No. 19 — Louis Sullivan
Schlesinger & Mayer department store (Carson Pirie Scott Building)
| Artist | Louis Sullivan, 1856–1924 |
|---|---|
| Date | 1899–1904 |
| Medium | steel frame with cast and wrought iron ornament and wide Chicago windows |
| City | Chicago |
| Location | State Street at Madison, the Loop, Chicago — restored as the Sullivan Center; a National Historic Landmark |
Sullivan's department store rises in austere horizontal bands of Chicago windows, reserving its exuberance for the cast-iron ground floor whose swirling vegetal ornaments burst around the corner entrance rotunda.
Begun in 1899 and extended along State Street in 1903–04, it is Sullivan's mature statement that ornament should celebrate, not disguise, a modern skeleton frame.
Long occupied by Carson Pirie Scott, it has been restored as the Sullivan Center.
Green-black cast-iron vines exploding around a corner entrance beneath calm grids of glass and steel.
The companion piece
Green-black cast-iron vines exploding around a corner entrance beneath calm grids of glass and steel. The algorithm runs live above; when WebGL sleeps, the drawn still takes its place.
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