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Louis Henry Sullivan) Louis Henry Sullivan Nicholas Gardin 12 February 2018 (Pictured: ABOVE- Louis Henry Sullivan) Louis Henry Sullivan Louis Henry Sullivan was born in Boston, Massachusetts on September 3rd, 1856. His father was an Irish immigrant named Patrick Sullivan and his mother was Andrienne List, a Swiss immigrant. They had immigrated to the United States in the late 1840s-early 1850s before meeting and getting married in 1852. Louis was the second child, preceded by his brother, Albert Walter Sullivan.1 Living in the city, but spending a lot of time on his grandparents’ farm, Louis Sullivan developed an acute attention to detail and its natural forms and functions. His understanding of these forms and functions in his architecture can be attributed to the time he spent on the farm as a child. Later in life, Sullivan coined the phrase, “Form follows function”, which was an important, influential precedence in his design work and the architectural period 1 Berman, Andrew. “The Death and Life of Louis Sullivan.” ​ Gardin 2 that he was active during. He had developed an interest in looking at buildings throughout 2 Boston, specifically the Masonic Temple on Tremont and Boylston Street. (Pictured: LEFT: Masonic Temple) In his own account in his autobiography, Sullivan remembers seeing, “...a large man of dignified bearing, with beard, top hat, and frock coat, come out of a nearby building, enter his carriage, and signal the coachman to drive on.”3 Upon discovering that this dignified man was an architect, Louis Sullivan promptly decided that he wanted to be an architect as well. After childhood, Sullivan began to attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.) in 1872. This was the first architecture school in the United States, which had only opened in 1865. He was 16 years old when he began studying architecture at M.I.T. However, by the end of the school year, Sullivan left the university and began working at Furness & Hewitt, which was an architecture company in Philadelphia founded by Frank Furness and George W. Hewitt. It was here that he was able to get his first interaction with architectural design outside of M.I.T. Furness’s style of architecture has been described as eclectic and 2 Morrison, Hugh. Louis Sullivan: Prophet of Modern Architecture ​ ​ 3 Sullivan, Louis Henry. The Autobiography of an Idea. ​ ​ ​ Gardin 3 rejected the ideals of classicism and Neo-Romanesque and Neo-Gothic styles.4 Sullivan acquired his taste for something different and unique compared to the styles around him while working here. He only stayed with Furness & Hewitt for a little while until The Financial Panic of 1873 hit and Sullivan decided to head off to Chicago, where his parents had moved to. He worked with famous architect, William Le Baron Jenney, but soon decided he must go to Paris to study at Ecole des Beaux Arts, but only for a year, before returning to Chicago in 1875.5 (Pictured: LEFT- Adler & Sullivan office glass) Sullivan became a junior partner to Johnston and Edelmann, and it was Edelmann who introduced Louis Sullivan to Dankmar Adler, who would become Sullivan’s business partner in 1881 after working in Adler’s office starting in 1879, forming Adler & Sullivan. The design and construction of the Auditorium Building in Chicago in 1886 marks the beginning of Sullivan’s 4 Koeper, H.F. “Louis Sullivan.” ​ 5 Van Zanten, David. Sullivan’s City: The Meaning of Ornament for Louis Sullivan. ​ ​ Gardin 4 maturity in architecture. This building was a compilation of an office building, hotel, and a theater. It was the tallest building in the United States at the time, standing at 17 stories tall. The design of the structure was to have load bearing outer walls of steel, which left the interior space to be open and more variety available for the layout. There was inspiration drawn from the Marshall Field Warehouse designed by H. H. Richardson. Adler handled figuring out the engineering feats of the building, such as designing the foundation and skeleton, while the ornamentation and aesthetics were left to Sullivan.6 Frank Lloyd Wright was a draftsman for Adler and Sullivan during the design and construction of this building, and is said to have been influenced by Sullivan’s taste for natural design and form following function. 7 (Pictured: BELOW LEFT- Auditorium Building, BELOW RIGHT- Marshall Field Warehouse) The exterior is considered to be “Richardson Romanesque” in its style of large, geometric block at the base levels of the building, and appearance of arches above the windows. Originally, terra-cotta was to cover the outside of the building, but this was changed to granite and limestone partway through the construction process. The auditorium’s ornamentation has many elements of nature and natural form, and around 3,500 light bulbs, which were a new 6 Stott, Rory. “Spotlight: Louis Sullivan .” ​ 7 Sullivan, Louis Henry. The Tall Office Building Artistically Considered. ​ ​ Gardin 5 addition to buildings at that time. Due to the Chicago Fire in 1871, the ornamentation inside of the building was mostly sculpted and cast plaster, which was much more resilient to fire than wood. The floor of the auditorium was also convertible to be the same height as the stage, which meant the room could be used for a ballroom or dining hall. The grand scale of the building, along with its multi-use as a theater, hotel, and office building had not been previously attempted. Because of this, Louis Sullivan was really able to make a name for himself for the first time. This opportunity acted as a jumping point for Sullivan’s career, which prompted other businessmen throughout the city to hire Adler and Sullivan to be the architects to design and construct many more buildings and structures.8 (Pictured: ABOVE- Interior of Auditorium Building) The Wainwright Building, built in 1889 in St. Louis, Mississippi, is considered Sullivan’s most important design. This building is known as the first successful use of a steel frame for its construction. For the facade of the first two floors, brown sandstone was used, followed by terra-cotta for the next seven floors, and then the cornice being decorated with circular windows 8 Manieri-Elia, Mario. Sullivan, Louis H. Louis Henry Sullivan ​ ​ Gardin 6 surrounded by plantlife. The building also features an overhanging roof, which became a characteristic design aesthetic of Sullivan’s.9 (Pictured: ABOVE- exterior of Wainwright Building) 9 Bright, Wendy. “A Not-So-Brief History of a Chicago Landmark: The Sullivan Center.” ​ Chicago Architecture Gardin 7 (Pictured: ABOVE- Cornice detail of Wainwright Building) The bottom two floors were storefronts, which is why Sullivan designed the windows to be large and inviting, and let large amounts of natural lighting into the stores. Above the stores were offices. Between the windows of the offices, there are ornate plates of the terra-cotta between the windows that feature plant life, much like the cornice at the top. All of the windows were slightly inset so as to not disrupt the vertical power that the building held. The top of the building held the water heaters and other equipment that ran the building, which is why the windows are relatively small and the most ornate section of the building. Given the shape of the building and its architectural detail of the base, shaft, and attic, connections can be made to say that it is reminiscent of a column. Sullivan’s emphasis for tallness and grand scale is touched on in an article written by himself in 1896: “What is the chief characteristic of the tall office building? And at once we answer, it is lofty. This loftiness is to the artist-nature its thrilling aspect … It must be tall, every inch of it tall … It must be every inch a proud and soaring thing, rising in sheer exaltation that from bottom to top it is a unit without a single dissenting line...” 10 10 Sullivan, Louis Henry. The Autobiography of an Idea. ​ ​ ​ Gardin 8 (Pictured: ABOVE- famous quote by Louis Sullivan) Also within the article, Sullivan dives into his famous philosophy of “Form ever follows function”. He discusses that in nature, everything has its own distinct look, such as a tree or a fish, that is immediately identifiable. Within this identity, the function is captured as well. The fish looks the way it does because its functions have shaped its appearance in order for the fish to be able to sustain itself. Following this, Sullivan then argues that the same principles apply to buildings as well, specifically the tall office building in this case. His argument is that one should be able to look at an office building and know that it is an office building even before entering, because its function has dictated its look to be as it is. If the function of the building changes, then so does its form, in order to suit the new functions’ needs. It is also said by Sullivan that the multiple layers of a building must work together to form a coherent structure, rather than each layer looking as though it is its own building.11 These philosophies are ones that 11 Stott, Rory. “Spotlight: Louis Sullivan .” ​ Gardin 9 has been echoed throughout all of Sullivan’s work, making his architecture clearly distinguishable and characteristic.12 The Columbian Exposition was held in Chicago, Illinois in 1893, and opted to focus the architecture on more classical styles such as Beaux Arts, rather than expanding on the up-and-coming architecture that was developing at the time. The designs of the buildings being white gave the exposition the nickname, “The White City.” Sullivan was greatly disappointed at this decision, and decided to not conform to the stark white designs of the other buildings.
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