG License: Public Domain Contributors: Appraiser, Ebyabe, EurekaLott, Innotata, Sinn
File:Sidney-ohio-pfsl.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Sidney-ohio-pfsl.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: User:Tysto
File:Louis Sullivan - Merchants' National Bank, Northwest corner of Fourth Avenue & Broad Street, Grinnell, Poweshiek County, IA.jpg Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Louis_Sullivan_-_Merchants'_National_Bank,_Northwest_corner_of_Fourth_Avenue_&_Broad_Street,_Grinnell,_Poweshiek_County,_IA.jpg
License: Public Domain Contributors: CarolSpears, Daderot, Dogears, EurekaLott, Infrogmation, Look2See1, Ronaldino, 1 anonymous edits
File:LSCedarRapids1.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:LSCedarRapids1.jpg License: GNU Free Documentation License Contributors: Carptrash, Hohum
File:Harold-c-bradley-house.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Harold-c-bradley-house.jpg License: Attribution Contributors: Original uploader was Jeff dean at
en.wikipedia
File:Louis Sullivan Jewel Box, Grinnell, Iowa.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Louis_Sullivan_Jewel_Box,_Grinnell,_Iowa.jpg License: Creative Commons
Attribution-Sharealike 3.0 Contributors: Manop
File:2005-03-15 1860x2480 chicago krause.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:2005-03-15_1860x2480_chicago_krause.jpg License: unknown Contributors: J. Crocker
License
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported
//creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
13