Lois H. Sullivan is one of America’s greatest architects. He fathered the skyscraper and taught Frank Lloyd Wright. He was a prophet, poet, and pioneer of Modern architecture living from 1856 to 1924. His greatest accomplishment was challenging the predominate theory of architectural design as copying and imitating styles. He believed copying ‘precedent’ destroyed an architect’s design process as a living creative art form. Architects should base their design on the real forces of the particular building project. From this idea Sullivan’s famous phrase “form follows function” was born. Sullivan’s other great accomplishment was the invention of the skyscraper. Prior to this, architects struggled with how to design a steel frame tall building. He was the first to give skyscrapers the form they have today.
Let us look at his design process.
Chapters
0:00 Introduction
3:12 Sullivan’s Design Process
3:52 Organic Forms
4:56 Axes and Subaxes
8:05 Formal Geometry
10:14 Dynamic Symmetry or Formal Subdivision
10:46 Gesture Drawing and Experimentation
13:06 Sullivan’s Philosophy
18:06 The Tragedy of Sullivan’s Architecture