My latest review for The Objective Standard is of a lovely new book on the art and architecture of Louis Sullivan. Excerpt:
On the night the Chicago Auditorium was dedicated in 1889, none of the dignitaries who spoke to the overflow crowd—which included the president and vice president of the United States—mentioned its architect, thirty-three-year-old Louis H. Sullivan. The ornate theater was an astounding feat of technical ingenuity and innovative design that remains one of Chicago’s most celebrated landmarks. Yet Sullivan is said to have spent the evening in the building’s barroom by himself.
It’s a fitting image of a man who was one of America’s greatest builders but who, only a few years later, found himself forgotten, and whose refusal to compromise his designs helped drive him into poverty. Fortunately, Tim Samuelson and Chris Ware have produced this hefty monograph to help preserve his work and encourage a new generation’s interest in a man justly considered the father of the skyscraper.
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