| Sullivan's City: The Meaning of Ornament for Louis Sullivan Contributor(s): Van Zanten, David (Author), Robinson, Cervin (Photographer) |
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ISBN: 0393730387 ISBN-13: 9780393730388 Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company OUR PRICE: $54.00 Product Type: Hardcover Published: August 2000 Annotation: Early in Sullivan's career in the 1890s, when he emerged as a leading skyscraper architect of Chicago, his ornament gave scale and quality to his work After 1900, as his career declined it served to identify his buildings and the humane conception they encapsulated in an increasingly hostile cityscape. The brilliant pencil execution of ornament in his old age became a surrogate for the great architectural projects realized earlier. This extended essay on how Sullivan's ornament shaped the city is illuminated by stunning new color photographs. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Architecture | Individual Architects & Firms - General - Architecture | Decoration & Ornament - Photography | Subjects & Themes - Architectural & Industrial |
| Dewey: 729.092 |
| LCCN: 99086573 |
| Physical Information: 0.9" H x 8.84" W x 10.36" (2.40 lbs) 176 pages |
| Themes: - Chronological Period - 1851-1899 - Chronological Period - 1900-1919 - Cultural Region - Great Lakes - Cultural Region - Heartland - Cultural Region - Midwest - Demographic Orientation - Urban - Geographic Orientation - Illinois |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Among many books about the person and work of Louis Sullivan, this unusual volume explores the idea that Sullivan's ornament became increasingly central to his architectural enterprise as his career unfolded. It holds that he used ornament to articulate the masses of the skyscrapers he built at the peak of his career and to humanize them in an increasingly hostile cityscape. In his impoverished old age, when important commissions no longer came to him, fully developed and exquisite pencil drawings of ornament served as a surrogate for the great projects he was no longer able to carry out. Cervin Robinson's beautiful photographs of Sullivan's work, supplemented by historical photographs of buildings no longer standing and reproductions of plates from Sullivan's crowning achievement, his book of drawings System of Architectural Ornament, illustrate the text by art historian David Van Zanten. |
Contributor Bio(s): Robinson, Cervin: - Cervin Robinson lives in New York City.Van Zanten, David: - David Van Zanten lives in Evanston, Illinois. |
