Although Sullivan rejected antique styles, he did not diminish the importance of ornament. Adler and Sullivan together, worked out many programs. While Adler solve the mechanical and structural issues, Sullivan took care of the art. It was Sullivan’s strength in adoring structure with expressive ornaments and façade in the Beaux-art style. He wrote, “Ornament, when creative, spontaneous, is a perfume.” The building structure was made of steel frame and the ornament was made of light materials such as terra cotta.
Sullivan’s ornament design arose in the same period as Art Nouveau movement. His personal creativity allowed him to develop many original, organic architectural details inspired by nature, replacing the standard classical ornamentation
Wainwright Building (1890-1891 in St. Louis Missouri) can be one of his exemplary accomplishment. We could see the vertical emphasis to the building’s overall form which is probably influenced by Marshall Field Store designed by Henry Hobson Richardson. The shaft consists of red brick pilasters with decorated terra cotta spandrels, the attic is rendered as a deep overhanging cornice faced in an ornamented terra cotta skin to match the enrichment of the spandrels and the pilasters below. The windows are set back, leaving the surrounding columns and piers to show the vertical aesthetic. These design elements can also be found in his work -Guaranty building. Sullivan designed Auditorium Building which was also renowned for its ornamental interior. Taking his cue from Adler’s acoustical requirements, the featured four elliptical arches, wider and higher toward the rear, dividing the ceiling into smooth ivory panel of the most delicate lacelike tracery. The buildings successfully apply the metal frame technology; they also unify skyscraper’s repetitious components. We can also look at his last big commercial building Schlesinger and Meyer Department store (1899-1904) in Chicago. This building consists abundance of cast-iron Art Nouveau decoration, especially around the entrances in the curved corner pavilion.
Louis Sullivan, in his later years designed many small buildings in western town, and writing books. Louis Sullivan is an inventor of American architecture. His work influenced a generation of architects. Although many people criticized his work contradicting his theory, it wasn’t true. He said “Whatever is beautiful rests on the foundation of the necessary.” Suggesting the importance of function as well as
Construction was resumed in 1803, with Latrobe as architect. Latrobe designed the central portion of the first building, and modified Thornton’s design so that committee rooms and offices would fit in the south wing. He also designed octastyle porticos for the west and east front of the building, and a colonnade behind the east portico that spanned the entire center section. In order to keep the view of his low dome uninterrupted, Latrobe designed the pediment of the central section to be shallow enough to not reach over the top of the entablature. Another thing that Latrobe designed were the columns in Corinthian style at the east front. Their capitals depicted corn cobs and tobacco leaves, as symbols of the country’s prosperity and the nation’s wealth,
In 1901 Cass Gilbert (1859-1934) designed the elaborate hall for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, held in Saint Louis in 1904. This short-lived structure deserves attention, as it was a main focus of the fair and an important benchmark in its designer's career.
William H. Pierson, Jr., American Buildings and Their Architects: Technology and the Picturesque, (Doubleday & Company, Inc.), 295.
The Rococo idiom began to have an impact the American colonies. The Rococo styles were applied to on vessels. The silver trays had designs around that are carefully designed. The flat part of the silver tray had designs that interact with each other. The Tea server design is astonishing. The way the design are being mold on it. There is not any part of the tea server that has no design. I am surprised on how the people are able to design this piece of work. In reality, these items are pieces of artwork. My mother as well was astonished on the details the silver-plated tray and silver tea
3 In the Nature of Materials, 1887-1941: The Buildings of Frank Lloyd Wright (Da Capo Paperback) by Henry Russell Hitchcock Da Capo Press (June 1975)
Smith, C. Ray. Interior Design in 20th-century America: A History. New York: Harper & Row, 1987. Web. 26 Mar. 2014. .
“Form follows function.” Every great Modern architect thought, designed by and breathed these very words. Or at least, their design principles evolved from them. Modern architects Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe, Frank Lloyd Wright, Pierre Chareau, and Rudolf Schindler to name a few believed that the function determined the space whether the space was solely for a particular purpose or they overlapped to allow for multiple uses. Form didn’t just follow function, function defined the space. By focusing on the relationship between the architecture and the interior elements, Chareau’s Maison de Verre expanded the idea of functionalism to include not only the architecture but also the space it creates and how people function within that space.
Characteristics of Art Deco are not easily defined because the term Art Deco describes a lot of styles ranging from ancient arts and French’s decorative arts to the modern arts. It can be described as the artifacts’ body including inspired works by the past cultures and Avant-grade arts but not copied from high style traditions and history. All these started at the first appearance of Art Deco at World’s Fair Paris in 1925 and has greatly influenced and inspired Art Deco (Arwas, et al., 1996). This term Art Deco is derived from the French word “Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes”
Heinz, Thomas A., Frank Lloyd Wright: Architectural Monographs No 18, St. Martin's Press, New York, 1992.
Regarding architecture of the era of Industrial Revolution, John Ruskin, a co-founder of the Arts and Crafts movement towards simplicity argued, ‘’ you should not connect the delight which you take in ornament with that which you take in construction or in usefulness. They have no connection, and every effort that you make to reason from one to the other will blunt your sense of beauty... Remember that the most beautiful things in the world are the most useless; Peacocks and lilies for instance.’’
He created a style of architecture to reflect America’s character. The central themes of his style were the landscape, people, and democracy in America. His style was heavily influenced by the midwest, the region where he grew up. His houses aimed to encourage the inhabitants to connect and communicate with one another. The hearth, dining room, and terrace all exemplify this, creating, and open, warm and welcoming space.
...rchitecture into the early neo-classical/ baroque style. Wren’s style was one of simple magnificence. His style was composed more of in agreeable proportions rather than glorious decoration. Wren was believed to have contributed design ideas for many buildings for which he did not do final designs. Wren’s design concepts were carried into the early years of the eighteenth century by fellow architects, Hawksmoor, and his partner Vanbrugh. However, Wren’s relative simplicity, and his “Protestant plainness” in comparison with European “Popish” richness, was dominated in their designs by superimpose of rich applied decoration and a more complex and extravagant style.
Frank Lloyd Wright, American architect, who was a pioneer in the modern style, is considered one of the greatest figures in 20th-century architecture. Wright was born June 8, 1867, in Richland Center, Wisconsin. When he entered the University of Wisconsin in 1884 his interest in architecture had already acknowledged itself. The university offered no courses in his chosen field; however, he enrolled in civil engineering and gained some practical experience by working part time on a construction project at the university. In 1887 he left school and went to Chicago where he became a designer for the firm of Adler and Sullivan with a pay of twenty-five dollars a week. Soon Wright became Louis Sullivan’s chief assistant. Louis Sullivan, Chicago based architect, one of America’s advanced designers. Louis had a profound influence on Frank Lloyd Wright. Wright was assigned most of the firm’s home projects, but to pay his many debts he designed ‘Bootlegged Houses’ for private clients in his spare time. Sullivan disapproved, resulting in Wright leaving the firm in 1893 to establish his own office in Chicago.
Frank Lloyd Wright has been called “one of the greatest American architect as well as an Art dealer that produced a numerous buildings, including houses, resorts, gardens, office buildings, churches, banks and museums. Wright was the first architect that pursues a philosophy of truly organic architecture that responds to the symphonies and harmonies in human habitats to their natural world. He was the apprentice of “father of Modernism” Louis Sullivan, and he was also one of the most influential architects on 20th century in America, Wright is idealist with the use of elemental theme and nature materials (stone, wood, and water), the use of sky and prairie, as well as the use of geometrical lines in his buildings planning. He also defined a building as ‘being appropriate to place’ if it is in harmony with its natural environment, with the landscape (Larkin and Brooks, 1993).
Architecture is the concept of bringing structure, materiality, form and space together as a whole, provide people with enclosed atmosphere to experience. Considering this, it is important to identify that materiality and the purpose of details has been a key methodology to bringing architectural intentions into the design in an affective manner, more over producing an architectural expression. However, this position is rather declining in architecture, reducing tectonics and materiality to being secondary to form and space. With the start of modernism, the attempt to achieve minimalistic style has caused detailing to increasingly develop into a decorative aspect of a building, neglecting its individual contribution to architecture.