Louis Sullivan

Louis Sullivan (born September 3, 1856, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.—died April 14, 1924, Chicago, Illinois) was an American architect, regarded as the spiritual father of modern American architecture and identified with the aesthetics of early skyscraper design. His more than 100 works in collaboration (1879–95) with Dankmar Adler include the Auditorium Building, Chicago (1887–89); the Guaranty Building, Buffalo, New York (1894–95; now Prudential Building); and the Wainwright Building, St. Louis, Missouri (1890–91). Frank Lloyd Wright apprenticed for six years with Sullivan at the firm. In independent practice from 1895, Sullivan designed the Schlesinger & Mayer department store (1898–1904; now the Sullivan Center) in Chicago. His Autobiography was published shortly before he died.

Early years

Louis was born of Patrick, a dancing master, and Adrienne Françoise (List) Sullivan. His Irish-born father and Swiss-born mother had immigrated to the United States in 1847 and 1850, respectively, and were married in 1852. Their older son, Albert Walter, was born in 1854. Sullivan attended public schools in the Boston area and spent summers on his grandparents’ farm in nearby South Reading. When his parents moved to Chicago in 1869, Sullivan stayed behind with his grandparents and later with neighbours, commuting to school in Boston.

In September 1872 he entered the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which had the first architectural school in the United States (founded 1865). Sullivan was an impatient architectural student and left at the end of the year with thoughts of studying at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris or of being an apprentice to an architect. He discussed his ideas in New York City with Richard Morris Hunt, one of the fashionable architects of the day and the first American to study architecture at the Beaux-Arts. Hunt suggested he work with the Philadelphia firm of Furness and Hewitt. Sullivan was hired, staying for several months until work dwindled in the economic panic of 1873. In November he left for Chicago and was soon employed in the architectural office of a prominent figure in the development of the style of the Chicago School, William Le Baron Jenney. The office foreman, John Edelmann, became his friend.

The idea of studying in Paris persisted, however, and in July 1874 Sullivan sailed for Europe. He worked hard to pass the difficult entrance examinations for the Beaux-Arts, although after he was accepted he proved to be a restless and erratic student. He made a brief excursion to Florence and Rome. A romantic young man with sideburns, he affected a certain swagger in dress. During the single year he remained in Paris, he was attached to the atelier of the architect Émile Vaudremer.

Work in association with Adler

Back in Chicago in June 1875, Sullivan worked briefly as a draftsman for a number of firms. One such job was for the recently formed firm of Johnston and Edelmann. It was John Edelmann who made the momentous introduction of Sullivan to his future partner, Dankmar Adler. In 1879 Sullivan joined Adler’s office and in May 1881, at the age of 24, became a partner in the firm of Adler and Sullivan, Architects. Their 14-year association produced more than 100 buildings, many of them landmarks in the history of American architecture.

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Sullivan’s brilliance as a designer was complemented by Adler’s business ability, his tact with clients, and his knowledge of technical matters, especially acoustics. After coming to Chicago in 1861, Adler had worked as a draftsman, and he returned to the city after serving in the Civil War. In 1871 he formed a successful partnership with Edward Burling that lasted until 1879. As an independent architect Adler designed Central Music Hall in Chicago (1879), which was the prototype of theatres later designed by the firm of Adler and Sullivan. Adler was a consultant on acoustics and in his later years was a writer on the technical and legal aspects of architecture.

Although Adler and Sullivan did substantial residential work, it was in their commercial work that they made their art-historic contribution. Most of their buildings were in Chicago, where the commercial expansion of the 1880s resulted in many commissions.

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The early years of the Adler and Sullivan practice did not result in buildings of lasting interest, however. It was the commission in 1886 to design the Auditorium Building in Chicago that marked the first period of Sullivan’s design maturity. This project was a curious combination of a hotel and office block wrapped in a U-shape around a 3,982-seat auditorium for opera. Completed in December 1889, it is a 10-story-high building of granite and limestone with a 17-story tower. The noble arcaded exterior is very simple in profile, has little ornament, and owes much to the architect Henry Hobson Richardson’s design for the Marshall Field Wholesale Store, then recently completed in Chicago. The interior, however, is lavishly decorated with relief ornament and coloured stenciled patterns, all of which brought forth Sullivan’s great talent for designing ornamentation. The interior of the auditorium (restored 1967) is particularly opulent and features gilded plasterwork and countless electric light bulbs. The decoration, which is dazzling and properly theatrical, owes nothing to historical eclecticism. The astonishingly effective acoustical design of the auditorium was the work of Adler, who was also responsible for all structural and mechanical aspects of the building.

Even before the auditorium proper was complete, the Adler and Sullivan firm moved to offices on the 16th floor of the tower, then the highest office suite in Chicago. It was there that the young Frank Lloyd Wright spent six years as apprentice to Sullivan. Wright left in 1893 after a quarrel with Sullivan, and it was not until 1914 that the friendship was renewed. Wright always acknowledged, however, the influence of Sullivan in shaping his work and ideas.

The 10-story Wainwright Building in St. Louis is the most important skyscraper designed by Sullivan. Unlike the Auditorium Building, the exterior walls of which are solid masonry and load bearing, it is of steel frame throughout, an idea advanced by William Le Baron Jenney in 1883–85 in Chicago. Jenney and others were unable to give visual expression to the height of a tall building and often resorted to unsuitable historical styles. Sullivan, however, took the problem in hand and made his design a “proud and soaring” unity. He gave his building a two-story base, above which the vertical elements are stressed and the horizontals, being recessed, are minimized. These vertical rhythms are capped by a deep decorative frieze and a projecting cornice. The 16-story Guaranty (now Prudential) Building in Buffalo by Adler and Sullivan is similar except that its surface is sheathed in decorative terra-cotta instead of red brick. Both buildings are among the best of Adler and Sullivan’s work.

The 1893 Columbian Exposition held in Chicago was a great disappointment to Louis Sullivan. The opportunity to design an international fair with imagination was passed over in favour of a loose adaptation of Classical architecture. The spectacle of an ensemble of these all-white buildings was an enormous success with the public. The Adler and Sullivan contribution was the Transportation Building, which stood apart and was painted in various strong colours as if in protest. It was a long, low arcaded building with a large polychromed archway entrance (the so-called Golden Door). Not all visitors were impressed by the neo-Roman grandeur of the fair. André Bouilhet, a delegate representing a Parisian decorative-arts union, praised the originality of the Transportation Building. Furthermore, he arranged for a small exhibit in Paris of Sullivan’s work, including a plaster cast of the Golden Door and some photographs of his taller buildings. The exhibit later went to Russia and Finland. This European recognition, however, did not allay Sullivan’s bitterness. He considered the Exposition a rejection of the progressive architecture that he saw developing in the Midwest. “The damage wrought by the World’s Fair,” he wrote, “will last for half a century from its date, if not longer. It has penetrated deep into the constitution of the American mind.” It is with this event that Sullivan ended the Autobiography of an Idea (1924), his account of his career and his architectural theories.