Frank Lyod Wright and Louis Sullivan - Essay Example

Sullivan and Wright: Their Relationship and Arches Louis Sullivan, one of the great architects of the last half of the 19th century, was a brilliant artist with both practical office experience and a year at the famed cole des Beaux-Arts in Paris before entering a partnership with Dankmar Adler in 1879. Credited with being the first to give an appropriate form to the steel skyscraper, he was a precursor of American modernism and managed to produce the only forward-looking design of the 1893 World's Colombian Exposition in Chicago.1 Unfortunately and unfairly, this designer of dozens of lauded buildings, who helped reshape the manner of building structure and aesthetics, is primarily known today for one thing-his role as Frank Lloyd Wright's "Lieber Meister (beloved master)".2 However, this relationship was unconventional and requires further investigation. Born on 8 June 1867, Wright was pushed from childhood to be an architect by his mother, Anna Lloyd Jones Wright.3 Like Sullivan, he chose apprenticeship as his true introduction to the field, and in 1887 he began working at Adler and Sullivan. Sullivan's famous motto of "form follows function" influenced Wright immensely and was a major reason why Wright considered Sullivan his only influence. That the relationship was mutual is demonstrated by the events of 1889. In that year Wright married Catherine Lee Clark Tobin, and Sullivan loaned him the enormous sum of $5,000 to buy property in Oak Park, Illinois and build a house.4 His willingness to help Wright illustrates the mutual respect between the employer and employee at this time. Although one of his early works, the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio in Oak Park can be considered a workshop, used by the architect to begin developing some intriguing concepts. The initial construction phase of 1889 "exhibits features that portend the mature Wright's philosophy of architecture: the emphasis on pure geometric forms, the broad, sheltering roof, the use of natural materials and the unity of building and site".5 These features blurred the distinctions between inside and outside, and marked a growing integration of landscape and construction. In addition, the interior was focused around the fireplace and astonishingly open in design, with none of the Victorian hierarchy of divided spaces evident. Wright continued designing houses in Oak Park on the side, and this conflict of interest led to Sullivan firing him in 1893.6 Never one to stop working, Wright simply opened his own office and specialized in domestic architecture. By 1902 he designed his first Prairie house, a style defined by horizontal orientation, rows of small windows, low-pitched roofs featuring overhanging eaves and an open interior plan with a central fireplace.7 With its definitive wood and stucco exterior, it also works in conjunction with the suburban setting. Its cruciform plan is designed so that the movement from one wing to the next is diagonal, and these 45 degree angles are featured in other parts of the house.8 This epoch construction, completely distinct from Sullivan's verticality, would not have been possible had he not been fired. Decades of both personal and professional trouble followed, but Wright weathered the strenuous difficulties and re-emerged in the 1950's. His most famous project from this final stage is undoubtedly the Wright, Frank Lloyd, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum of 1956-1959. Completed after his death and considered Wright's "great swansong",9 it is an exercise in pushing concrete to the limits of plasticity. After entering the inverted swirl, visitors move to the top via elevators and proceed "downward at a leisurely pace on the gentle slope of a continuous ramp".10 This final monument vividly illustrates how far Wright progressed from the early stages of his career. However, the first Wright building to feature an internal spiral ramp was the V. C. Morris Gift Shop of 1949, designed concurrently to the Guggenheim project.11 Inside are display cases and shelves that follow the curvilinear theme, and the ramp walls feature openings to make one level visible to the next. Yet it is the outside that re-connects Wright to Sullivan. This building, one of the last of Wright's career, featured a monumental solid red brick curtain wall. Although it is a shop, there are no windows on the faade. Instead, off-center to the left, is "an impressive arched opening and barrel-vaulted entryway", framed by two thin openings of illuminated glass.12 This leads to a compressed, tunnel-esque entrance to spacious and bright interior. This arch is featured in two works by Sullivan, and show that Wright still considered him his "Lieber Meister" to the end. In 1893, the year of Wright's dismissal, Sullivan and Adler produced the only truly contemporary building featured in the World's Columbian Exposition, the Transportation Building. 960 feet long and punctuated by arcade windows, it alone was not weighed down by weary classical influences.13 Yet what most defined the design was the famous Golden Door, the entrance at the center of the building consisting of a series of receding arches decorated with gold leaf ornament. 14 Although the scale and materiality are different, the idea of an archway marking the entrance and of that space being dramatically compressed to add to the drama of the revelation of the interior is definitely there. Although The transportation Building, along with most of the other Exposition structures, were destroyed in the Pullman Strike Fire in July 1894,15 it is clear that Wright remembered the lesson from his time with Sullivan. A few years later saw another entry arch from Sullivan, this time for a bank in Owatonna, Minnesota. The design for the National Farmer's Bank, constructed between 1907 and 1909, "though much smaller in scale than the earlier skyscrapers, the bank is just as clearly expressed in its parts".16 The faade of each of the two walls of the main mass of the building feature an enormous arched window centered and recessed into the brick. Although it is not specifically denoting the entrance, this time Sullivan prominently features the arch in a scale very close to the V. C. Morris Gift Shop and the primary material is red brick. Between Sullivan's handling of the arch in the Transportation Building and National Farmer's Bank, Wright found inspiration for his own unique positioning of his gift shop's entrance. It is a unique and fitting tribute to his former master. After decades of fiscal disaster and alcoholism, Sullivan finally reconciled with Wright before dying in a solitary Chicago hotel room, all of the success of his life behind him. In fact, he was so destitute that Wright paid for the funeral.17 Perhaps this is a fitting end, representative of their relationship. The buildings and innovations of one man, although they continue to stand as creative achievements in their own right, served as inspiration and the fuel for further development by his greatest, self-professed pupil. Although their bond is complex, it surely exists and its study only credits both architects. Bibliography Buildings Sullivan, Louis and Dankmar Adler, Transportation Building, World's Columbian Exposition of 1893, Destroyed by fire in 1894, Chicago, Illinois, 1893. Sullivan, Louis and George Grant Elmslie, National Farmer's Bank, 101 Cedar Street North, Owatonna, Minnesota, 1907/1908. Wright, Frank Lloyd, Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio, 951 Chicago Avenue, Oak Park, Illinois, 1889/1898. Wright, Frank Lloyd, V. C. Morris Gift Shop, 140 Maiden Lane, San Francisco, California, 1949. Wright, Frank Lloyd, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1071 5th Avenue at 89th Street, New York, New York, 1956/1959. Wright, Frank Lloyd, Ward Willits House, 1445 Sheridan Road, Highland Park, Illinois, 1902. Books Kostof, Spiro, A History of Architecture, Settings and Rituals, New York: Oxford University, 1985. Sanderson, Arlene (ed), Wright Sites, 3rd edition, Princeton: Princeton Architectural Press, 2001. Websites Drutt, Matthew, The Building, Guggenheim Museum, http://www.guggenheim.org/the_building.html (Retrieved 10 December 2005). Frank Lloyd Wright, Prairie Styles, 2000-2003, http://www.prairiestyles.com/wright.htm (Retrieved on 10 December 2005). Hurder, Steven, Frank Wright Home and Studio, Frank Lloyd Wright Oak Park 1889-1909, 20 October 2002, http://www.oprf.com/flw/H&S.html (Retrieved on 12 December 2005). Louis Sullivan, Wikipedia, 2005, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Sullivan (Retrieved on 10 December 2005). Louis Sullivan (1856-1924), http://web.mit.edu/museum/chicago/sullivan.html (Retrieved 10 December 2005). V. C. Morris Gift Shop, Wright on the Web, http://www.delmars.com/wright/flw6b.htm (Retrieved 10 December 2005). The Transportation Building, World's Columbian Exposition of 1893, Paul V. Galvin Library Digital History Collection, Illinois Institute of Technology, 26 August 1998, http://columbus.gl.iit.edu/dreamcity/00024008.html (Retrieved on 10 December 2005). Ward W. Willits House, Wright on the Web, http://www.delmars.com/wright/flw8-3.htm (Retrieved on 10 December 2005). Ward Willits House, Wright's Illinois Architecture, http://www.dgunning.org/architecture/Illinois/willits.htm (Retrieved on 10 December 2005). Read More