MASTER

ARCHITECT
LOUIS HENRY
SULLIVAN
ARA 312 THEORY OF ARCHITECTURE 2
BY: PULIDO, MELDUARD GODWIN R.
INSTRUCTOR: AR. J.F STA. JUANA

AR. LOUIS HENRY SULLIVAN

QUICK FACTS

ALSO KNOWN AS:

Louis H. Sullivan
FAMOUS AS:
Pioneering Architect
NATIONALITY: American
BORN ON 03:
September 1856 AD
DIED AT AGE:
67
BORN IN: Boston
DIED ON: 14 April 1924 AD
PLACE OF DEATH:
Chicago
CHALLENGES FACED: Alcohol Addicts
PERSONALITY TYPE: Creative
CHARACTER TRAITS: Rude
EDUCATION:
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

AR. LOUIS HENRY SULLIVAN

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 the
Chicago School, was a mentor to Frank Lloyd Wright
Form Follows Function

EARLY LIFE
Louis Henry Sullivan was born on September 3, 1856 to Patrick Sullivan
and Andrienne List. He had an older brother, Albert Walter.
Sullivan studied in public schools in Boston, and spent considerable time
on his grandparents farm in South Reading.
In 1872, he joined the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He,
however, left after his first year, planning to either study at the cole des
Beaux-Arts in Paris or be an architects apprentice.
Following the suggestion of Richard Morris Hunt, a successful architect, he
worked with the Philadelphia firm of Furness and Hewitt. In 1873, he was
employed by architect, William Le Baron Jenney in Chicago.
In 1874, he got enrolled at Beaux-Arts in Paris, but was irregular in his
studies. He remained in Paris for a year and was an apprentice to the
architect mile Vaudremer.

EARLY CAREER
Returning to Chicago in 1875, Sullivan became a draftsman with Joseph S. Johnston
& John Edelman. He designed the interior decorative "fresco secco" stencils (stencil
applied on dry plaster) of the Moody Tabernacle.
In 1879, he joined Dankmar Adler as his employee, and soon became a partner in
his firm. They became famous as experts in theatre architecture, first. Their designs
found favor in Colorado and Washington.
The companys theatre architecture phase ended with the 1889 Auditorium Building
in Chicago, which consisted of a 4,200-seat theater, a hotel, an office building
crowned by a 17-story tower, and commercial storefronts.
In the 1890s, the partners designed The Schiller Building, the Chicago Stock
Exchange Building, the Guaranty or Prudential Building, New York, and the Carson
Pirie Scott Department Store, Chicago.
His masterpiece, the Wainwright Tomb, a mausoleum in Bellefontaine Cemetery in
St. Louis, constructed for Charlotte Dickson Wainwright in 1892, was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places, and became a St. Louis Landmark.

EARLY CAREER
In 1893, Sullivan designed the polychrome modern Transportation Building, for
the White City.
When business declined owing to the Panic of 1893, a serious economic
depression in America, the two partners broke up. Sullivan faced severe
financial problems, compounded by his alcoholism and unfriendly behavior.
During his latter career, his most noteworthy projects were seven banks in
many small Midwestern towns, beginning with the National Farmers (now
Security) Bank in Owatonna, Minnesota.
The Merchants National Bank in Grinnell, Iowa, completed in 1914, has a
relatively serious form, with intricate ornament. His last project was the facade
for the Krause Music Store in Chicago, eight years later.
In 1924, his autobiographical work, The Autobiography of an Idea, describing
his childhood, and early career, and 19 plates for A System of Architectural
Ornament According with a Philosophy of Mans Powers, were published.

AR. LOUIS HENRY SULLIVAN WORKS

Auditorium Building (Chicago)

INTERIOR OF AUDITORIUM BUILDING

Details

Wainwright Building

Details

Carson, Pirie, Scott and Company

Building

DETAILS

Prudential (Guaranty) Building

Details

National Farmer's Bank of Owatonna

Interior

Details

BayardCondict Building

Details

Awards

In 1844, Louis Sullivan was posthumously

awarded the AIA Gold Medal by the American
Institute of Architects in acknowledgment of
his of enduring contribution to the theory and
practice of architecture.

Personal Life and Legacy

In 1899, he married Mary Azona Hattabaugh, known as
Margaret, a 27-year-old divorcee, fifteen years younger
than him. She left him 10 years later - the couple was
childless.

Death of a Master Architect

He died in a Chicago hotel room on
April 14, 1924. He left a wife, Mary
Azona Hattabaugh, from whom he was
separated. A modest headstone marks
his final resting spot in Graceland
Cemetery in Chicago's Uptown and
Lake View neighborhood. Later, a
monument was erected in Sullivan's
honor, a few feet from his headstone.