of late-19th-century commerce. To achieve this, he employed the lat-
est technological developments to create light-filled, well-ventilated
office buildings and adorned both exteriors and interiors with or-
nate embellishments. Such decoration served to connect commerce
and culture and imbued these white-collar workspaces with a sense
of refinement and taste. These characteristics are evident in the
Guaranty (Prudential) Building (FIG. 31-40) in Buffalo, New York,
built between 1894 and 1896. The structure is steel, sheathed with
terracotta. The imposing scale of the building and the regularity of
the window placements served as an expression of the large-scale,
refined, and orderly office work that took place within. Sullivan tem-
pered the severity of the structure with lively ornamentation, both
on the piers and cornice on the exterior of the building and on the
stairway balustrades, elevator cages, and ceiling in the interior. TheGuaranty Building illustrates Sullivan’s famous dictum that “form
follows function,” which became the slogan of many early-20th-
century architects. Still, Sullivan did not advocate a rigid and doctri-
naire correspondence between exterior and interior design. Rather,
he espoused a free and flexible relationship—one his pupil Frank
Lloyd Wright (see Chapter 35) later described as similar to that be-
tween the hand’s bones and tissue.
Sullivan also designed the Carson, Pirie, Scott Building (FIG.
31-41) in Chicago. Built between 1899 and 1904, this department
store required broad, open, well-illuminated display spaces. Sullivan
again used a minimal structural steel skeleton to achieve this goal.
The architect gave over the lowest two levels of the building to an or-
nament in cast iron (of his invention) made of wildly fantastic mo-
tifs. He regarded the display windows as pictures and as such felt
they merited elaborate frames. As in the Guaranty Building, Sullivan
revealed his profound understanding of the maturing consumer
economy and tailored the Chicago department store to meet the
functional and symbolic needs of its users.
Thus, in architecture as well as in the pictorial arts, the late 19th
century was a period during which artists challenged traditional
modes of expression, often emphatically rejecting the past. Architects
and painters as different as Sullivan, Monet, van Gogh, and Cézanne,
each in his own way, contributed significantly to the entrenchment of
modernism as the new cultural orthodoxy of the early 20th century
(see Chapter 35).850 Chapter 31 EUROPE AND AMERICA, 1870 TO 190031-40Louis Henry Sullivan,Guaranty (Prudential) Building,
Buffalo, New York, 1894–1896.
Louis Sullivan used the latest technologies to create this light-filled,
well-ventilated Buffalo office building. He added ornate surface
embellishments to impart a sense of refinement and taste.31-41Louis Henry Sullivan,Carson, Pirie, Scott Building, Chicago,
1899–1904.
Sullivan’s slogan was “form follows function.” He tailored the design of
this steel, glass, and stone Chicago department store to meet the needs
of its employees and customers.31-40A SULLIVAN,
Wainwright
Building,
St. Louis,
1890–1891.