Sullivan, Louis (1856–1924)

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Known for his ‘evolutionistic’ botanical style, Louis Sullivan was born in 1856 (Twombly and Menocal, 2000). He entered Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1872. Sullivan was briefly employed by Frank Furness and later moved to Chicago to work with William Le Baron Jenny before enrolling at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in 1874. Disappointed by his experience in Vaudremer’s atelier, Sullivan instead spent his time studying Paris architecture and traveling to Rome and Florence. In 1879 he started with Dankmar Adler as a freelance draughtsman in Chicago. This firm eventually became Adler and Sullivan and was influential in the development of the skyscraper and the building of Chicago. Sullivan’s role in the firm involved the ‘composition of façades and the design of ornamentation (Twombly and Menocal, 2000, p. 84).

Upon the closing of his firm shortly before his death in 1924, Sullivan moved all of the firm’s architectural drawings to storage. Of these drawings, he retained approximately 100 sketches consisting largely of botanical and geometric ornament. These sketches make up the entirety of drawings by Sullivan found in collections today (Twombly and Menocal, 2000). Why Sullivan chose these particular images is a matter of speculation. They may have reflected a more direct expression of his inspiration, creativity, or personal architectural style.

Sullivan’s architectural style involved massive volumes contrasted with intricate ornamentation. Narcisco Menocal writes about Sullivan’s use of ornament: ‘Louis Sullivan’s concept of architectural and ornamental design was based on a belief that the universe was sustained by a cosmic rhythm. Change, flow, and one entity turning into another were effects of a universal becoming.…In that scheme, beauty emerges from a never-ending transformation of all things into new entities’ (Twombly and Menocal, 2000, p. 73). The ornament was, for Sullivan, an enhancing part of otherwise straightforward steel frame buildings.

This study, from 1895, is an ornamental frame for the Richard Morris Hunt memorial portrait. It is typical of Sullivan’s studies for ornament, displaying intertwined organic shapes, composed of light guidelines with darker areas for detail. It appears to be a running band of foliage; the top edge and the indicated centerline suggest a linear pattern, one that would be repeated across the frame. This centerline reveals that the sketch is only half of the intended ornament. It was not necessary for Sullivan to complete the entire frieze, as he was able to make a judgment from a small section. This became his point of decision, whether to continue or reject the proposal. By using an
underlying geometry, the ornate and complex foliage pattern could appear loose and haphazard, yet it could be precisely duplicated.

When drawing the negative space (the shadows) rather than the positive outline of the foliage, Sullivan was simulating and testing a future three-dimensional effect. The sketch, consistently undeveloped across the page, resembles a doodling that did not need to be completed.

Although this sketch represents only a small detail of ornament, it may be central to understanding Sullivan’s architecture. It seems to act as appliqué to the functional spaces, in such a way that the ornament becomes the skin on the steel frame. Sullivan’s buildings reflect the ‘organic’ on two different levels – in the way the architecture developed, and the allusions to nature found in the ornament. This, coupled with his desire to retain such sketches as evidence of his design, assists to understand the focus of Sullivan’s architecture (Andrews, 1985).