louis henry sullivan

“Father of Modern Architecture”

Sabah Shafi

Personal Data Legal Name: Louis Henry Sullivan

Birth date: September 3, 1856

Place of birth: Boston, Massachusetts

Ethnic Group: Irish and Swiss

Permanent Home Address: Chicago

Citizenship: US Citizen

Education: 1 year at MIT, 6 months at Ecole des Beaux-Arts

Early Life Entered MIT in 1872, age 16

Dissatisfied about how strictly the school focused on classical architecture

Went to visit my parents in Chicago

Saw possibilities of rebuilding the city

Travelled to Paris to study at one of the greatest schools of architecture

After a year in Europe, came back to Chicago

Worked as a draftsman

Produced quick and skillful design

Worked for Dankmar Adler

1881, we became partners

I provided designs, Adler provided the clients and solved the engineering problems

1880-1889 Philosophy: “Form Follows Function”

Architecture

Product design

Software engineering

Automobile design

Earlier work: designed the Rothschild Store and Ryerson Building

1880, started to propose buildings to reconstruct Chicago

Elegant and simple, focused on height and safety

Rothschild Store

Ryerson Building

Auditorium Building One of my greatest works, designed with Adler

Combined theater, hotel, and office building

Three stages: a block with pitched roof and squat towers, a raised tower with a pyramidal cap, and a massive, unornamented block with a tower rising stories above the larger structure

Was the showplace in Chicago until the Great Depression

Roosevelt University moved into the building in 1947

Auditorium Theater Council was established to restore the theater

25 years after it was closed, the NYC Ballet performed

Audience was crazy about the architecture as well as the ballet

I became famous through the Auditorium’s rational structure and ornamentation

Auditorium Building

Lobby

Stairs

Theater

First to design steel-framed skyscrapers

Created tall and structurally secure buildings

Invented unique American style of architecture

Steered away from Greek and Roman architectural designs to create unique American style

Borden Block-reflected this style

Wainwright Building in St. Louis

Guaranty Building in Buffalo

End of partnership with Adler

Carson Pirie Scott Building

One of my last greatest designs

Transportation Building famous for its massiveness and uniqueness

Later career, designed banks for small cities in MN, IA, WI, and OH

Some banks still admired for their form

Merchant’s National Bank

National Farmers’ Bank