Misplaced Pages

#495504

85-520: The Crescent Hotel was built in 1886 to a design by Isaac S. Taylor , as a resort for the rich and famous, but quickly became unmanageable and fell into disrepair. In 1908, it was reopened as the Crescent College and Conservatory for Young Women. This institution closed down in 1924, and then opened again in 1930 as a junior college. After the college closed in 1934, the Crescent was leased as

170-519: A central columned loggia, houses the collections of the Missouri Historical Society . The central loggia included Karl Bitter 's huge sculpture of Thomas Jefferson . Taylor was a lifelong bachelor. A large man, he garnered renown for his "gargantuan...frame and appetite." Taylor was well-liked, and was said to have a big heart and great "conviviality." He was also known for being studious, apparently being extremely well-read in

255-553: A critic of Raymond Hood 's winning entry for the Tribune Tower competition. In 1922, Sullivan was paid $ 100 a month to write an autobiography in installments to be published in the journal for the American Institute of Architects . Sullivan worked on the series with Journal editor Charles Harris Whitaker , who advised he "plot out the material by periods." The Autobiography of an Idea began its publication in

340-497: A few feet from his headstone. Sullivan's legacy is contradictory. Some consider him the first modernist. His forward-looking designs clearly anticipate some issues and solutions of Modernism; however, his embrace of ornament makes his contribution distinct from the Modern Movement that coalesced in the 1920s and became known as the " International Style ". Sullivan's built work expresses the appeal of his incredible designs:

425-520: A floor above him collapsed. Nickel had compiled extensive research on Adler and Sullivan and their many architectural commissions, which he intended to publish in book form. After Nickel's death, in 1972 the Richard Nickel Committee was formed, to arrange for completion of his book, which was published in 2010. The book features all 256 commissions of Adler and Sullivan. The extensive archive of photographs and research that underpinned

510-543: A large collection of Sullivan ornamentation on display, including a cornice from the demolished Chicago Stock Exchange, 29 feet long on one side, 13 feet on another, and nine feet high. The Guaranty Building Interpretive Center in Buffalo, on the first floor of the building now owned and occupied by the law firm Hodgson Russ, LLP, opened in 2017. The exhibit space was financed by Hodgson Russ, LLP, and co-designed by Flynn Battaglia Architects and Hadley Exhibits. It features

595-554: A license, Baker moved his cancer patients to Arkansas and advertised his new health resort at the Crescent. His "cure" consisted primarily of drinking the area's natural spring water. In 1940, federal charges were filed against Baker for mail fraud and he spent four years in prison. The Crescent Hotel was left ownerless until 1946. In the spring of 1946, the Crescent Hotel was purchased by John R. Constantine, Herbert E. Shutter, Herbert Byfield, and Dwight Nichols. On March 15, 1967,

680-439: A plain, wide-windowed base for the ground-level shops; the main office block, with vertical ribbons of masonry rising unimpeded across nine upper floors to emphasize the building's height; and an ornamented cornice perforated by round windows at the roof level, where the building's mechanical units (such as the elevator motors) were housed. The cornice is covered by Sullivan's trademark Art Nouveau vines and each ground-floor entrance

765-521: A scale model of the building by David J. Carli, Professor of Engineering at the State University of New York at Alfred . The center's exhibits were donated to Preservation Buffalo Niagara. The center, the only museum dedicated to Sullivan, is open to the public. That the fictional character of Henry Cameron in Ayn Rand 's 1943 novel The Fountainhead was similar to the real-life Sullivan

850-549: A series of small bank and commercial buildings in the Midwest . Yet a look at these buildings clearly reveals that Sullivan's muse had not abandoned him. When the director of a bank that was considering hiring him asked Sullivan why they should engage him at a cost higher than the bids received for a conventional Neo-Classic styled building from other architects, Sullivan is reported to have replied, "A thousand architects could design those buildings. Only I can design this one." He got

935-479: A solid structure, with an interior supported by massive brick arches, cast iron columns encased in hollow tile, and steel floor beams covered with seven inches of yellow pine that was in turn topped with one-inch-thick dressed maple. Probably influenced by John Wellborn Root 's Rookery Building in Chicago , Taylor made extensive use of terracotta ornament and iron interior staircases. Manufactured by Pullis Brothers,

SECTION 10

#1732780730496

1020-434: A structure must exhibit the three qualities of firmitas, utilitas, venustas – that is, it must be "solid, useful, beautiful." This credo, which placed the demands of practical use equal to aesthetics , later would be taken by influential designers to imply that decorative elements, which architects call "ornament", were superfluous in modern buildings, but Sullivan neither thought nor designed along such dogmatic lines during

1105-500: A summer hotel. In 1937, it got a new owner, Norman G. Baker , who turned the place into a hospital and health resort. Baker, a millionaire inventor and radio personality, styled himself as a doctor, despite having had no medical training. He claimed to have discovered a number of "cures" for various ailments, including cancer, and launched frequent attacks on organized medicine, which he accused of being corrupt and profit-driven. Having been run out of Iowa for practicing medicine without

1190-493: A third axis formed by the Grand Lagoon at a 45-degree diagonal. Taking a break from his own architectural practice, he began working 12-hour days, seven days a week on the fair. Taylor's task of supervising the design and construction of all the major buildings for the fair was a gigantic task, and was complicated his constant struggles for funds, but he pulled it off admirably from all accounts. In addition to functioning as

1275-482: A wholesale dry goods company), the building still stands in remarkably well-preserved condition, though it has now been converted to apartments. It is, along with one other structure, the sole surviving example of a Taylor Romanesque Revival commercial design. The building reputedly cost a whopping $ 900,000 ($ 30,520,000 today ), as Liggett & Myers were "unsparing of money in order to make [on] their block [a building] rarely equaled for utility and grandeur." Taylor built

1360-575: Is attributed to him, although the idea was theorised by Viollet le Duc who considered that structure and function in architecture should be the sole determinants of form. In 1944, Sullivan was the second architect to posthumously receive the AIA Gold Medal . Sullivan was born to a Swiss-born mother, née Andrienne List (who had emigrated to Boston from Geneva with her parents and two siblings, Jenny, b. 1836, and Jules, b. 1841) and an Irish-born father, Patrick Sullivan. Both had immigrated to

1445-731: Is lighter and easier to work with than stone masonry. Sullivan used it in his architecture because it had a malleability that was appropriate for his ornament. Probably the most famous example of ornament used by Sullivan is the writhing green ironwork that covers the entrance canopies of the Carson Pirie Scott store on south State Street . Such ornaments, often executed by the talented younger draftsmen in Sullivan's employ, eventually would become Sullivan's trademark; to students of architecture, they are instantly recognizable as his signature. Another signature element of Sullivan's work

1530-485: Is likely accurate, as Taylor was not a particularly innovative designer; though versatile in a variety of styles, he did not deviate from the eclecticism popular among most late nineteenth-century American designers; nor at first glance does he seem to have developed any new handling of space, materials, or volumes. He seems to have been mostly focused on giving clients what they wanted and keeping in touch with popular design trends, objectives that would have served him well in

1615-526: Is the massive, semi-circular arch. Sullivan employed such arches throughout his career—in shaping entrances, in framing windows, or as interior design. All of these elements are found in Sullivan's widely admired Guaranty Building , which he designed while partnered with Adler. Completed in 1895, this office building in Buffalo, New York is in the Palazzo style , visibly divided into three "zones" of design:

1700-507: Is topped by a semi-circular arch. Because Sullivan's remarkable accomplishments in design and construction occurred at such a critical time in architectural history, he often has been described as the "father" of the American skyscraper. But many architects had been building skyscrapers before or as contemporaries of Sullivan; they were designed as an expression of new technology. Chicago was replete with extraordinary designers and builders in

1785-695: The First World War . Taylor was born in Nashville, Tennessee, on the last day of 1850 and moved with his parents and older brother to St. Louis a year later. At St. Louis University , he earned a degree in classical languages with honors in 1868. After graduation, he joined the firm of George I. Barnett , a native of Nottingham, England , who became St. Louis' best-known architect during the mid-nineteenth century and who trained several generations of local designers. Taylor, who rose to serve as Barnett's junior partner from 1876 to 1881, worked on several of

SECTION 20

#1732780730496

1870-470: The Panic of 1893 . According to Charles Bebb , who was working in the office at that time, Adler borrowed money to try to keep employees on the payroll. By 1894, however, in the face of continuing financial distress with no relief in sight, Adler and Sullivan dissolved their partnership. The Guaranty Building was considered the last major project of the firm. By both temperament and connections, Adler had been

1955-451: The 1871 fire. The technical limits of weight-bearing masonry had imposed formal as well as structural constraints; suddenly, those constraints were gone. None of the historical precedents needed to be applied and this new freedom resulted in a technical and stylistic crisis of sorts. Sullivan addressed it by embracing the changes that came with the steel frame, creating a grammar of form for the high rise (base, shaft, and cornice), simplifying

2040-809: The 1880s that began to bear fruit for him during the new century. He was hired to construct the new Majestic Theater in Dallas by the Interstate Amusement Company in 1911, which unfortunately burned down in 1917 and was replaced by the current Majestic Theater, designed by the famed movie theater architect John Eberson and opened in 1921. In 1912, the Dallas Chamber of Commerce hired him to design their new 11-story office building for $ 500,000. Taylor also completed two permanent monumental civic structures in his last years, both of them exercises in axial, Beaux-Arts neoclassicism, as befitting

2125-789: The 1891 Wainwright Building in St. Louis and the Schiller (later Garrick ) Building and theater (1890) in Chicago. Other buildings often noted include the Chicago Stock Exchange Building (1894), the Guaranty Building (also known as the Prudential Building) of 1895–96 in Buffalo, New York , and the 1899–1904 Carson Pirie Scott Department Store by Sullivan on State Street in Chicago. Prior to

2210-784: The American Institute of Architects, he remained a member of the St. Louis Chapter and later was named a Fellow of the AIA. Taylor died at home at age 66, rather suddenly, in October 1917. He left an estate of $ 400,000, a considerable sum at the time, most of which went to his brother George, who was residing in Mexico City. Taylor left $ 5,000 and his architectural library and records to Oscar Enders. Louis Sullivan Louis Henry Sullivan (September 3, 1856 – April 14, 1924)

2295-733: The CEO of design and construction, negotiating personalities, timelines, and budgets, Taylor himself designed several major structures, all of which were temporary. Among them, were the largest structure, the Agriculture Building, which covered more than 18 acres and cost $ 525,000; Statler's Inside Inn; the Missouri State Building; the Horticulture Building; the Forestry, Fishery, and Game Building; and

2380-700: The City Beautiful movement, then in vogue in a number of major American metropolitan centers. Opened in 1910, the Municipal Courts Building originally housed not just courtroom and detention cells (and was adjacent to Taylor's newly built municipal jail), but also the Health Department, Police headquarters, coroner's office, and the Board of Election Commissioners. Its I-shaped plan incorporates six light courts around which most of

2465-526: The June 1922 Journal for the American Institute of Architects and upon its conclusion was published as a book. 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,

2550-703: The Livestock Exhibition Complex. After the 1904 Exposition, Taylor rejoined his firm, which had suffered financially during his absence. The latter half of the first decade of the twentieth century was marked by several tall commercial building projects in central St. Louis. These included the Mills Building (1906), the Aberdeen Building (1907), and the LaSalle Building (1909), a narrow 13-story structure that used

2635-559: The National Hotel in Peoria, Illinois (1887). Between 1888 and 1901, Taylor rose to the top of the architectural profession in St. Louis. The downtown core of the city took definitive shape with a swath of major building projects, including Louis Sullivan 's famous Wainwright Building , completed in 1891. Taylor built 40 of these new structures for major corporate clients, bringing his firm considerable financial success. One reason

Crescent Hotel (Eureka Springs, Arkansas) - Misplaced Pages Continue

2720-665: The Rialto Building (1892), an impressive Romanesque Revival structure punctuated by bay windows and large projecting cornice ; the Mercantile Club Building (1891), an asymmetrical, picturesque Romanesque/ Gothic Revival structure with a roofline punctuated by tall gables and thin spires; the Neoclassical Curlee Clothing Company Building (1899); and the massive 424-room, ten-story Planter's House Hotel , at

2805-561: The Simplex reinforced concrete system of 370 piles between the foundation and the bedrock 65 feet below grade. The building was characterized by vertical strips of brick alternating with projecting, terracotta-faced white oriel windows, serviced by three elevators. The most innovative project, though, involved the raising of the Equitable Building in St. Louis in 1910 by setting the top eight stories on hydraulic jacks and replacing

2890-606: The United States in the late 1840s. He learned that he could both graduate from high school a year early and bypass the first two years at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology by passing a series of examinations. Entering MIT at the age of sixteen, Sullivan studied architecture there briefly. After one year of study, he moved to Philadelphia and took a job with architect Frank Furness . The Depression of 1873 dried up much of Furness's work, and he

2975-804: The ability to build skyscrapers during the mid-1880s. By assembling a framework of steel girders, architects and builders could create tall, slender buildings with a strong and relatively lightweight steel skeleton. The rest of the building elements—walls, floors, ceilings, and windows—were suspended from the skeleton, which carried the weight. This new way of constructing buildings, so-called "column-frame" construction, pushed them up rather than out. The steel weight-bearing frame allowed not just taller buildings, but permitted much larger windows, which meant more daylight reaching interior spaces. Interior walls became thinner, which created more usable (and rentable) floor space. Chicago's Monadnock Building (not designed by Sullivan) straddles this remarkable moment of transition:

3060-562: The appearance of the building by breaking away from historical styles, using his own intricate floral designs, in vertical bands, to draw the eye upward and to emphasize the vertical form of the building, and relating the shape of the building to its specific purpose. All this was revolutionary, appealingly honest, and commercially successful. In 1896, Louis Sullivan wrote: It is the pervading law of all things organic and inorganic, of all things physical and metaphysical, of all things human, and all things super-human, of all true manifestations of

3145-579: The architectural progress of St. Louis" and his works "in number and importance are second to none in his city." He served as Chairman of the Architectural Commission and Director of Works for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition (St. Louis World's Fair) of 1904 and himself designed numerous pavilions at the fair. Taylor was still designing up until his death at age 66 several months after the United States entered

3230-498: The book was donated to the Ryerson and Burnham Libraries at The Art Institute of Chicago. More than 1,300 photographs may be viewed on their website and more than 15,000 photographs are part of the collection at The Art Institute of Chicago. As finally published, the book, The Complete Architecture of Adler & Sullivan , was authored by Richard Nickel, Aaron Siskind, John Vinci, and Ward Miller. Another champion of Sullivan's legacy

3315-615: The bottom two floors and the brick-and-stone foundation with a reinforced concrete and steel structure behind a glass skin. In the last decade of his career Taylor also completed several annexes to other large office buildings that had outgrown their original spaces, including the Times Building Annex (1910) and the Mercantile Trust Company Annex (1916). Taylor had developed some contacts in Texas in

3400-411: The building's height. The development of cheap, versatile steel in the second half of the nineteenth century changed those rules. America was in the midst of rapid social and economic growth that made for great opportunities in architectural design. A much more urbanized society was forming and the society called out for new, larger buildings. The mass production of steel was the main driving force behind

3485-643: The catchword of "precedent," declaring that architecture was naturally a living and creative art." Original drawings and other archival materials from Sullivan are held by the Ryerson & Burnham Libraries in the Art Institute of Chicago and by the drawings and archives department in the Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library at Columbia University . Fragments of Sullivan buildings also are held in many fine art and design museums around

Crescent Hotel (Eureka Springs, Arkansas) - Misplaced Pages Continue

3570-401: The city's most influential banker, landed him the position of chairman of the Architectural Commission and Director of Works. Taylor hired a young architect, Emmanuel Louis Masqueray , as his chief designer, and the two of them collaborated on the overall layout of the fair, which consisted of the somewhat-odd arrangement of two axes of buildings set at a right angle to each other and bisected by

3655-480: The city's top architects was the Liggett & Myers /Rice-Stix Building (1888–89), a massive brick and Missouri granite structure occupying an entire city block on Washington Avenue between Tenth and Eleventh Streets in an emerging mercantile wholesale district. A speculative property built by the tobacco giant Liggett & Myers to lease space to other firms (including, eventually, the entire building to Rice-Stix,

3740-592: The close of the nineteenth century was due to its strategic location as a transportation hub for steamboat and railroad traffic, particularly following the completion of the Eads Bridge over the Mississippi River in 1874. Many businesses based in St. Louis expanded, constructing lavish new headquarters or speculative office buildings. Taylor was intimately involved in this construction boom. The building that apparently secured Taylor's reputation as one of

3825-558: The costs and timeline for their buildings' completion. The firm's success seems to have taken off during the mid-1880s, with 1885 being a particularly pivotal date. That year, Taylor completed the Drummond Building, a six-story Italian-Renaissance-Revival structure in downtown St. Louis, which housed the corporate offices and factory of the Drummond Tobacco Company, the city's second-largest manufacturer of

3910-605: The early 1890s. At the same time, he designed the new passenger depot for the Monterey and Gulf Railroad in Monterrey, finished in 1894. The crowning achievement of Taylor's career was his direction of the architectural ensemble for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, the only world's fair hosted by St. Louis. In 1901, Taylor's strong connections to St. Louis' leaders in business and industry, including

3995-482: The fair set the course of American architecture back "for half a century from its date, if not longer." His was the only building to receive extensive recognition outside America, receiving three medals from the French-based Union Centrale des Arts Decoratifs the following year. Like all American architects, Adler and Sullivan suffered a precipitous decline in their practice with the onset of

4080-815: The firm of Joseph S. Johnston & John Edelman as a draftsman . Johnston & Edleman were commissioned for the design of the Moody Tabernacle, and tasked Sullivan with the design of the interior decorative fresco secco stencils (stencil technique applied on dry plaster). In 1879 Dankmar Adler hired Sullivan. A year later, Sullivan became a partner in Adler's firm. This marked the beginning of Sullivan's most productive years. Adler and Sullivan initially achieved fame as theater architects. While most of their theaters were in Chicago, their fame won commissions as far west as Pueblo, Colorado , and Seattle , Washington (unbuilt). The culminating project of this phase of

4165-412: The firm's history was the 1889 Auditorium Building (1886–90, opened in stages) in Chicago, an extraordinary mixed-use building that included not only a 4,200-seat theater, but also a hotel and an office building with a 17-story tower and commercial storefronts at the ground level of the building, fronting Congress and Wabash Avenues. After 1889 the firm became known for their office buildings, particularly

4250-673: The firm's prominent commercial projects in St. Louis, including the Southern Hotel, the Julie Building (which housed Barr's Department Store), and the Mercantile Center for the Famous Clothing Company. Taylor also contributed to the designs for many of Barnett's residential works, including Shaw Place. Taylor's firm became well known for major commercial buildings in downtown St. Louis, which in

4335-510: The growing corporate culture of St. Louis. Taylor's family connections provided him with the chance to build a few structures abroad as well. In the early 1890s, his brother George S. Taylor, a businessman in Mexico City, helped him land his most important hotel commission, the Grand National Hotel, a lavish Spanish Colonial structure that included some 400 guest rooms with a 150-foot observation tower attached to its courtyard, in

SECTION 50

#1732780730496

4420-487: The head, of the heart, of the soul, that the life is recognizable in its expression, that form ever follows function. This is the law. (italics in original) " Form follows function " would become one of the prevailing tenets of modern architects. Sullivan attributed the concept to Marcus Vitruvius Pollio , the Roman architect, engineer, and author, who first asserted in his book, De architectura (On architecture) , that

4505-567: The history of the United States as well as an expert on Gothic architecture. Taylor's congenial nature no doubt allowed him to build a robust network of personal and business connections. He was well-respected among his peers and one of the leaders of the increasing professionalization of architecture in America at the end on the nineteenth century, becoming a charter member of the Western Association of Architects. Upon its merger with

4590-593: The hotel was nearly burned to the ground. The only living owner at this time was Dwight Nichols. In 1997, Marty and Elise Roenigk purchased the Crescent Hotel for $ 1.3 million. They oversaw a six-year restoration and renovation of the hotel rooms. Marty Roenigk died in a car crash in 2009; Elise Roenigk remains the hotel's current owner. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2016. Isaac S. Taylor Isaac " Ike " Stacker Taylor (December 31, 1850 – October 28, 1917)

4675-658: The ironwork required for the building was said to be the largest contract ever awarded in St. Louis. The city's architectural press gave Taylor high praise upon the building's completion, calling the block's transformation "a wonderful evidence of St. Louis' building progress." Taylor attracted a steady flow of clients from all different industries in St. Louis. The buildings he designed in the central business district reflect such diversity, though typologically they did not differ substantially, consisting mostly of monumental office blocks that ranged from 3 to 10 stories in height and often dominated their sites. These included such works as

4760-647: The last quarter of the nineteenth century began to emerge as one of the dominant metropolises in the American Midwest, not the least because of its strategic location just south of the juncture of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. Vast amounts of cargo passed through its ports, particularly raw agricultural products from the South and the states of the Great Plains as well as industrial products from

4845-402: The late nineteenth century, the weight of a multi-story building had to be supported principally by the strength of its walls. The taller the building, the more strain this placed on the lower sections of the building; since there were clear engineering limits to the weight such "load-bearing" walls could sustain, tall designs meant massively thick walls on the ground floors, and definite limits on

4930-624: The late years of the nineteenth century, including Sullivan's partner, Dankmar Adler , as well as Daniel Burnham and John Wellborn Root . Root was one of the builders of the Monadnock Building (see above). That and another Root design, the Masonic Temple Tower (both in Chicago), are cited by many as the originators of skyscraper aesthetics of bearing wall and column-frame construction, respectively. In 1890, Sullivan

5015-483: The latter half of the 1930s with such projects as Fallingwater and the Johnson Wax Headquarters . Buildings 1887–1895 by Adler & Sullivan : Buildings 1887–1922 by Louis Sullivan: (256 total commissions and projects) By the end of the first decade of the twentieth century, Sullivan's star was well on the descent and, for the remainder of his life, his output consisted primarily of

5100-415: The life and work of Frank Lloyd Wright is clear from Rand's journal notes, her correspondence, and various contemporary accounts. In the novel, however, the 23-year-old Roark, a generation younger than the real-life Wright, becomes Cameron's protégé in the early 1920s, when Sullivan was long in decline. The young Wright, by contrast, was Sullivan's protégé for seven years, beginning in 1887, when Sullivan

5185-475: The manufacturing centers in the North. According to David Simmons, Taylor built his career by establishing a reputation as "an honest and dedicated architect" who strove to complete commissions in a timely manner and within his given budget, while still accepting challenging jobs that other designers refused to take. Such renown undoubtedly became an asset in a profession where designers often famously underestimate

SECTION 60

#1732780730496

5270-565: The mid-1920s. Cameron's rapid decline is explicitly attributed to the wave of classical Greco-Roman revivalism in architecture in the wake of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition , just as Sullivan in his autobiography attributed his own downfall to the same event. The major difference between novel and real life was in the chronology of Cameron's relation with his protégé Howard Roark, the novel's hero, who eventually goes on to redeem his vision. That Roark's uncompromising individualism and his innovative organic style in architecture were drawn from

5355-554: The new Hurst Hotel in 1885 (he would be called on to revamp this hotel again in 1897). At the same time he expanded his reach into industrial architecture, finishing factories for the St. Louis Illuminating Company in 1885 and the Woodward and Tiernan Print Co in 1887. Taylor also began to attract commissions outside St. Louis during this time, erecting the Crescent Hotel in the resort town of the Ozarks, Eureka Springs, Arkansas (1885) and

5440-435: The new century. He completed the headquarters for two of the city's major press outlets during this period: the Globe-Democrat Building at 6th and Pine Streets (1889) and the St. Louis Republic Building at 7th and Olive in 1899. In an article in 1894, the latter singled out Taylor for his ability to combine aesthetic taste with practicality as one of his particular strengths as a designer that contributed to his success. This

5525-400: The northern half of the building, finished in 1891, is of load-bearing construction, while the southern half, finished only two years later, is of column-frame construction. While experiments in this new technology were taking place in many cities, Chicago was the crucial laboratory. Industrial capital and civic pride drove a surge of new construction throughout the city's downtown in the wake of

5610-404: The offices and hallways are arranged. The other major government commission Taylor undertook was the Jefferson Memorial Building, at the entrance to Forest Park in St. Louis, in 1911-12, on the exact site of the main entrance to the 1904 World's Fair. Now the Missouri History Museum , and only slightly altered, the monumental structure, rather simply but elegantly arranged in two long wings around

5695-425: The one who brought in new business to the partnership, and following 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. He obtained a few commissions for small-town Midwestern banks (see below), wrote books, and in 1922 appeared as

5780-443: The peak of his career and this credo never put one concept above another. While his buildings could be spare and crisp in their principal masses, he often punctuated their plain surfaces with eruptions of lush Art Nouveau or Celtic Revival decorations, usually cast in iron or terra cotta , and ranging from organic forms, such as vines and ivy, to more geometric designs and interlace, inspired by his Irish design heritage. Terra cotta

5865-413: The product. St. Louis had become a major tobacco-processing center during the latter part of the century, and Taylor's firm eventually was responsible for erecting nine different factories, three of them for Drummond. Taylor also broke into the market for designing some of the city's newest lodging establishments, finishing the Beers Hotel at 4th and Olive Streets in 1884 and remodeling the Laclede Hotel into

5950-477: The renovation of the Auditorium Building (now Roosevelt University ) in Chicago. When he read an article about the planned demolition in Clinton, he uprooted his family from their home in southern California and moved them to Iowa. With the vision of a destination neighborhood comparable to Oak Park, Illinois , he set about creating a nonprofit to save the building, and was successful in doing so. Another advocate both of Sullivan buildings and of Wright structures

6035-405: The street from Adler and Sullivan's Pueblo Opera House), his style is unique. A visit to the preserved Chicago Stock Exchange trading floor, now at The Art Institute of Chicago , is proof of the immediate and visceral power of the ornament that he used so selectively. After his death Sullivan was referred to as a bold architect: "Boldly he challenged the whole theory of copying and imitating, and

6120-625: The time one of St. Louis' premier lodging establishments, which opened in 1894. In 1901-02 he completed the National Bank of Commerce, a towering eleven-story French Renaissance skyscraper that housed 198 offices; sculptural lion heads from its interior are now on display at The Wolfsonian - Florida International University in Miami Beach . Taylor developed close contacts with the newspaper industry in St. Louis, which probably contributed greatly to his success during this period and into

6205-405: The time when Roark first comes under the likewise impoverished Cameron's tutelage in the novel. Wright, however, was now in his fifties. Nevertheless, both the young Roark and middle-aged Wright had in common at that time that they both faced a decade of struggle ahead. After the triumphs earlier in his career, Wright came increasingly to be viewed as a has-been, until he experienced a renaissance in

6290-904: The vertical bands on the Wainwright Building, the burst of welcoming Art Nouveau ironwork on the corner entrance of the Carson Pirie Scott store, the (lost) terra cotta griffins and porthole windows on the Union Trust building , and the white angels of the Bayard Building , Sullivan's only work in New York City. Except for some designs by his longtime draftsman George Grant Elmslie , and the occasional tribute to Sullivan such as Schmidt, Garden & Martin's First National Bank in Pueblo , Colorado (built across

6375-557: The world. During the postwar era of urban renewal , Sullivan's works fell into disfavor, and many were demolished. In the 1970s, growing public concern for these buildings finally resulted in many being saved. The most vocal voice was Richard Nickel , who organized protests against the demolition of architecturally significant buildings. Nickel and others sometimes rescued decorative elements from condemned buildings, sneaking in during demolition. Nickel died inside Sullivan's Stock Exchange building while trying to retrieve some elements, when

6460-661: Was Jack Randall, who led an effort to save the Wainwright Building in St. Louis, Missouri at a very critical time. He relocated his family to Buffalo, New York to save Sullivan's Guaranty Building and Frank Lloyd Wright 's Darwin Martin House from possible demolition. His efforts were successful in both St. Louis and Buffalo. A collection of architectural ornaments designed by Sullivan is on permanent display at Lovejoy Library at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville . The St. Louis Art Museum also has Sullivan architectural elements displayed. The City Museum in St. Louis has

6545-408: Was an American architect . He was one of the most important architects in St. Louis and the midwestern United States at the turn of the twentieth century, designing commercial, residential, industrial, and governmental structures. Taylor's career spanned nearly 50 years, the last 36 at the helm of his own firm, and some 215 projects. An obituary declared that "his career...has been synchronous with

6630-580: Was an American architect, and has been called a "father of skyscrapers" and "father of modernism." He was an influential architect of the Chicago School , 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 Wright and Henry Hobson Richardson , Sullivan is one of "the recognized trinity of American architecture." The phrase " form follows function "

6715-403: Was at the height of his fame and power. The two architects would sever their ties in 1894 due to Sullivan's angry reaction to Wright's moonlighting in breach of his contract with Sullivan, but Wright continued to call Sullivan "lieber Meister" ("beloved Master") for the rest of his life. After decades of estrangement, Wright would again become close to the now-destitute Sullivan in the early 1920s,

6800-483: Was forced to let Sullivan go. Sullivan moved to Chicago in 1873 to take part in the building boom following the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. He worked for William LeBaron Jenney , the architect often credited with erecting the first steel frame building. After less than a year with Jenney, Sullivan moved to Paris and studied at the École des Beaux-Arts for a year. He returned to Chicago and began work for

6885-412: Was his 1890 hiring of a new chief designer, Milwaukee native Oscar Enders (1865-1926), who had gained considerable experience as a draftsman with several firms in Chicago , and who in 1895 became the second president of the St. Louis Architectural Sketch Club. David Simmons credits Enders for bringing a "fresh, contemporary look" to Taylor's firm's projects in the 1890s. St. Louis' protracted growth at

6970-564: Was intimately familiar with his life and career. The term "the Fountainhead," which appears nowhere in Rand's novel proper, is found twice (as "the fountainhead" and later as "the fountain head") in Sullivan's autobiography, both times used metaphorically. The fictional Cameron is, like Sullivan – whose physical description he matches – a great innovative skyscraper pioneer late in the nineteenth century who dies impoverished and embittered in

7055-457: Was noted, if only in passing, by at least one journalist contemporary to the book. Although Rand's journal notes contain in toto only some 50 lines directly referring to Sullivan, it is clear from her mention of Sullivan's Autobiography of an Idea (1924) in her 25th-anniversary introduction to her earlier novel We the Living (first published in 1936, and unrelated to architecture) that she

7140-584: Was one of the ten U.S. architects, five from the east and five from the west, 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 building not of the current Beaux-Arts style, and with the only multicolored facade in the entire White City. Sullivan and fair director Daniel Burnham were vocal about their displeasure with each other. Sullivan later claimed (1922) that

7225-619: Was the architect Crombie Taylor (1907–1991), of Crombie Taylor Associates. After working in Chicago, where he had headed the famous "Institute of Design", later known as the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), in the 1950s and early 1960s, he had moved to Southern California. He led the effort to save the Van Allen Building in Clinton, Iowa from demolition. Taylor, acting as an aesthetic consultant, had worked on

#495504