Product Description

Using an approach that combines literature, philosophy, and the visual arts, Lauren Weingarden restores Louis H. Sullivan's eight midwestern banks, built between 1906 and 1919, to a new and prominent place in his ouevre. Long regarded as the eccentric addenda to a lapsed career, the bank commissions can now be seen as part of a mature architect's vision and perhaps the truest embodiment of the democratic architecture for which Sullivan had campaigned during his entire career.

The book includes 15 previously unpublished color photographs by Crombie Taylor and a substantial, detailed catalog of the banks with the history of each, relevant architectural drawings and archival photographs taken by Henry Fuermann shortly after construction was completed.

Lauren S. Weingarden is Assistant Professor of Art History at Florida State University.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2385347 in Books
• Published on: 1990-07-19
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 164 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Sullivan (1856-1924) forever changed American architecture with his designs for Chicago's Auditorium Building, the Wainwright Building in St. Louis, Mo., and many other public structures. Part of his pioneering effort was his unique use of architectural ornament: the "fluent geometry" or "fusion of the inorganic with the organic" that blossomed in stately, patterned curves adorning the walls of banks in Grinnell, Iowa; Owatonna, Minn.; and, perhaps most splendidly, in the Second City. This oversize volume collects 20 drawings created to accompany an essay by Sullivan, "A System of Architectural Ornament According with a Philosophy of Man's Powers,"sic/ originally commissioned in 1922 by the Art Institute of Chicago. Reproducing the drawings to scale, along with pages from Sullivan's handwritten manuscript (facing pages translate his scrawl into type), the book also includes an essay by Weingarden, art historian at Florida State University, that explores the origins of the architect's aesthetic and its fulfillment in his designs. A magnificent testimonial to a peculiarly American mind, the volume opens our eyes not only to Sullivan's achievements but to the process that produced them.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Two years before Sullivan's death in 1924, a group of his admirers commissioned 20 plates comprising his last work, an explication of his organic, metaphysical philosophy of ornament, through the Burnham Library of the Art Institute of Chicago. The manuscript is now in the institute's Department of Architecture. It includes plates, such as one entitled "Fluent Geometry," combining text with Sullivan's characteristic geometric forms and sprouting tendrils. This oversize volume contains a manuscript facsimile of the final text and preliminary drawings and notes, painstakingly reproduced in two-color half-tones; photographs of Sullivan's buildings; and a valuable, lucid essay by Weingarden (art history, Florida State Univ.) on the development of Sullivan's philosophy of ornament, his technique, and the function of his ornament in its architectural context. This exquisite volume will be an important addition to academic, art and architecture, and large public library collections.
- Christine Whittington, Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review


"Whereas earlier writers ... had condemned these edifices for their overwrought lyricism and overbearing ornament, Weingarden praises them for their monumentality, openness, integration of interior and exterior, harmonization of nature and art, and for their gorgeous beauty. This publication buttresses the case with some splendid color plates and a wealth of black-and-white photographs."
—Rochelle Berger Elstein, Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians

Customer Reviews

An amazing insight into the Banks of Sullivan
I think this book displays everything and anything you want or need to know about Sullivan's Banks. I found this most helpful in doing a research report on Sullivan and there is no other book as comprehensive in outlying his plans, goals, features, and works. If you find this book and you are interested in Sullivan or his architecture...buy it!