Week 3 | Art Nouveau Part II

Art Nouveau in the United States had a lot to do with revoking the traditional European style and creating a new, unique American style. The two main designers who seemed to lead the movement in the United States were Louis Comfort Tiffany and Lewis Henry Sullivan. 

Louis Comfort Tiffany was a notable painter, glass worker, and very good with decorative arts. He was known to be the one to bring Art Nouveau to the United States from Europe, after attending the great exposition and visiting the Art Nouveau booth. Some of his designs that he created afterwards were sent back to Europe and sold in the original Art Nouveau shop. After some time, his work was also put on display at the Art Institute in Chicago.
Lewis Henry Sullivan came to Chicago after the great fire to rebuild. He was known for some of the first skyscrapers ever to be designed, because he looked at the idea of building vertically, rather than horizontally. His designs were very detailed and ornamented, and can be seen in the Carson Perry Scott building, and and the Sullivan and Adler Auditorium.

Glasswork by Louis Comfort Tiffany

Carson Perry Scott Building - Louis Henry Sullivan

Sullivan and Alder Auditorium - Lewis Henry Sullivan

Current Applications

Present day Target shopping center in Carson Perry Scott Building - Lewis Henry Sullivan
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Sullivan and Adler Auditorium today
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One step further...

Lewis Henry Sullivan was known to be an impatient architecture student. He went back and forth between studying and working in the United States and in different parts of Europe. When he came back to the United States, he worked on projects such as the ones shared above. He also designed a 10-story skyscraper in St. Louis called the "Wainwright Building". It had a steel frame and utilized many architecture techniques that were unique to Sullivan. It was cladded in Terra Cotta rather than brick and was considered one of his most important works.