Louis Sullivan 1856-1924

1. Louis Sullivan1856-1924 The father of modernism (in architecture).

2. The chronological contextof Sullivan’s architecture

3. The context of his architecture Geographical context: Louis Sullivan was an American architect based in Chicago. His buildings are located in mid-western cities of the United States – notably Chicago, St Louis and Buffalo. Chicago

4. Context continued… 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.

5. Context continued… From this in 1871 … Social context: 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 commercial building, including Louis Sullivan, were collectively known as the ‘Chicago School’. … to this in 1896

6. Context continued… 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.

7. Context continued… 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.

8. The skyscraper evolved in Chicago because of: The frontier attitude. Chicago was a youthful, optimistic, frontier city with progressive ambitions and an increasingly administrative infrastructure as the city turned from an agrarian to an industrial economy. Unlike New York, Chicago did not look to Europe for architectural inspiration and tradition did not get in the way of entrepreneurial clients who commissioned daringly tall buildings from the city’s pioneering architects. The vision of Sullivan. Once the skyscraper’s enabling technology- steel frame construction, elevators, ventilation, fire-proofing, foundations- was in place, the issue became an aesthetic one. What form should these very tall buildings take? Louis Sullivan’s answer to this question was his main contribution to modernism. In 1896 he published his ideas in The Tall Office Building Artistically Considered. “What is the chief characteristic of the tall office building? It is lofty. It must be tall. The force and power of altitude must be in it, the glory and pride of exaltation must be in it. 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.” Louis Sullivan The Tall Office Building Artistically Considered Context continued…

9. Significant Sullivan buildings The Wainright Building The Guaranty Building, Carson Pirie Scott Building, St Louis, Missouri, 1891 Buffalo, New York, 1896 Chicago, Illinois, 1904

10. Sullivan’s style The first skyscrapers did not emphasise their verticality. Instead they appeared more like a series of classically-inspired buildings piled one on top of another, as evident in Daniel Burnham’s Rookery Building, Chicago, 1888 (left). In contrast Sullivan’s Wainwright Building, Buffalo, 1891 (right) proclaims its tallness. Horizontal elements in the design are secondary to the verticals, in particular the series of unbroken brick- faced vertical piers.

11. Sullivan’s style continued… With the Wainwright Building Sullivan solved the problem of how to design the newly developed skyscraper; by treating the structure as a classical column: the lower two floors form the base; floors three to nine a fluted shaft; and the ornate frieze and cornice on top form a capital. Sullivan unified the facades of the Wainwright Building by treating them as grids of vertical and horizontal members. He emphasized the vertical members by broadening the corner piers and allowing them to rise freely to the cornice. Between the windows Sullivan introduced thin vertical piers that visually connect the base and cornice, while the recessed, decorated spandrels beneath the office windows provides a counterpoint of less defined, horizontal lines. It is through this method of knitting the façade together with vertical and horizontal accents that Sullivan created, by casting aside historic styles, a modern visual expression for the skyscraper. Wainwright Building, Buffalo, NY, 1891

12. “All things in nature have a shape, that is to say a form, an outward semblance, that tells us what they are, that distinguishes them from ourselves and from each other. It is the pervading law of all things organic and inorganic… that the life is recognisabe in its expression, that form ever follows function. This is the law.” Louis Sullivan With this philosophical statement Sullivan established the design methodology of modernist architecture: that a building’s function (ie. its requirements) should define its character and appearance. Sullivan believed skyscrapers must have their own unique form, their own visual character that expresses the nature of its various functions. Analysing the requirements of office buildings, Sullivan decided they must include: A basement- to house mechanical services such as heating, lighting and power systems. Street level spaces- for shops, banks, and public commerce. These are large, open spaces “liberal, expansive and sumptuous” that will flow up into the second storey. A succession of less public workers offices- these fill the upper stories and are modular and repetitive in appearance “because they are all alike”. A top level- to house more mechanical devices such as elevator engines and water tanks and which, by its form should proclaim its difference in function from the rest of the building. It should also provide a significant finishing off of the whole building. Function, form and ornament

13. Function, form and ornament continued… The top level houses mechanical devices such as elevator engines and water tanks. Its appearance proclaims its difference in function from the rest of the building. A succession of workers offices fill the upper stories and are modular and repetitive in appearance. Street level spacesfor shops, banks, and public commerce. These are large, open spaces “liberal, expansive and sumptuous” that will flow up into the second storey. These distinct functional zones, each with their own architectural expression, are united into one form, one visual expression of “a proud and soaring thing”.

14. Function, form and ornament continued… While Sullivan’s Carson Pirie Scott building, Chicago, 1904, anticipates the modular design, geometric order and structural clarity of modernist skyscrapers, it also exemplifies his attitude to ornament. Sullivan is as well known for his intricate Art Nouveau architectural ornamentation as for his high rise aesthetic.

15. Function, form and ornament continued… 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 thoroughfares 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.