Louis Henry Sullivan

Posted by
Tel Asiado
Sep 3, 2008

Today, September 3 (1856), is the birthday of American architect Louis Henry Sullivan. He is regarded the "father of modern US architecture" and identified with early skyscraper design innovation.

Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Sullivan studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and at the influential Paris atelier of Joseph Auguste-Emile Vaudremer.

He worked in chicago in the 1880s and 1890s when the city was busy witih migrants influx, railroads, and other kinds of trading. In 1886, he won the New Exposition building contract with Dankmar Adler.

He was one of the first to design skyscrapers, such as the Wainwright building in St Louis in 1890 and the Carson store in chicago 1899.

Sullivan's experimental, functional skeleton constructions of skyscrapers and office blocks, particularly the Gage building and Stock Exchange with Adler in Chicago earned him the title of "Father of Modernism." He greatly influenced Frank Lloyd Wright among others.

He died on April 1924.