LOUIS HENRY SULLIVAN
18564924
S
ULLIVAN is gone. In the final years of the first half of the world’s greatest century of architectural development, a peer among American architects passes on. Four decades ago witnessed the unfolding of his genius, when new constructional methods and new types of buildings were imposed by the uses required by modern social and economic conditions. To him, the world in all of its aspects was a field for investigation, reflection and conclusion. Of his philosophy, it is recorded—
. . . that in truth it was not simply a matter of form expressing function, hut the vital idea was this: that the function created or organized its form..................... The application of the idea to the architectural art was manifest enough, namely that the function of the building must predetermine and organize its form.”
A corollary of the above, he expressed as follows:
“The problem of the tall building had not been solved, because the solution had not been sought within the problem itself—within its inherent nature. And it may here be remarked after years of observation, that the truth most difficult to grasp, especially by the intellectuals, is this truth : That every problem of whatsoever name or nature, contains and suggests its own solution ; and, the solution reached, it is invariably found to be simple in nature, basic and clearly allied to common sense.”
This is true of every type of building and in
applying this truth to his architectural expression, he necessarily departed from the orthodox architecture of his time because of his inability honestly to apply, as predetermined by the function of a modern building, the standardised, identified and cataloged styles, then and now in vogue. Hence our architecture has been enriched by an individual expression by one possessing a fineness of spirit; who would refrain from doing rather than to do badly; who strove for quality rather than quantity; who would rather achieve according to- his lights than to seek popular recognition; who hated the cheap, commonplace, vulgar, mean or most easy manner of expression.
His buildings are notable in many respects and while his unusual scheme of ornamentation
attracts immediate attention, it is but a component of a logical design. This ornamentation is of low relief, usually confined to one plane, intricate in its detail and extremely beautiful and, withal virile. It is an elaboration of geometrical form and so fashioned that the basic pattern is not readily discernible, resulting in a feeling of texture rather than form which permits of its incorporation well within the structure as opposed to the standard, inane, methods of applying ornamentation upon a building.
In association with the late Dankmar Adler, a great constructionist and executive, Mr. Sullivan designed many buildings of note, a m o n g them being the Chicago Auditorium, which is, perhaps, unequalled as an American opera house, and the fine Transportation Building, with its glorious Golden Door, at the World’s Columbian Exposition in 1893.
Mr. Sullivan’s works and words are prophetic of the future of architecture of which it can be said that— “Days dead are dark; the
days to be, a flame Of wonder and of promise,
and great cries Of travelling people reach me—I must rise.”
He has inspired others
who have kept alive the spirit of truth. Today we see signs of its recurrence.
Louis Henry Sullivan was born in Boston, September 3, 1856, and died in Chicago, April 14, 1924. He was educated in the public schools and received his technical training at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Ecole des Beaux- Arts, Paris. He came to Chicago in 1880 and engaged in the practice of architecture with Dankmar Adler and later alone. He received the Gold Medal, Union Centrale des Arts Decoratifs, Paris, 1894. He was also a writer of distinction and among his last work are “The Autobiography of an Idea” and “A System of Architectural Ornament,” the completed proofs of which were shown to him during his last illness.
LOUIS HENRY SULLIVAN
(From the painting by Frank Werner)
18564924
S
ULLIVAN is gone. In the final years of the first half of the world’s greatest century of architectural development, a peer among American architects passes on. Four decades ago witnessed the unfolding of his genius, when new constructional methods and new types of buildings were imposed by the uses required by modern social and economic conditions. To him, the world in all of its aspects was a field for investigation, reflection and conclusion. Of his philosophy, it is recorded—
. . . that in truth it was not simply a matter of form expressing function, hut the vital idea was this: that the function created or organized its form..................... The application of the idea to the architectural art was manifest enough, namely that the function of the building must predetermine and organize its form.”
A corollary of the above, he expressed as follows:
“The problem of the tall building had not been solved, because the solution had not been sought within the problem itself—within its inherent nature. And it may here be remarked after years of observation, that the truth most difficult to grasp, especially by the intellectuals, is this truth : That every problem of whatsoever name or nature, contains and suggests its own solution ; and, the solution reached, it is invariably found to be simple in nature, basic and clearly allied to common sense.”
This is true of every type of building and in
applying this truth to his architectural expression, he necessarily departed from the orthodox architecture of his time because of his inability honestly to apply, as predetermined by the function of a modern building, the standardised, identified and cataloged styles, then and now in vogue. Hence our architecture has been enriched by an individual expression by one possessing a fineness of spirit; who would refrain from doing rather than to do badly; who strove for quality rather than quantity; who would rather achieve according to- his lights than to seek popular recognition; who hated the cheap, commonplace, vulgar, mean or most easy manner of expression.
His buildings are notable in many respects and while his unusual scheme of ornamentation
attracts immediate attention, it is but a component of a logical design. This ornamentation is of low relief, usually confined to one plane, intricate in its detail and extremely beautiful and, withal virile. It is an elaboration of geometrical form and so fashioned that the basic pattern is not readily discernible, resulting in a feeling of texture rather than form which permits of its incorporation well within the structure as opposed to the standard, inane, methods of applying ornamentation upon a building.
In association with the late Dankmar Adler, a great constructionist and executive, Mr. Sullivan designed many buildings of note, a m o n g them being the Chicago Auditorium, which is, perhaps, unequalled as an American opera house, and the fine Transportation Building, with its glorious Golden Door, at the World’s Columbian Exposition in 1893.
Mr. Sullivan’s works and words are prophetic of the future of architecture of which it can be said that— “Days dead are dark; the
days to be, a flame Of wonder and of promise,
and great cries Of travelling people reach me—I must rise.”
He has inspired others
who have kept alive the spirit of truth. Today we see signs of its recurrence.
Louis Henry Sullivan was born in Boston, September 3, 1856, and died in Chicago, April 14, 1924. He was educated in the public schools and received his technical training at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Ecole des Beaux- Arts, Paris. He came to Chicago in 1880 and engaged in the practice of architecture with Dankmar Adler and later alone. He received the Gold Medal, Union Centrale des Arts Decoratifs, Paris, 1894. He was also a writer of distinction and among his last work are “The Autobiography of an Idea” and “A System of Architectural Ornament,” the completed proofs of which were shown to him during his last illness.
LOUIS HENRY SULLIVAN
(From the painting by Frank Werner)