Very few Americans know about the importance to architecture (art that you walk through) and visual culture that was contributed by Louis Sullivan. Louis Henri Sullivan was born on September 3, 1856 and died on April 14, 1924. He is considered by many as the creator of the skyscraper, and was a mentor to Frank Lloyd Wright and an inspiration to architects of the Prairie School; architecture that was integrated into the environment. When he was young, he developed a fascination with buildings and he decided he would become a structural engineer/architect. After graduating from high school, Sullivan studied architecture briefly at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He entered MIT at the age of sixteen and passed the first two years at the Institute of Technology by passing a series of examinations. After one year of study, he moved to Philadelphia and talked himself into a job with architect Frank Furness. In even our recent history, many states allowed students to pass the architectural tests without formal schooling.

Sullivan moved to Chicago in 1873 to take part in the building boom following the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. Sullivan than went to Europe for a year where Renaissance art greatly influenced him. He returned to Chicago and began work for the firm of Joseph S. Johnston & John Edelman as a draftsman. He became a partner in the firm. It was here that Sullivan deeply influenced a young designer named Frank Lloyd Wright, who came to embrace Sullivan's designs and principles as the inspiration for his own work. Sullivan became his mentor. A mentor is a trusted counselor or teacher. Because of the fame of Frank Lloyd Wright, many people forget that Sullivan was a pioneer in architecture in his own right. After 1889, his firm became known for their office buildings, primarily the 1891 Wainwright Building in St. Louis. Louis Sullivan is considered by many to be the first architect to conceive the steel high-rise; the father of the skyscraper.

The development of steel in the second half of the 19th century changed architecture forever. Buildings could be made of many floors. Urban society was forming and the society called out for new, larger buildings. Sullivan was at the forefront of this movement. The steel weight-bearing frame allowed not only taller buildings but also permitted larger windows, which meant more daylight reaching interior spaces. The Wainwright Building in St. Louis, Missouri is one of the most famous buildings in architectural history and an example of this new style.

Sullivan created the vocabulary of form for the high rise (base, shaft, and pediment) and simplified the appearance of the building by breaking away from previous styles, using his own beautiful flora designs, in vertical bands, to draw the eye upwards and emphasize the building's vertical lines. Louis Sullivan, most important, was the person who said, "form follows function," which became the slogan of modern architects. Sullivan often decorated the surfaces of his buildings with Art Nouveau ornamentation made from cast iron or terra cotta, ranging from organic forms like vines and ivy to designs that are more geometric. Sullivan is also famous for a large semi-circular arch. His influence on American culture was profound. Go to this website for more information on the Wainwright Building and to view it from Google Earth.The picture below on the left is of the Wainwright Building. Examples of his arches can be found in the National Farmers' Bank of Owatonna, Minnesota, image below on the right.

Read the lesson on two point perspective and use the image below of a skyscraper by Louis Sullivan to create your own two-point perspective drawing. Additional lessons including one on drawing cityscapes are available at Visual Manna. ( Right click on the image below to save it.)

Copyright © 2008 Sharon Jeffus All rights reserved.
This article was reprinted at the Eclectic Homeschool Online by permission of the author.