Louis Sullivan
Louis Henri Sullivan (September 3, 1856 – April 14, 1924) was an American architect, and
has been called the "father of skyscrapers” and "father of modernism". He is considered by
many as the creator of the modern skyscraper, was an influential architect and critic of
theChicago School, was a mentor to Frank Lloyd Wright, and an inspiration to the Chicago
group of architects who have come to be known as the Prairie School. Along with Henry Hobson
Richardson and Frank Lloyd Wright, Sullivan is one of "the recognized trinity of American
architecture"
Biography
Louis Sullivan[4] was born to an Irish-born father and a Swiss-born mother, both of whom had
immigrated to the United States in the late 1840s. He grew up living with his grandmother in
South Reading (now Wakefield), Massachusetts. Louis spent most of his childhood learning
about nature while on his grandparent’s farm. In the later years of his primary education, his
experiences varied quite a bit. He would spend a lot of time by himself wandering around
Boston. He explored every street looking at the surrounding buildings. This was around the time
when he developed his fascination with buildings and he decided he would one day become a
structural engineer/architect. While attending high school Sullivan met Moses Woolson, whose
teachings made a lasting impression on him, and nurtured him until his death. After graduating
from high school, Sullivan studied architecture briefly at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology. Learning that he could both graduate from high school a year early and pass up
the first two years at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology by passing a series of
examinations, Sullivan entered MIT at the age of sixteen. After one year of study, he moved
to Philadelphia and talked himself into a job with architect Frank Furness.
Later career and decline
In 1890 Sullivan was one of the ten architects, five from the
Eastern U.S. and five from the Western U.S., chosen to build a major structure for the "White
City", the World's Columbian Exposition, held in Chicago in 1893. Sullivan's massive
Transportation Building and huge arched "Golden Door" stood out as the only forward-looking
design in a sea of Beaux-Artshistorical copies, and the only multicolored facade in the White
City. Sullivan and fair director Daniel Burnham were vocal about their displeasure with each
other. Sullivan was later (1922) to claim that the fair set the course of American architecture
back "for half a century from its date, if not longer."[6] His was the only building to receive
extensive recognition outside America, receiving three medals from the Union Centrale des Arts
Decoratifs the following year.
By both temperament and connections, Adler had always been the one who brought in new
business to the partnership, and after the rupture Sullivan received few large commissions after
the Carson Pirie Scott Department Store. He went into a twenty-year-long financial and
emotional decline, beset by a shortage of commissions, chronic financial problems
and alcoholism.
Selected projects
Buildings 1887–1895 by Adler & Sullivan:
Martin Ryerson Tomb, Graceland Cemetery, Chicago (1887)

Auditorium Building, Chicago (1889)

Carrie Eliza Getty Tomb, Graceland Cemetery, Chicago (1890)

Wainwright Building, St. Louis (1890)

Charlotte Dickson Wainwright Tomb, Bellefontaine Cemetery, St. Louis (1892) which is lised
on the National Register of Historic Places [11][12][13][14] is considered a major American
architectural triumph,[15] a model for ecclesiastical architecture,[16] a "masterpiece",[17] and
has been called "the Taj Mahal of St. Louis." Interestingly, the family name appears
nowhere on the tomb.[18]

Union Trust Building (now 705 Olive), St. Louis (1893; street-level ornament heavily altered
1924)

Guaranty Building (formerly Prudential Building), Buffalo (1894)
Buildings 1887–1895 by Louis Sullivan, with Dankmar Adler until 1895.

Springer Block (later Bay State Building and Burnham Building) and Kranz Buildings,
Chicago (1885–1887)

The Auditorium Building, Auditorium Hotel and Auditorium Theater (now Roosevelt
University), Chicago (1886–1890)

Selz, Schwab & Company Factory, Chicago (1886–1887)

Commercial Loft for Wirt Dexter, Chicago (1887)

Standard Club of Chicago, Chicago (1887–1888)

Hebrew Manual Training School, Chicago (1889–1890)

James H. Walker Warehouse & Company Store, Chicago (1886–1889)

Warehouse for E. W. Blatchford, Chicago (1889)

Kehilath Anshe Ma'ariv Synagogue (also known as the K.A.M. Temple, later known as the
Pilgrim Baptist Church), Chicago (1890–1891)

James Charnley House (also known as the Charnley–Persky House Museum Foundation
and the National Headquarters of the Society of Architectural Historians), Chicago (1891–
1892)

Albert Sullivan Residence, Chicago (1891–1892)

Transportation Building, World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago (1891–1893)

McVicker's Theater, second remodeling, Chicago (1890–1891)

Bayard Building, (now Bayard-Condict Building), 65–69 Bleecker Street, New York
City (1898). Sullivan's only building in New York, with a glazed terra cotta curtain wall
expressing the steel structure behind it.

Commercial Loft of Gage Brothers & Company, Chicago (1898–1900)

Holy Trinity Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church and Rectory, Chicago (1900–1903)

Carson Pirie Scott store, (originally known as the Schlesinger & Mayer Store, now known as
"Sullivan Center") Chicago (1899–1904)

Virginia Hall of Tusculum College, Greeneville, Tennessee, 1901

Van Allen Building, Clinton, Iowa (1914)
The banks
A portion of the National Farmer's Bank's west face,
Owatonna, Minnesota (1908)

National Farmer's Bank, Owatonna, Minnesota (1908)

Peoples Savings Bank, Cedar Rapids, Iowa (1912)

Henry Adams Building, Algona, Iowa (1913)

Merchants' National Bank, Grinnell, Iowa (1914)

Home Building Association Company, Newark, Ohio (1914)

Purdue State Bank, West Lafayette, Indiana (1914)

People's Federal Savings and Loan Association, Sidney, Ohio (1918)

Farmers and Merchants Bank, Columbus, Wisconsin (1919)

First National Bank, Manistique, Michigan (1922–1924) A remodeling of an existing bank
building.
Lost Sullivans

Grand Opera House, Chicago. 1880. Demolished 1927.

Pueblo Opera House, Pueblo, Colorado. 1890. Destroyed by fire 1922.

New Orleans Union Station, 1892. Demolished 1954.

Dooly Block, Salt Lake City, Utah. 1891. Demolished 1965.

Chicago Stock Exchange Building. Adler & Sullivan. 1893. Demolished 1972.
The Trading room from the Stock Exchange was removed intact prior to the building's
demolition and was subsequently restored in the Art Institute of Chicago in 1977; the
entryway arch (seen at right) stands outside on the northeast corner of the AIC site.

Zion Temple, Chicago. 1884. Demolished 1954.

Troescher Building, Chicago. 1884. Demolished 1978.

Transportation Building, World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago. Adler & Sullivan. 1893–
94. An exposition building, it was only built to last a year.

Louis Sullivan and Charnley Cottages, Ocean Springs, Mississippi destroyed
in Hurricane Katrina. Frank Lloyd Wright also claimed credit for the design.

Schiller Building (later Garrick Theater), Chicago. Adler & Sullivan. 1891. Demolished
1961.

Third McVickers Theater, Chicago. Adler & Sullivan. 1883? Demolished 1922.

Thirty-Ninth Street Passenger Station, Chicago. Adler & Sullivan. 1886. Demolished
1934.

Standard Club, Chicago. Adler & Sullivan. 1887–88. Demolished 1931.

Pilgrim Baptist Church. Adler & Sullivan. 1891. Destroyed by fire January 6, 2006.

Wirt Dexter Building. Adler & Sullivan. 1887. Destroyed by fire October 24, 2006.

George Harvey House. Adler & Sullivan. 1888. Destroyed by fire November 4, 2006.