Louis Henri Sullivan
N 41° 57.592 W 087° 39.538
16T E 445391 N 4645530
Louis Sullivan, was an early pioneer of the American Skyscraper, creator of nature-inspired architectual ornamentation and Frank Lloyd Wright's Lieber Meister.
Waymark Code: WM316Z
Location: Illinois, United States
Date Posted: 01/23/2008
Views: 106
Graceland Cemetery is the graveyard of Chicago architecture giants including Ludwig Mies van der Rohr, Louis Sullivan, John Root, William Holabird, Howard Van Doren Shaw, William LeBaron Jenney, George Elmslie, and Bruce Goff. Well worth the pilgrimage ( visit link) Graceland Cemetery is open to the public and maps of the famous graves are available at the administration building or from the security guards. Docent led tours are conducted by the Chicago History Museum ( visit link) and the Chicago Cultural Center ( visit link) . In addition to Sullivan's grave, there are two Sullivan designs in Graceland Cemetery, the Getty Tomb ( visit link) and the Ryerson Mausoleum ( visit link) .
Description: Famous for among other things his dictum, "Form Follows Function", Louis Sullivan and his partner, Dankmar Adler, formed the firm of Adler and Sullivan which became known for their high-rise office buildings, particularly the 1889 Auditorium Building in Chicago, an extraordinary mixed-use building with including not only a 3000-seat theater, but also a hotel and office building; the 1891 Wainwright Building in St. Louis; the 1894-95 Guaranty (now Prudential) Building in Buffalo, NY; and the 1899 Carson Pirie Scott Department Store on State Street in Chicago;
The tide of architecture turned against Sullivan around the time of the Columbian Exposition of 1893, during which the leading edge Chicago School-style design was rejected for a traditional neoclassical style. Sullivan's contribution, the Transportation Building, appears to defy the design requirements for the exposition. Sullivan predicted that the Exposition would set architecture back 50 years. This return to neoclassicism had little place for the design principles of Sullivan, and Sullivan himself was unwilling to follow this trend.
Louis Sullivan ended his partnership with Dankmar Alder in 1895, and his practice turned from skyscrapers and very large buildings in the big midwestern cities to small buildings in small towns. Notable works in this phase of his career are the stunning Merchants' National Bank in Grinnell, Iowa (1914) and National Farmer's Bank (1908) in Owatanna, Minnesota.
Although Frank Lloyd Wright had reconciled with Sullivan at the end of Sullivan's life, Sullivan died in obscurity and poverty in a hotel room in Chicago in 1924.
Date of birth: 09/03/1856
Date of death: 04/14/1924
Area of notoriety: Art
Marker Type: Headstone
Setting: Outdoor
Fee required?: No
Visiting Hours/Restrictions: Not listed
Web site: Not listed
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