专八人文知识需知的美国名人--路易斯.沙利文

专八人文知识需知的美国名人--路易斯.沙利文

　　英语专八人文知识涵盖的知识面较广，考生们需要平时多积累小常识，这样在专八考试中才能游刃有余，新东方在线整理了专八人文知识需知的美国名人系列知识点供考生们参考。

　　第一批设计摩天大楼的美国建筑师之一。生于波士顿。在美国现代建筑革新中起过重要作用。强调装饰对建筑的重要性。重要作品有圣路易斯的温莱特大厦(1890)及芝加哥施莱辛格与迈耶百货公司大厦(1899)。

　　Louis Henri Sullivan (September 3, 1856 – April 14, 1924) wasan American architect, and has been called the "father ofmodernism." He is considered by many as the creator of themodern skyscraper, was an influential architect and critic of theChicago School, was a mentor to Frank Lloyd Wright, and an inspiration to the Chicago group ofarchitects who have come to be known as the Prairie School.

　　Sullivan and the steel high-rise

　　Prior to the late 19th century, the weight of a multistory building had to be supported principallyby the strength of its walls. The taller the building, the more strain this placed on the lower sectionsof the building; since there were clear engineering limits to the weight such "load-bearing" wallscould sustain, large designs meant massively thick walls on the ground floors, and definite limits onthe building's height.The development of cheap, versatile steel in the second half of the 19thcentury changed those rules. America was in the midst of rapid social and economic growth thatmade for great opportunities in architectural design. A much more urbanized society was formingand the society called out for new, larger buildings. The mass production of steel was the maindriving force behind the ability to build skyscrapers during the mid 1880s. As seen with the databelow the prices dropped significantly during this period.

　　The people in Midwestern America felt less social pressure to conform to the ways and styles of thearchitectural past. By assembling a framework of steel girders, architects and builders couldsuddenly create tall, slender buildings with a strong and relatively delicate steel skeleton. The rest ofthe building's elements — the walls, floors, ceilings, and windows — were suspended from the steel,which carried the weight. This new way of constructing buildings, so-called "column-frame"construction, pushed them up rather than out. The steel weight-bearing frame allowed not justtaller buildings, but permitted much larger windows, which meant more daylight reaching interiorspaces. Interior walls became thinner, which created more usable floor space.

　　Chicago's Monadnock Building (which was not designed by Sullivan) straddles this remarkablemoment of transition: the northern half of the building, finished in 1891, is of load-bearingconstruction, while the southern half, finished only two years later, is column-frame. (Whileexperiments in this new technology were taking place in many cities, Chicago was the cruciallaboratory. Industrial capital and civic pride drove a surge of new construction throughout thecity's downtown in the wake of the 1871 fire.)The technical limits of weight-bearing masonry hadalways imposed formal as well as structural constraints; those constraints were suddenly gone.None of the historical precedents were any help, and this new freedom created a kind of technicaland stylistic crisis.

　　Sullivan was the first to cope with that crisis. He addressed it by embracing the changes that camewith the steel frame, creating a grammar of form for the high rise (base, shaft, and pediment),simplifying the appearance of the building by breaking away from historical styles, using his ownintricate flora designs, in vertical bands, to draw the eye upwards and emphasize the building'svertical form, and relating the shape of the building to its specific purpose. All this wasrevolutionary, appealingly honest, and commercially successful.

　　Louis Sullivan coined the phrase "form ever follows function," which, shortened to "form followsfunction," would become the great battle-cry of modernist architects. This credo, which placed thedemands of practical use above aesthetics, would later be taken by influential designers to implythat decorative elements, which architects call "ornament," were superfluous in modern buildings.But Sullivan himself neither thought nor designed along such dogmatic lines during the peak of hiscareer. Indeed, while his buildings could be spare and crisp in their principal masses, he oftenpunctuated their plain surfaces with eruptions of lush Art Nouveau and something like Celtic Revivaldecorations, usually cast in iron or terra cotta, and ranging from organic forms like vines and ivy,to more geometric designs, and interlace, inspired by his Irish design heritage. Terra cotta is lighterand easier to work with than stone masonry. Sullivan used it in his architecture because it had amalleability that was appropriate for his ornament. Probably the most famous example is thewrithing green ironwork that covers the entrance canopies of the Carson Pirie Scott store onSouth State Street. These ornaments, often executed by the talented younger draftsman in

　　Sullivan's employ, would eventually become Sullivan's trademark; to students of architecture, theyare his instantly-recognizable signature.Another signature element of Sullivan's work is the massive,semi-circular arch. Sullivan employed such arches throughout his career — in shaping entrances, inframing windows, or as interior design.All of these elements can be found in Sullivan's widely-admired Guaranty Building, which he designed while partnered with Adler. Completed in 1895, thisoffice building in Buffalo, New York was visibly divided into three "zones" of design: a plain, wide-windowed base for the ground-level shops; the main office block, with vertical ribbons of masonryrising unimpeded across nine upper floors to emphasize the building's height; and an ornamentedcornice perforated by round windows at the roof level, where the building's mechanical units (likethe elevator motors) were housed. The cornice crawls with Sullivan's trademark Art Nouveau vines;each ground-floor entrance is topped by a semi-circular arch.Because of Sullivan's remarkableaccomplishments in design and construction at such a critical point in architectural history, he hassometimes been described as the "father" of the American skyscraper. In truth, many architectshad been building skyscrapers before or contemporarily with Sullivan. Chicago itself was repletewith extraordinary designers and builders in the late years of the 19th century, including Sullivan'spartner Dankmar Adler, as well as Daniel Burnham, and John Wellborn Root. Root was one of thebuilders of the Monadnock Building (see above). That and another Root design, the MasonicTemple Tower (both in Chicago), are cited by many as the originators of skyscraper aesthetics ofbearing wall and column-frame construction respectively.It may be that Sullivan's prominence inskyscraper history can be credited not only to his brilliance, but in some degree to the myth-making skills of his disciple, Frank Lloyd Wright, and to the impact of Sullivan's own book, TheAutobiography of an Idea. He may also owe some of his legend to the tragic tint of his later years,which lend this great innovator's story a poignancy which has captured the imagination of studentand historian alike.

　　Preservation

　　During the postwar era of urban renewal, Sullivan's works fell into disfavor, and many weredemolished. In the 1970s growing public concern for these buildings finally resulted in many beingsaved. The most vocal voice was Richard Nickel, who even held one-man protests of demolitions.Nickel and others sometimes rescued decorative elements from condemned buildings, sneaking induring demolition. This practice led to Nickel's death inside Sullivan's Stock Exchange building, whena floor above him collapsed.

　　Selected projects

　　Buildings through 1895 are by Adler & Sullivan.

　　Martin Ryerson Tomb, Graceland Cemetery, Chicago (1887)

　　Auditorium Building, Chicago (1889)

　　Carrie Eliza Getty Tomb, Graceland Cemetery, Chicago (1890)

　　Wainwright Building, St. Louis (1890)

　　Charlotte Dickson Wainwright Tomb, Bellefontaine Cemetery, St. Louis (1892) which is lised on theNational Register of Historic

　　Places is considered a major American architectural triumph,a model for ecclesiastical architecture,a "masterpiece", and has

　　been called "the Taj Mahal of St. Louis." Interestingly, the family name appears nowhere on thetomb.

　　Union Trust Building (now 705 Olive), St. Louis (1893; street-level ornament heavily altered 1924)

　　Guaranty Building (formerly Prudential Building), Buffalo (1894)

　　Bayard Building, (now Bayard-Condict Building), 65–69 Bleecker Street, New York City (1898).Sullivan's only building in New

　　York, with a glazed terra cotta curtain wall expressing the steel structure behind it.

　　Carson Pirie Scott store, Chicago (1899)

　　Virginia Hall of Tusculum College, Greeneville, Tennessee, 1901

　　Van Allen Building, Clinton, Iowa (1914)

　　St Paul's Methodist Church, Cedar Rapids, Iowa

　　Krause Music Store, Chicago (final commission 1922)

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