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136-598: Louis Henry Sullivan (September 3, 1856 – April 14, 1924) 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

272-400: A spread footing extending out 11 feet (3.4 m) under the surrounding streets, spreading the weight of the building over a large area of earth. The building was designed to settle 8 inches (200 mm), but by 1905 had settled that much and "several inches more", necessitating reconstruction of the first floor. By 1948, it had settled 20 inches (51 cm), resulting in a step down from

408-422: A "thoroughly puritanical" example of commercial style. European critics were even less approving. In the words of French architect Jacques Hermant, "The Monadnock was no longer the result of an artist responding to particular needs with intelligence and drawing from them all of the possible consequences. It is the work of a laborer who, without the slightest study, super-imposes 15 strictly identical stories to make

544-501: A block then stops when he finds the block high enough." Other critics saw this lack of style as "natural" and what made the Monadnock truly modern. New York critic Barr Feree wrote in 1892 that "There are no attempts at facades ... no ornamental appendages, nothing but a succession of windows, frankly stating that the structure is an office building, devoted to business, needing and using every available surface." Other critics praised

680-513: A building simple yet majestic." In 1973, the Chicago City Council voted unanimously to designate the Monadnock a Chicago Landmark , stating that "The two halves of this building provide a unique perspective for examining the history and development of modern architecture. ... Together, they mark the end of one building tradition and the beginning of another." Critics of the Monadnock's landmark status objected that it would prevent

816-552: 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

952-432: A decision was forced when the city proposed an ordinance restricting the height of buildings to 150 feet (46 m). To protect future income potential, Aldis sought a permit for a 16-story building immediately. The building commissioner, although "staggered by the sixteen story plan", granted the permit on June 3, 1889. With its 17 stories (16 rentable plus an attic), its 215-foot-high (66 m) load-bearing walls were

1088-496: 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:

1224-520: 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

1360-491: A gentle curve at the base of the building and an outward flare to form an austere parapet at the top. The gentle swelling at base and cornice, observed historian Donald Hoffman, "came very close to the bell-shaped column the Egyptians had derived from papyrus". The corners of the building are gracefully chamfered as they rise to the top and the oriel windows are chamfered at their base. The floor divisions are not marked on

1496-542: 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

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1632-424: A large ornamental copper cornice at the roof line. Massive blocks of red granite, 6 feet (1.8 m) thick, frame the large, two-story entrances. The projecting oriel windows of the original are repeated, but alternate in a pattern of two four-window bays to one recessed strip of windows to create the undulating appearance of the facade that was an early trademark of Holabird & Roche. Carl Condit, historian of

1768-400: A model for preservation nationwide." The restored Monadnock is divided into offices of from 250 square feet (23 m ) to 6,000 square feet (560 m ) As of 2008 , it was 98.9 percent leased; the 300 tenants are primarily independent professional firms and entrepreneurs. Rents range from $ 21 to $ 23 per square foot ($ 226 to $ 247 per square meter), plus electricity. The building

1904-477: A new structural system of framed tubes in skyscraper design and construction . The tube structure, formed by closely spaced interconnected exterior columns, resists "lateral forces in any direction by cantilevering from the foundation." About half the exterior surface is available for windows. Where larger openings like garage doors are required, the tube frame must be interrupted, with transfer girders used to maintain structural integrity. The first building to apply

2040-562: A pen shop with glass cases, a shoe-shine stand, and other service establishments represented, in Donnell's words, "the kind of small-scale entrepreneurs who occupied those spaces at the turn of the century, the kind of people who bring vitality and life to a building because they have a stake in it." The restoration was a success both critically and commercially. The building was 80 percent occupied when bought in 1979 and rented for $ 5.50 per square foot ($ 59.20 per square meter). By 1982, it

2176-439: 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

2312-505: A powerful mass became, prophetically, a forerunner of the 'slab skyscraper'—a style not popular until the late 1920s" and that "the two sections ... make, as an ensemble, one of the strongest, yet refined architectural statements in the development of twentieth century architecture." Its nomination as a National Historic Landmark in 1976, as part of the South Dearborn Street – Printing House Row Historic District , included

2448-520: 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

2584-550: A series of lots in the area on Peter Brooks' behalf, including a 70-by-200-foot (21 by 61 m) site on the corner of Jackson and Dearborn streets. The location was remote, yet attractive for several reasons. The construction of the Chicago Board of Trade Building in 1885 had made nearby LaSalle Street the city's prime financial district, driving up property values, and railroad companies were buying up land further south for new terminal buildings, creating further speculation in

2720-548: 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

2856-591: A single central pane was usually fixed, while the two surrounding panes were operable. These windows were often deployed in bays, known as oriel windows , that projected out over the street. Architects whose names are associated with the Chicago School include Henry Hobson Richardson , Dankmar Adler , Daniel Burnham , William Holabird , William LeBaron Jenney , Martin Roche , John Root , Solon S. Beman , and Louis Sullivan . Frank Lloyd Wright started in

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2992-484: A single, double-loaded corridor, which was appointed with a 3-foot-high (0.91 m) wainscot of white Carrara marble, red oak trim, and feather-chipped glass that allowed outside light to filter from the offices on each side into the hallways. Floors were covered with hand-carved marble mosaic tiles. Skylit open staircases were made of bronze-plated cast iron on upper floors. On the ground floor, they were crafted in cast aluminum—an exotic and expensive material at

3128-449: A situation;... [but] projections mean dirt, nor do they add strength to the building;... one great nuisance [is] the lodgment of pigeons and sparrows. While Root was on vacation, Burnham had a draftsman create a "straight up-and-down, uncompromising, unornamented facade ." Objecting at first, Root later threw himself into the design, declaring that the heavy lines of an Egyptian pyramid had captured his imagination and that he would "throw

3264-481: A slight flaring at the top, divided visually into five sections with a lotus-blossom decorative motif . This design was never approved, as Brooks waited for the real estate market in the south Loop, still mostly warehouses, to improve. Where Root was known for the detailed ornamentation of his designs (as seen in the Rookery Building ), Brooks was known for his stinginess and preference for simplicity. For

3400-433: 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

3536-449: Is here instinctively avoided. An innate feeling for proportion gives this great building inner consistency and logical purity." Modern critics have praised the Monadnock as one of the most important exemplars of the Chicago school, along with Louis Sullivan's Carson, Pirie, Scott and Company Building . It has been called "a triumph of unified design" comparable to Henry Hobson Richardson 's Marshall Field's Wholesale Store , and "one of

3672-731: 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

3808-452: Is no reason why", he said, "any well-designed office building need be torn down because of obsolescence." Skidmore & Owings , who had pioneered functional design, were retained to lead a $ 125,000 program ($ 2.71 million in 2023 dollars) to restyle the main entrance, remodel the lobby and ground floor shops, modernize all the public spaces, and progressively modernize office suites as demand required. The modernization included covering

3944-671: Is one of "the recognized trinity of American architecture." The phrase " form follows function " 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

4080-496: Is one of the phenomenal features in the real estate market of this city. The erecting and successful renting of these structures has simply established, in an incredibly short period of time, an important business center at the southwest corner of Jackson and Dearborn streets, a point which was but a short time ago considered too far south for a prosperous business center. Early tenants, according to Rand McNally , included "great corporations, banks, and professional men ... among them

4216-526: 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:

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4352-507: 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

4488-430: Is widely used to describe buildings constructed in the city during the 1880s and 1890s, this term has been disputed by scholars, in particular in reaction to Carl Condit 's 1952 book The Chicago School of Architecture . Historians such as H. Allen Brooks , Winston Weisman and Daniel Bluestone have pointed out that the phrase suggests a unified set of aesthetic or conceptual precepts, when, in fact, Chicago buildings of

4624-484: The Chicago Daily Tribune called "the city's largest and most novel modernization job" in a move toward halting the destruction of Chicago's aging skyscrapers. Rejecting the term "modernization", Aldis called his plan "progressive styling", which he believed would revolutionize the way building maintenance was done to preserve millions of dollars worth of buildings that would otherwise be destroyed. "There

4760-618: The Fisher Building , the Manhattan Building , and the Old Colony Building . When it was built, many critics called the building too extreme, and lacking in style. Others found in its lack of ornamentation the natural extension of its commercial purpose and an expression of modern business life. Early 20th-century European architects found inspiration in its attention to purpose and functional expression. It

4896-641: The Kluczynski Federal Building across Jackson Street in 1974. By 1977, operating expenses were high, rents were low, and occupancy had fallen to 80 percent. Struggling to make loan payments, the owners were forced to sell the building to avoid foreclosure. It was purchased by a partnership headed by William S. Donnell in 1979 for $ 5 per square foot ($ 54 per square meter) or approximately $ 2 million ($ 8.4 million in 2023 dollars). The building Donnell purchased in 1979 had declined badly. The Dearborn entrances had been closed in,

5032-509: The Monadnock Block ; pronounced / m ə ˈ n æ d n ɒ k / mə- NAD -nok ) is a 16-story skyscraper located at 53 West Jackson Boulevard in the south Loop area of Chicago. The north half of the building was designed by the firm of Burnham & Root and built starting in 1891. At 215 feet (66 m), it is the tallest load-bearing brick building ever constructed. It employed the first portal system of wind bracing in

5168-469: 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

5304-931: The Santa Fe , the Michigan Central , and the Chicago & Alton Railroads, and the American Exchange National and Globe Savings Banks". In 1897, the Union Elevated Railroad Company opened the Union Loop line of the Chicago "L" , the last leg of which ran immediately alongside the Van Buren side of the building. Aldis filed suit against the "L" in 1901 for $ 300,000 in damages ($ 11 million in 2023 dollars), complaining that: [the] means of access to

5440-451: The "L" lines could recover damages if the property had been injured by noise, vibration, or the blocking of light, paving the way for many lawsuits to follow. A boom in new construction after 1926 created stiff competition for older buildings like the Monadnock. Occupancy declined from 87 percent in 1929 to 55 percent in 1937 and the building began to lose money. In 1938, building manager Graham Aldis (Owen's nephew) announced what

5576-566: The 10-story Montauk Building , in 1883, and the 11-story Rookery Building in 1888. The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 had destroyed a 4-by-0.5-mile (6.44 km × 0.80 km) swath of the city between the Chicago River and Lake Michigan , and subsequent commercial development expanded into the area far south of the main business district along the river that would come to be known as "the Loop" . Between 1881 and 1885, Aldis bought

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5712-451: 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

5848-734: 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

5984-619: The 1975 Kluczynski Federal Building, Mies's last project, considered to mark the apex of his career. The triangular, 27-story Metropolitan Correctional Center , a detention center serving the Federal courts in the Dirksen Building and nearby Ralph H. Metcalfe Federal Building , is southwest of the Monadnock at Clark and LaSalle. The south leg of the Chicago Transit Authority elevated rail loop runs next to

6120-521: The Chicago firm of Carter, Drake, and Wight in 1872 and left to form Burnham & Root the following year. At Aldis's urging, the Brooks brothers had retained the then-fledgling firm to design the Grannis Block, which was their first major commission. Burnham and Root would become the architects of choice for the Brooks family, for whom they would complete the first high-rise building in Chicago,

6256-416: The Chicago school, has commented that: The general appearance of the Monadnock almost belies its masonry construction. The projecting bays with their large glass areas give the structure a light and open appearance in spite of its great mass. ... Stripped of every vestige of ornament, its rigorous geometry softened only by the slight inward curve of the wall at the top of the first story, the outward flare of

6392-525: 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,

6528-419: The Monadnock on Jackson Boulevard there was nothing on the south side of the street between State Street and the river but cheap one-story shacks, mere hovels. Every one thought Mr. Aldis was insane to build way out there on the ragged edge of the city. Later when he carried the building on through Van Buren Street they were sure he was. Early sketches show a 13-story building with Egyptian Revival ornament and

6664-481: The Monadnock to its original condition in painstaking detail. The project was, according to historian Donald Miller, the most comprehensive skyscraper restoration ever attempted at the time; it took thirteen years to complete. Working from original drawings discovered at the Art Institute of Chicago , and two old photographs, Donnell and John Vinci , one of the nation's leading preservation architects, restored

6800-445: The Monadnock, Brooks insisted that the architects refrain from elaborate ornamentation and produce instead "the effect of solidity and strength, or a design that will produce that effect, rather than ornament for a notable appearance." In an 1884 letter to Aldis, he wrote: My notion is to have no projecting surfaces or indentations, but to have everything flush. ... So tall and narrow a building must have some ornament in so conspicuous

6936-605: 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

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7072-447: The United States. Its decorative staircases represent the first structural use of aluminum in building construction. The later south half, constructed in 1893, was designed by Holabird & Roche and is similar in color and profile to the original, but the design is more traditionally ornate. When completed, it was the largest office building in the world. The success of the building was the catalyst for an important new business center at

7208-804: 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:

7344-448: The amount of exterior ornamentation. Sometimes elements of neoclassical architecture are used in Chicago School skyscrapers . Many Chicago School skyscrapers contain the three parts of a classical column . The lowest floors functions as the base, the middle stories, usually with little ornamental detail, act as the shaft of the column, and the last floor or two, often capped with a cornice and often with more ornamental detail, represent

7480-562: 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

7616-480: The base and top, with vertically continuous oriel windows projecting out. The south half is vertically divided by brickwork at the base and rises to a large copper cornice at the roof. Projecting oriel windows in both halves allow large exposures of glass, giving the building an open appearance despite its mass. The Monadnock is part of the Printing House Row District , which also includes

7752-498: 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

7888-763: The building on Van Buren Street; the CTA's Brown , Orange , Pink , and Purple Lines are served by the Library-State/Van Buren stop one block to the east. The Jackson street subway station, serving the Blue Line, is on the Dearborn Street side of the building. Contemporary Chicago critics considered the building too radical a departure from Burnham & Root's previous designs and too extreme in its stark simplicity and disregard for prevailing aesthetic norms, calling it an "engineer's house" and

8024-479: The building to its condition when first constructed, before any modernizations, working piecemeal as offices became vacant. The color of the shellac was matched to closets where the wood had not been darkened by exposure to light. The mosaic floors were recreated by Italian craftsmen at a cost of $ 50 per square foot ($ 538 per square meter). A local firm was found that could reproduce the complicated process of sandblasting and hide glue application used to create

8160-411: 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

8296-405: The capital. The " Chicago window " originated in this school. It is a three-part window consisting of a large fixed center panel flanked by two smaller double-hung sash windows. The arrangement of windows on the facade typically creates a grid pattern, with some projecting out from the facade forming bay windows . The Chicago window combined the functions of light-gathering and natural ventilation;

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8432-580: 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

8568-414: The corridor through to the street. Fluorescent lighting was prohibited and only gold leaf lettering on the glass was permitted for signage. Shops, all individually owned, were selected to fit the architectural character of the building. A florist, for example, was chosen that evoked a turn-of-the-century atmosphere, as well as a barbershop with vintage fixtures and decor. A tobacconist with oak furnishings,

8704-422: The era displayed a wide variety of styles and techniques. Contemporary publications used the phrase "Commercial Style" to describe the innovative tall buildings of the era, rather than proposing any sort of unified "school." Some of the distinguishing features of the Chicago School are the use of steel-frame buildings with masonry cladding (usually terra cotta ), allowing large plate-glass window areas and limiting

8840-422: The exterior; the unbroken edifice is interrupted only by a series of oriel windows , separated by rows of single thin silled windows set into the vertical face. The entryways are small, single-height portals topped with plain stone lintels. The south half preserves the lines and color of the older building, but is vertically divided by a string course over the second story, emphasizing the building's base, and

8976-481: 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

9112-414: The final design. The Monadnock's final height was calculated to be the highest economically viable for a load-bearing wall design, requiring walls 6 feet (1.8 m) thick at the bottom and 18 inches (46 cm) thick at the top. Greater height would have required walls of such thickness that they would have reduced the rentable space too greatly. The final height was much dithered over by the owners, but

9248-575: The firm of Adler and Sullivan but created his own Prairie Style of architecture. The Home Insurance Building , which some regarded as the first skyscraper in the world, was built in Chicago in 1885 and was demolished in 1931 . In the 1940s, a "Second Chicago School" emerged from the work of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and his efforts of education at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. Mies sought to concentrate on neutral architectural forms instead of historicist ones, and

9384-814: 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

9520-412: 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

9656-466: The ground floor had been "defaced by garish signs", and the brick had been painted and was peeling. Inside, the marble wainscoting had been painted over and many of the original oak doors had been replaced with cheaper mahogany. The decorative stair rails had been enclosed, and some stairways and corridors had been closed off completely. Much of the original mosaic tile had been demolished—some floors were carpeted, others tiled in vinyl or terrazzo. Half of

9792-486: 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

9928-404: The job. Today these commissions are collectively referred to as Sullivan's "Jewel Boxes". All still stand. Notes Bibliography Chicago school (architecture) A "Second Chicago School" with a modernist aesthetic emerged in the 1940s through 1970s, which pioneered new building technologies and structural systems , such as the tube-frame structure . While the term "Chicago School"

10064-402: 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

10200-624: 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

10336-481: 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

10472-413: 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

10608-435: The lobby walls and ceilings. The Dearborn Street entrances were reopened and their massive granite lintels and surrounds cleared of layers of black paint or replaced. A source was found for the molded bricks needed to repair or replace the curved corners. Large plate glass windows at the entrance were removed and smaller double-hung windows were replaced that conformed to the original design. Fiberglass shades resembling

10744-564: 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

10880-418: The mosaic floors with rubber tile and terrazzo , enclosing the elevators and ornamental stairways, and replacing the marble and oak finishes in the corridors and offices with modern materials. By the end of 1938, 35 new tenants had signed leases and 11 existing tenants had leased additional space in the building. In 1966, Aldis & Co., which had managed the building for the Brooks estate for 75 years,

11016-517: The most exciting aesthetic experiences our commercial architecture has ever produced". The building was one of the first five selected by the Chicago Commission on Architectural Landmarks in 1958, "in recognition of its original design and its historical interest as the highest wall-bearing structure in Chicago". The commission went on to note that the "restrained use of brick, soaring massive walls, omission of ornamental forms, unite in

11152-541: The most prolific in the city and the acknowledged leader of the Chicago school of architecture. The north half had struggled with cost overruns and Holabird & Roche presented a more cost-effective design. The design, for two buildings called the Katahdin and Wachusett (also named for New England mountains), connected them to the north half as a single structure at an estimated cost of $ 800,000 ($ 27.1 million in 2023 dollars). Construction began in 1892, under

11288-436: The necessary demolition of the building, which was "an excellent example of a building that is ... no longer fulfilling the functions it was designed to fulfill" and "a wasting asset" that underperformed the market and was far less valuable than the land on which it stood would be. The National Register of Historic Places , to which the Monadnock was added in 1970, noted that "the sheer, unadorned walls of this building forming

11424-401: The north half. Connected on every floor except the top one and sharing a common basement, each of the four component buildings was equipped with its own heating system, elevators, stairs, and plumbing to facilitate a separate sale if required. The combined final cost in 1893 was $ 2.5 million ($ 84.8 million in 2023 dollars). When complete, the Monadnock was the largest office building in

11560-400: 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

11696-517: 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

11832-408: The open stairwells. The north half corridors are 20 feet (6.1 m) wide and the south half corridors are 11 feet 6 inches (3.51 m). In the north half, there are two open stairs in the center at the one third points, with perforated risers , white marble treads, and decorative steel railings. There are two banks of four elevators on the west side of the corridor, one for passengers and

11968-560: The original linen versions were installed to preserve the appearance of the facade. The average cost of the restoration work was $ 1 million per floor ($ 2.46 million in 2023 dollars) in 1989, or $ 47 per square foot ($ 506 per square meter). Donnell's goal was that the Monadnock would "not only look as it originally did, it [would] also live as it used to", and he sought tenants for the street-level shops that were similar to their 19th-century occupants. Shop windows were cleared of all signs and obstructions to preserve intended view from

12104-451: The original feather chipped glass. This reproduced glass was used to restore the partitions and naturally lit corridors of Root's design. To recreate the doors and wood trim, Donnell purchased the firm that had created the original oak woodwork—and still used the same 19th century machinery. Perfect replicas of the original aluminum light fixtures were fabricated from early photographs and carbon filament light bulbs were obtained to recreate

12240-427: The original lighting effect. A single surviving aluminum staircase was discovered behind a wall, restored, and used as a model to rebuild the lobby stairways and metalwork. The wainscoting on the upper floors was restored with marble salvaged from the recently modernized, nearby 19 LaSalle and Manhattan Buildings . Marble was purchased from the same Italian quarry that supplied Root's original construction to restore

12376-447: The other for freight. In the south half, there is a single bank of elevators on the north half of the length. The southern bank was abandoned and slabbed over on each floor. There is a flight of stairs behind each of these shafts with marble treads, closed cast iron risers, and ornamental balusters. The basic office suite is 600 square feet (56 m ), consisting of one outer office and two or more inner offices. Heavy internal walls at

12512-532: The parapet, and the progressive rounding of the corners from bottom to top, subtly proportioned and scaled, the Monadnock is a severe yet powerfully expressive composition in horizontal and vertical lines. The Monadnock rests on the floating foundation system invented by Root for the Montauk Building that revolutionized the way tall buildings were built on Chicago's spongy soil. A 2-foot (0.61 m) layer of concrete, reinforced with steel beams, forms

12648-443: 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

12784-513: The quarter and halfway points, the arches of which manifest Root's innovative wind bracing, mark the boundaries of the four original buildings. The Monadnock belongs to the Printing House Row District , a National Historic Landmark which includes the Manhattan Building, the Old Colony Building , and the Fisher Building , some of Chicago's seminal early skyscrapers . The Manhattan Building, built by William LeBaron Jenney in 1890,

12920-601: 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

13056-522: The said building ... had been cut off and the light, air, and view obstructed, and the enjoyment of the property disturbed by the throwing of smoke, dust, cinders, and filth ... by the creating and causing of loud and ominous noises, and by the causing of the ground to shake and vibrate ... said building and premises are greatly damaged. Aldis lost the case, but won on appeal, when the Supreme Court of Illinois found that owners of property abutting

13192-457: The same iron framed masonry construction as the original. The Wachusett was entirely steel framed . Where the north half required great thicknesses of brick in the load-bearing walls, the addition employed only a thin facing of brick and terracotta trim, affording larger expanses of glass and faster, less expensive construction. The south half cost 15 percent less, weighed 15 percent less, and had 15 percent more rentable space than

13328-466: The sixteen elevators were still manually operated. "It was as if it had been partly updated every ten years throughout its history", said Donnell, "it was never done over in its entirety." Donnell, who had studied architecture at Harvard , planned to gut the building and construct a new, modern office complex inside the historic shell. Failing to obtain financing for the remodeling, he embarked instead on an incremental, "pay as you go" project to restore

13464-465: The south in 1893 for $ 360,000 ($ 12.2 million in 2023 dollars). Aldis recommended the firm of Holabird & Roche , who had designed the Pontiac Building for Peter Brooks in 1891, to extend the Monadnock south to Van Buren. William Holabird and Martin Roche had trained together in the office of William LeBaron Jenney , and in 1881 formed their own firm, which would become one of

13600-462: The southeastern end of the Loop. Brooks commissioned Burnham & Root to design a building for the site in 1884, and the project was announced in 1885, with a brief trade journal notice that the building would cost $ 850,000 ($ 28.8 million in 2023 dollars). The Chicago building community had little faith in Brooks' choice of location. Architect Edwin Renwick would say: When Owen Aldis put up

13736-430: The southern end of the Loop. The building was remodeled in 1938 in one of the first major skyscraper renovations ever undertaken—a bid, in part, to revolutionize how building maintenance was done and halt the demolition of Chicago's aging skyscrapers . It was sold in 1979 to owners who restored the building to its original condition, in one of the most comprehensive skyscraper restorations attempted as of 1992. The project

13872-480: The standard Miesian building is characterized by the presence of large glass panels and the use of steel for vertical and horizontal members. The Second Chicago School's first and purest expression was the 860–880 Lake Shore Drive Apartments (1951) and their technological achievements. The structural engineer for the Lake Shore Drive Apartments project was Georgia Louise Harris Brown , who

14008-405: 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

14144-444: The street to the ground floor. The entire east wall is supported on caissons sunk to the hardpan , installed when the subway Blue Line was dug under Dearborn Street in 1940. The narrow building allows an external exposure to all of the 300 offices, which pass natural light via double hung outside windows through feather-chipped glass transoms and hallway partitions into the single central corridor. Skylights bring sunlight into

14280-443: The structure so that the metal frame would be protected even if the facing brick were to be destroyed. The Brooks' decision to construct a building of such scale and in such an unlikely location was vindicated by the Monadnock's success—it was the most profitable investment they ever made. The Economist, a Chicago real estate journal, conceded in 1892 that: the rapidity with which the Monadnock and Kearsarge ... have been rented

14416-527: The supervision of Corydon T. Purdy who would later earn accolades as the structural engineer for many famous Chicago and New York skyscrapers. The addition, 17 stories high, preserved the color and vertically massed profile of the original, but was more traditionally ornate in its design, with grander entranceways and more neoclassical touches. The building reflected in its design the transition taking place in skyscraper design from load-bearing walls to steel frame construction. The Katahdin, built first, used

14552-626: The surface to be covered with glass. The district overlaps geographically with the Printer's Row neighborhood, originally the center of Chicago's printing and publishing industry, and now mostly converted to residential housing. The area is also home to the largest public library in the world, the Harold Washington Library , named for Chicago's first African-American mayor, and the Loop campus of Depaul University , America's largest Roman Catholic university. Immediately to

14688-468: The tallest of any commercial structure in the world. To support the towering structure and reinforce against wind, the masonry walls were braced with an interior frame of cast and wrought iron . Root devised for this frame the first attempt at a portal system of wind bracing in America, in which iron struts were riveted between the columns of the frame for reinforcement. The narrow lot allowed only

14824-433: The thing up without a single ornament". In 1889, a new plan was announced for the building: a thick-walled brick tower, 16 stories high, devoid of ornamentation and suggestive of an Egyptian pylon . Brooks insisted that the building have no projections, for which reason the plan did not include oriel windows , but Aldis argued that more rentable space would be created by projecting oriel windows , which were included in

14960-404: 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

15096-463: The time—representing the first use of aluminum in building construction. The building was constructed by the firm of George A. Fuller , who trained as an architect but made his mark as the creator of the modern contracting system in building construction. His firm had supervised construction of the Rookery, and later built New York's Flatiron Building with Burnham in 1902. The Monadnock Block

15232-421: The truthfulness of the building to the ideals of business, which, while "not necessarily the highest to which we might aspire to in art ... are the only ideals the business building ought to express". Montgomery Schuyler , one of the Monadnock's most enthusiastic defenders, argued that the Monadnock's lack of ornament was not a lack of art, but rather "radiated the gravity of modern business life". The Monadnock

15368-602: The tube-frame construction was the DeWitt-Chestnut Apartment Building , which Khan designed and was completed in Chicago by 1963. This laid the foundations for the tube structures of many other later skyscrapers, including his own John Hancock Center and Willis Tower . Today, there are different styles of architecture all throughout the city, such as the Chicago School, neo-classical , art deco , modern , and postmodern . Monadnock Building The Monadnock Building (historically

15504-904: 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

15640-473: The west on Jackson Street is the Union League Club of Chicago , founded in 1879 as a civic organization for "upright, law-abiding businessmen". To the north are the three buildings comprising Ludwig Mies van der Rohe 's minimalist Federal Plaza: the 1964 Everett McKinley Dirksen United States Courthouse , the only courthouse designed by Mies; the 1973 United States Post Office Loop Station ; and

15776-448: The world, with 1,200 rooms and an occupancy of over 6,000. The Chicago Daily Tribune commented that the population of most Illinois towns in 1896 would fit comfortably in the building. It was a postal district unto itself, with four full-time carriers delivering mail six times a day, six days a week. It was the first building in Chicago wired for electricity, and one of the first to be fire-proofed, with hollow fire clay tiles lining

15912-556: 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

16048-475: Was 91 percent occupied and commanded rent of $ 9 per square foot ($ 97 per square meter). The Monadnock was selected as one of top restoration projects in the country by the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 1987, noting "the outstanding quality of the overall restoration effort", and the precision, detail and faithfulness of the interior restoration, in particular the lobby, which "serves as

16184-442: Was Aldis, one of two men Louis Sullivan credited with being "responsible for the modern office building", who convinced investors such as the Brooks brothers to build new skyscrapers in Chicago. By the end of the century, Aldis would create over 1,000,000 square feet (93,000 m ) of new office space and manage nearly one fifth of the office space in the Loop. Daniel Burnham and John Wellborn Root met as young draftsmen in

16320-708: 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

16456-402: 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,

16592-558: Was built as a single structure but was legally two buildings, the Monadnock and the Kearsarge, named for Mount Monadnock and Mount Kearsarge in New Hampshire. Work was completed in 1891. The Monadnock, which Root called his "Jumbo", was his last project; he died suddenly while it was under construction. Encouraged by the early success of the building, Shepherd Brooks purchased the 68-by-200-foot (21 by 61 m) lot adjoining to

16728-482: Was commissioned by Boston real estate developers Peter and Shepherd Brooks in the building boom following the Depression of 1873–79 . The Brooks family, which had amassed a fortune in the shipping insurance business and had been investing in Chicago real estate since 1863, had retained Chicago property manager Owen F. Aldis to manage the construction of the seven-story Grannis Block on Dearborn Street in 1880. It

16864-426: Was considered one of the structural masterpieces of its time for its revolutionary portal form of bracing. It is the only survivor of a group of Chicago school buildings with rounded corner bays. The Fisher Building , built by Burnham in 1894, was an engineering miracle—the first tall commercial building to be built almost entirely without bricks. Its steel frame and thin terracotta curtain wall allowed two-thirds of

17000-504: Was dissolved and the Monadnock was sold for $ 2 million ($ 18.8 million in 2023 dollars) to Sudler & Co., owners of the John Hancock Center , the Rookery Building , and the Old Colony Building . The new owners again modernized the interior, installing carpet, fluorescent lights , and new doors, and undertook a major effort to shore up the north wall which had sunk 1.75 inches (44 mm) during construction of

17136-483: 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

17272-562: 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

17408-456: 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

17544-402: Was offered for sale in 2007, with an expected price of $ 45 to $ 60 million. A tentative deal was reached at a price of $ 48 million in 2008. Together, the two parts of the building have a frontage of 420 feet (130 m) on Dearborn Street with a depth of 70 feet (21 m). The original northern half presents a plain, unbroken vertical mass of purple-brown brick, which is contoured to create

17680-641: Was one of the first buildings named a Chicago Architectural Landmark in 1958. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1970, and named as part of the National Historic Landmark South Dearborn Street – Printing House Row North Historic District in 1976. Modern critics have called it a "classic", a "triumph of unified design", and "one of the most exciting aesthetic experiences America's commercial architecture produced". The Monadnock

17816-584: 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

17952-465: Was recognized as one of the top restoration projects in the US by the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 1987. The building is divided into offices from 250 square feet (23 m ) to 6,000 square feet (560 m ) in size, and primarily serves independent professional firms. It was listed for sale in 2007. The north half is an unornamented vertical mass of purple-brown brick, flaring gently out at

18088-618: 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

18224-655: Was the first African-American to receive an architecture degree from the University of Kansas, and second African-American woman to receive an architecture license in the United States. Skidmore, Owings & Merrill , a Chicago-based architectural firm, was the first to erect buildings conforming to the features of the Second Chicago School. Myron Goldsmith , Bruce Graham , Walter Netsch , and Fazlur Khan were among its most influential architects. The Bangladeshi -born structural engineer Khan introduced

18360-545: Was the first building in Chicago with a complete steel skeleton or "Chicago" construction, an innovation Jenney had introduced in the Home Insurance Building in 1884. The first 16-story building in America, at the time it was "regarded with awe and fear". Jenney's masterpiece, the Manhattan was considered a technical triumph in construction. The 17-story Old Colony, built by Holabird & Roche in 1894,

18496-489: Was widely praised by early twentieth-century German architects, including Mies, who on his arrival in Chicago in 1938 declared that "The Monadnock block is of such vigor and force that I am at once proud and happy to make my home here." These European architects found the building's attention to purpose and functional expression inspiring. Bauhaus architect Ludwig Hilberseimer wrote that "The false solution—unfortunately too common—of applying meaningless and misplaced adornment

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