Sullivanesque offers a visual and historical tour of a unique but
often overlooked facet of modern American architecture derived from
Louis Sullivan.Highly regarded in architecture for inspiring the Chicago
School and the Prairie School, Sullivan was an unwilling instigator of
the method of facade composition--later influenced by Frank Lloyd
Wright, William Gray Purcell, and George G. Elmslie--that came to be
known as Sullivanesque. Decorative enhancements with botanical and
animal themes, Sullivan's distinctive ornamentation mitigated the hard
geometries of the large buildings he designed, coinciding with his "form
follows function" aesthetic.Sullivan's designs offered solutions to
problems presented by new types and scales of buildings. Widely popular,
they were also widely copied, and the style proliferated due to a number
of Chicago-based interests, including the Radford Architectural Company
and several decorative plaster and terra-cotta companies. Stock replicas
of Sullivan's designs manufactured by the Midland Terra Cotta Company
and others gave distinction and focus to utilitarian buildings in
Chicago's commercial strips and other confined areas, such as the
downtown districts of smaller towns. Mass-produced Sullivanesque terra
cotta endured as a result of its combined economic and aesthetic appeal,
blending the sophistication of high architectural art with the pragmatic
functionality of building design.Masterfully framed by the author's
photographs of Sullivanesque buildings in Chicago and throughout the
Midwest, Ronald E. Schmitt's in-depth exploration of the Sullivanesque
tells the story of its evolution from Sullivan's intellectual and
aesthetic foundations to its place as a form of commercial vernacular.
The book also includes an inventory of Sullivanesque
buildings.Honorable Mention recipient of the 2002 PSP Awards for
Excellence in Professional/Scholarly Publishing
