LOUIS SULLIVAN Rediscovered : Lecture

…more artistic musings

LOUIS SULLIVAN (1856-1924) the American Architect often referred to as father of modern design, mentor to Frank Lloyd Wright and creator of the modern skyscraper was my inspiration for a guest lecture given during the INTERNATIONAL SALON in Atlanta, GA. this lecture discussed the recreation process with visual representation, and respectfully pays homage to Sullivan.

INTERNATIONAL SALON was a five-day event that I was privileged to present a KEYNOTE LECTURE on a project that was completed at a Historical Landmark in Chicago, IL. During the research process, SULLIVAN’s individuality began to emerge. While showing CLASSICAL DECORATIVE ARTS creative, and recreation process with visual representation, the lecture respectfully pays homage to SULLIVAN as a man, artist, architect and his contribution to the architectural landscape.

SULLIVAN was born on September 3, 1856 in Boston Massachusetts and relocated to Chicago after the windy city’s Great Fire in 1871.

During his career SULLIVAN executed approximately 238 designs. While in partnership with Adler from an 1883 until June 1895 he was involved in 158 projects. Today only 50 remain standing. One exception is the Chicago Art Institute full-scale rendition and reconstruction.

THE DESIGNS REFLECT the current writings of Darwin, the botanist Asa Grey with the transcendentalist aspects of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt Whitman and Henry David Thoreau.

The architectural firm of Vinci and Kenny recreated the original room that is permanently installed at the Art Institute of Chicago.

CLASSICAL DECORATIVE ARTS recreated the reconstructed Trading Room wing at Driehaus Capital Management in downtown Chicago. Project required extended onsite museum research and months of studio preparation before work could commence at the Historical Cable House. In early 1996 the reproduced historical room was unveiled.

The Louis Sullivan reproduction required 63 stencil overlays and 33 individually mix-to-match colors to reproduce the room as Sullivan originally intended.

Further Reading:

Louis Sullivan and the Chicago School. Nancy Frizer, Knickerbocker Press

Sullivanesque: Urban Architecture and Ornamentation. Ronald E.Smith. University of Illinois Press

The Trading Room: Louis Sullivan and the Chicago Stock Exchange. John Vinci