AR.

LOUIS SULLIVAN SUBMITTED TO : MANMEET

SUBMITTED BY : KANNUPRIYA
BUILDINGS
HIMALAYA
Historical context:

He was a member of the Chicago School, a small group of architects and engineers who pioneered the development of skyscrapers from the 1880s.

He worked in partnership with Dankmar Adler, a structural engineer. Sullivan himself was more concerned with the artistic expression of
skyscrapers rather than with their technical features.

Sullivan and Adler were not the first to develop skyscraper construction, but Sullivan is credited with being the first to give the high-rise building
its unique visual expression as “a proud and soaring thing”.

He wanted American architects to stop imitating buildings “from other lands and other times”. He envisioned an American architecture that was
democratic and would reform and elevate society- an architecture “of the people, for the people, by the people”.

Sullivan argued that a building’s structure should express its function, and he coined the famous architectural catchphrase “form [ever] follows
function”. This became a central theme for much twentieth century architecture.

Louis Sullivan is also well-known for mentoring the young Frank Lloyd Wright, America’s most famous architect, and arguably the greatest
architect of the twentieth century. Many of Sullivan’s ideas rubbed-off onto Wright.
Social context:
From this in 1871 …

In 1871 a devastating fire destroyed most of downtown Chicago.

This frontier American city, unfettered with European traditions,

now had a blank slate upon which to rebuild.

Social and economic factors after the fire, as well as the technological
advances of the time, gave rise here to the world’s first skyscrapers.

The architects that contributed to this unprecedented type of … to this in 1896

commercial building, including Louis Sullivan, were collectively known as
the ‘Chicago School’.
The skyscraper evolved in Chicago because of:

The safety elevator. Elevators are critical to the practicality of skyscrapers. The Otis Safety Lift, patented in 1861 (pictured at right),
while not the first elevator, was the first to employ a safety device that stopped the lift from falling if the hoisting cable broke. This
device now made elevators safe for people to travel in. The steam-powered Otis Safety Lift made it not only easy, but also more
desirable to work on the upper floors of high-rise buildings. Advances in elevator technology now make it possible to populate ever-
taller skyscrapers.

The electric light bulb. This invention significantly reduced the risk of fire that had been a danger with gas lamps, especially in
commercial structures. The electric light bulb improved the safety and habitability of high rise buildings.

The telephone. This invention was also important for efficient communication between workers at different levels of a high-rise
building, or between buildings.
The skyscraper evolved in Chicago because of:

Congestion. Chicago’s population doubled between 1880 and 1890 and during the same period real estate prices in the
city centre soared nearly 600%. The city centre was restricted geographically to a nine block grid bounded by the
Chicago River to the north and west, by Lake Michigan to the east and by the rail yards to the south. As a rapidly
growing commercial centre and railroad hub to the expanding Mid-west, the only way to build was up!

The steel frame. William LeBaron Jenny’s Home Insurance Building, Chicago, 1885, (pictured at right) was the first
tall building to be supported, both the inside floors and the outside wall, by a fireproof metal frame. Traditional
structures had load-bearing masonry walls that supported the weight of the building, and the higher the building
the thicker and more massive these walls needed to be. The development of steel in the 1850’s (which was
stronger and more fire-resistant than iron) allowed Jenny to develop what became known as ‘Chicago
Construction’, a multi-story, skeletal structure of steel that reduced the thickness of the walls, increased valuable
floor space, and because it weighed much less than masonry, allowed immense increases in height. The façade could
now be opened with windows to maximise the amount of daylight reaching the interior of the building.
NATIONAL FARMER'S BANK

Location :Owatonna Minnesotne

Minnesota
Date 907 to 1908 timeline
Building Type :bank
Construction System: bearing masonry
Context: urban, small city
Style :Early Modern
Notes: large arch in main facade

Main facade, from west corner view, from southwest

SIGNIFICANT SULLIVAN BUILDINGS

The Wainright Building The Guaranty Building, Carson Pirie Scott Building,
St Louis, Missouri, 1891 Buffalo, New York, 1896 Chicago, Illinois, 1904
Interior east wall Interior east entrance wall South windows

Ceiling
interior ceiling/northwest Interior, ceiling/southeast corner
corner

Photo exterior overview historical

THESE ARE THE SUN CUTTERS IN THE CEILINGOFTHE BUILDING WHICH ENCLOSE AS
REQUIRED TO CUT THE AMOUNT OF SUNLIGHT COMING THROUGH.

THE Cutters are MADE OF TRANSCLUCENT MATERIAL WHICH ARE CLUTTERED SHAPE OF
LOTUS.
•The building is BATHED IN A SYMPHONY OF COLOUR
as sullivan described it.

•Green and brown TERRACOTTA PANELS and blue and H

gold glass mosaic bands contrast with the reddish brick and E
red sand stone base that anchors the bank to its site.

•Arched stained glass windows are mirrored on the interior

by murals of dairy and harvest scenes painted by Chicago
artist Oscar gross.

•The LAVISH ORAGANIC ORNMENTATION designed

largely by Sullivan's partner George, carries through all
interior elements from 18 foot tall high fixture down to the
teller's window grills.
The Carson Pirie Scott Building

Location : Chicaqo , Illinois

Built: 1899
Architect Louis Sullivan; Burnham, Daniel H., & Co.
Architectural style Late 19th and Early 20th Century
American Movements
Governing body : Private
NRHP
Significant dates Added to
NRHP : April 17, 1970
Designated NH L:May 15, 1975
Designated CL : November 5, 1970
1. mahogany and marble fixtures .
2.new combination arc and incandescent lights
3.the largest and finest display windows in the world
4.reading, writing and rest rooms ... telephone booths .
5.The Carson Pirie Scott building had the most clearly
expressed steel frame of any building in Chicago.
7.The frame, sheathed in glazed white terra cotta, allowed
for some of the largest windows ever seen and flexible,
wide-open spaces.
8.Both of these features were key to a SUCCeSSfUl
department store and examples of Sullivan's famous
design philosophy, "Form follows Function."
9.But what really makes Sullivan's design stand out is the
building's lavish foliate ornamentation. Every inch of the
framework surrounding Carson's bottom story windows is
covered in entirely original cast-iron, nature-inspired
embellishments
DETAIL OF CORNER ENTRANCE Detail of terracotta exterior with "Chicago" windows at right

Open floorplan

Reconstructed cornice detail

Terracotta detail
FUNCTION, FORM AND ORNAMENT

Sullivan believed ornament must be OF the building, integral to it’s structure , rather than
merely applied over it. His ornament reflected functional aspects of the building, distinguishing
entranceways, busy public areas and thorough fares

He often ornamented the plain surfaces of his buildings with lush Art
Nouveau and rather Celtic-like 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.
Sullivan’s style
The first skyscrapers did not emphasise their
verticality. Instead they appeared more like a
series of classically-inspire buildings piled one on top
of another, as evident in Daniel Burnham’s Rookery
Building, Chicago, 1888.

In contrast Sullivan’sWainwright Building,

Buffalo, 1891 (right)proclaims its tallness.
Horizontal elements in the design are secondary to the
verticals, in particular theseries of unbroken brick-
faced vertical piers.
THANKU