Tom Burtonwood

Twenty Something Sullivan

Tom Burtonwood

Twenty Something Sullivan

Date

2015

Edition Size

20

Media

3D Printing

$ 2,800.00

Unavailable


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The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State)

Louis H. Sullivan is often celebrated as a father of modern architecture. But if given the choice, it’s not what he would have wanted to be remembered for.

His advocacy was for directing the human powers of thought, reason, and creativity towards bringing buildings and their component parts to vital life. As in nature, all parts would relate to the whole. And each would reflect the interpretive powers of the individual, including emotion-stirring beauty uniquely of the work of the individual creator.

By this process, a vital, perpetual modern architecture would be a natural result – not a hollow artificial goal.

Often forgotten are Louis H. Sullivan’s earliest works where these powers are most visually evident. His earliest buildings created while he was in his twenties push upwards from the ground and blossom against the sky. The ornamental details pulse with living organic energy juxtaposed with the modular geometry that is the essence of architecture.

Most of the buildings Sullivan created while in his twenties are lost, but many salvaged pieces of the ornamentation survive. Things that are alive need three dimensions to thrive.

-Architectural Ornament 1881-1885
by Tom Burtonwood and Tim Samuelson

terra cotta panel
HENRY STERN HOUSE Chicago
BUILT 1885 Destroyed 1959

carved wood panel
BEJAMIN LINDAUER HOUSE Chicago
Built 1885 Destroyed 1958

terra cotta panel
REUBEN RUBEL HOUSE Chicago
Built 1884 Destroyed 1958

terra cotta panel
REUBEN RUBEL HOUSE Chicago
Built 1884 Destroyed 1958

terra cotta panel
MARTIN BARBE HOUSE Chicago
Built 1884 Destroyed 1963

terra cotta panel
MARTIN BARBE HOUSE Chicago
Built 1884 Destroyed 1963

plaster panel
MORRIS SELZ HOUSE
Built 1883 Destroyed 1967

cast iron applique
S.A. MAXWELL & CO. STORE Chicago
Built 1882

cast iron applique
ROSENFELD BUILDING Chicago
BUILT 1881 Destroyed 1958