EARLY MODERN ARCHITECTURE

LOUIS SULLIVAN
FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT
1. LOUIS SULLIVAN
 LOUIS HENRY SULLIVAN
Father of skyscrapers
Father of modernism
Famous Chicago architect
Frank Lloyd’s Wright mentor

Famous for his statement “form follows

function” in reference to Vitruvius Trinity of
Architecture: utilitas, venustas, firmitas
(function, beauty and strength respectively)
Took architecture in Massachusetts Institute of
Technology and Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris
Awarded AIA gold medal after his death
Worked with Dankmar Adler in Chicago and
later became partners in the Adler and Sullivan
firm
(September 3, 1856 – April 14, 1924)
FAMOUS WORKS
Developments resulted in skyscraper
construction
lower cost of mass produced steel for
buildings
Technological improvement
skyscrapers as symbol of social and
economic growth
“column-frame” construction loads
were carried by the structural system
resulted to non- load-bearing walls or
curtain walls, thinner walls
Allowed bigger fenestrations in glass
and steel
Architectural character of Sullivan’s buildings
Sullivan used art nouveau or Celtic
revival as decorations for his
building in contrast with the sharp
angular forms
Organic forms and geometric
shapes in terra cotta or cast iron
as building decorations
Presence of massive circular arch
in entrances, windows and
interiors

Guaranty Building
Largest and tallest building in
the USA that time (completed
in 1889)
Adler and Sullivan-architects
Home of Chicago Civic Opera
and Chicago Symphony
Orchestra
Load-bearing outer stone wall
on raft foundation
Organic ornamentations in the
interiors
Presence of arches, entrance
and windows

Chicago Auditorium Building

FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT
▪Apprentice in Adler-Sullivan firm in 1888
▪Louis Sullivan is his mentor
▪Called Sullivan as his Lieber Miester (Dear master)
▪Wright was not easy to deal with in his workplace but Sullivan believed in his capacity
▪Became the head draftsman of the firm in 1890
Samples of “bootleg”
houses Wright designed
while being employed in
Adler-Sullivan Firm
OWN FIRM
▪Left Adler-Sullivan firm and put his own office
▪Partnered with Robert Spencer,Myron Hunt, Dwight perkins and
Marion Mahony and established the “Prairie School”
Philosophies
Later in his career he embraced these approaches

1. ORGANIC ARCHITECTURE –building design should be in harmony with nature.

Buildings should not interfere with nature’s way but instead the design should blend in harmony
with nature
……As if the building grows from the ground and blends with the surroundings
WORKS OF FRANK
LLOYD WRIGHT

UNITY TEMPLE
FALLING WATER
TALIESIN-
“shining brow” “radiant brow”

Wright’s home in Wisconsin

One story on a hill

Materials-yellow limestone
were sourced from the area

Yellow pigment used for the

interior wall plaster making the
building blend with the color of
the river bank in the area

Exterior in grey pigment that

blended with the environment

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin House

JOHNSON WAX BUILDING
GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM,
NEW YORK

Manhattan, New York City

Use: Museum for contemporary art,
expressionism, post expressionism
Organic Architecture
Inspiration: spiral exhibit floor resembled
nautilus shell
“MILE HIGH CANTILEVER SKY”
His paper architecture-he Proposed
a skyscraper due to the expensive
cost of real estate

WAS NEVER BUILT