Ornament, Nature and Abstraction Louis H. Sullivan
“There is a time in every [person’s] education when [they] arrive at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that [they] must take [themselves] for better, for worse, at [their] own portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to [them] but through [their] toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to [them] to till.”1 “Nature, who made the mason, made the house.”2 Ralph Waldo Emerson Image source: Louis H. Sullivan, A System of Architectural Ornament: According with a Philosophy of Man’s Powers, plate 10
1. Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance in “The Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson,” (New York: Random House, 2000), 133. 2. Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature in “The Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson,” (New York: Random House, 2000), 371.
• What is Sullivan’s view on the value of ornament in architectural design? • How should ornament relate to structure according to Sullivan? Adler & Sullivan, Prudential (Guaranty) Building, Buffalo, New York, 1894. East elevation from northeast.
• How did Sullivan draw inspiration from both the details of nature and the American landscape?
Source: Library of Congress http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/ny0204.photos.116404p/resource/
• How do Sullivan’s views relate to those of the British Arts and Crafts movement?
What is Sullivan’s view on the value of ornament in architectural design? Source: Library of Congress http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/il0120.photos.061214p/resource/
form ever follows 1 function 1. Louis Sullivan, “The Tall Office Building Artistically Considered,� in Kindergarten Chats and Other Writings (New York: George Wittenborn, 1947), 208
Source: Library of Congress http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/mo0297.photos.099170p/resource/
Adler & Sullivan, Wainwright Building, St. Louis, Missouri, 1891. Cornice.
Source: Library of Congress http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/il0091.sheet.00003a/resource/
Adler & Sullivan, Auditorium Building, Chicago, Illinois, 1889. Eastern elevation
“I would say that it would be greatly for our aesthetic good if we should refrain entirely from the use of ornament for a period of years, in order that our thought might concentrate acutely on the production of buildings well formed and comely in the nude.”1 1. Louis H. Sullivan, Ornament in Architecture in “Kindergarten Chats and Other Writings,” (New York: George Whittleborn, 1947), 187.
Source: Library of Congress http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/il0091.photos.061071p/resource/
Louis Sullivan, Auditorium Building, Ganz Hall capital
Source: Library of Congress http://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/hhh.il0091.photos.061172p/
Louis Sullivan, Auditorium Hotel, Dining room
Source: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston http://zoom.mfa.org/fif=c/c29508.fpx&obj=iip,1.0&wid=960&cvt=jpeg
Source: Creative Commons, http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/28/Marshall_Field_Warehouse_Store.jpg
Henry Hobson Richardson, Marshall Field’s Wholesale Store, Chicago, Illinois, 1887.
“All is function, all is form [...] behind every form we see there is a vital something or other which we do not see, yet which makes itself visible to us in that very form.”1 1. Louis H. Sullivan, Kindergarten Chats in “Kindergarten Chats and Other Writings,” (New York: George Whittleborn, 1947), 44-46.
Source: Library of Congress http://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/hhh.ia0174.photos.068752p/
Louis Sullivan, Merchants’ National Bank, Grinnell, Iowa, 1914. Front elevation
“consider each building of the past and the present as a product and index of the civilisation of the time, also as the product and index of the thought of the people of the time and place. [...] The attempt at imitation [...] of the by-gone forms of building, is a procedure unworthy of a free people.1 1. Louis Sullivan, “What is Architecture,” in Louis Sullivan: The Public Papers (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1988), 177-179.
How should ornament relate to structure according to Sullivan? Source: Library of Congress http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/il0120.photos.061214p/resource/
Source: Library of Congress http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/mo0297.photos.099209p/resource/
Adler and Sullivan, Wainwright Building, St. Louis, Missouri, 1891. Terra cotta ornamentation around east front entrance
“Ornamental design will be more beautiful if it seems a part of the surface or substance that receives it than if it looks ‘stuck on’ [...] it should appear [...] as though it had come forth from the very substance of the 1 material” 1. Louis Sullivan, “Ornament in Architecture,” in Kindergarten Chats and Other Writings (New York: George Wittenborn, 1947), 189.
Frank Lloyd Wright, Alice Millard house, “La Miniatura,” Pasadena, California, 1923. Frank Lloyd Wright, patent double-wall, light weight block system.
Source: Creative Commons http://farm1.static.flickr.com/23/33904466_e8e78493d9_o.jpg
Source: Kenneth Frampton Studies in Tectonic Culture
How did Sullivan draw inspiration from both the details of nature and the American landscape? Source: Library of Congress http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/il0120.photos.061214p/resource/
“These simple forms of ancient discovery and use were given esoteric meaning and occult powers by the [people] of the day in an effort to control, by means of formulas and secret ritual, the destiny of [humanity] amidst the powers of nature. With mystic numbers and other phenomena they formed part of an elaborate system of magic to which the world pinned its faith. Here, however, a new faith is advanced; a faith in [humanity], with [their] natural powers, developed and free, may and shall control [their] destiny through the finer magic of [their] enlarged vision and [their] will to attain.� Source: Louis Sullivan, plate 3 from A System of Architectural Ornament According with a Philosophy of Man’s Power, 1924.
How do Sullivan’s views relate to those of the British Arts and Crafts movement? Source: Library of Congress http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/il0120.photos.061214p/resource/
Source: StudyBlue http://classconnection.s3.amazonaws.com/1883/flashcards/634705/jpg/leyswood.jpg
Richard Norman Shaw, Leyeswood, Sussex, 1868. Owen Jones, Islamic ornament, from The Grammar of Ornament, 1856.
Source: Kenneth Frampton, Studies in Tectonic Culture.
Source: Owen Jones, The Grammar of Ornament, 1856.
Frank Lloyd Wright, proposed National Life Insurance Building Offices, Chicago, 1920-1925.
“So shall we come to look at the world with new eyes. It shall answer the endless inquiry of the intellect — What is truth? and of the affections — What is good? by yielding itself passive to the educated Will. Then shall come to pass what my poet said: “Nature is not fixed but fluid. Spirit alters, moulds, makes it. The immobility or bruteness of nature, is the absence of spirit; to pure spirit, it is fluid, it is volatile, it is obedient. Every spirit builds itself a house, and beyond its house a world, and beyond its world, a heaven. Know then, that the world exists for you. For you is the phenomenon perfect. What we are, that only can we see. All that Adam had, all that Caesar could, you have and can do. Adam called his house, heaven and earth; Caesar called his house, Rome; you perhaps call yours, a cobbler’s trade; a hundred acres of ploughed land; or a scholar’s garret. Yet line for line and point for point, your dominion is as great as theirs, though without fine names. Build, therefore, your own world.” Image source: Louis H. Sullivan, A System of Architectural Ornament: According with a Philosophy of Man’s Powers, plate 19
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature