Soaring upward, Louis Sullivan and the invention of the skyscraper
Louis Sullivan, Bayard-Condict Building, 1897-99 (65 Bleecker Street, NYC), a Seeing America video
speakers: Dr. Matthew A. Postal and Dr. Steven Zucker
Louis Sullivan, Bayard-Condict Building, 1897-99 (65 Bleecker Street, NYC), a Seeing America video
speakers: Dr. Matthew A. Postal and Dr. Steven Zucker
Пікірлер: 33
"It's interesting how that despite all the ornament that there's a certain simplicity and clarity to the facade."
Beautiful building with beautiful decorations, specially at the top. Thanks for letting us know it!
The rule of building a skyscraper like a classical column (base, shaft, capital) is a beautiful design idea that I'll never unsee from old skyscrapers. Modern ones need to do that more.
What I love about this building, (and other old new york skyscrapers) is how organically the functionality and utility aspect (necessiated by modern commerce) is merged with an element of grandeur
@javierpacheco8234
Жыл бұрын
Louis Sullivan coined the term "form follows function" but in his architecture he built in a extravagant and unique way. Most architects say that term to support modernism but they have misinterpreted. Louis Sullivan did care about aesthetics and it's technology, it's just that we don't follow the original way because it has become radicalized.
He heard the music on a frequency few can appreciate. What a talent.
This is a fascinating piece of history!
Beautiful architecture by a classic American architect.
Its interesting how new technologies take time to accumulate aesthetic cultures around them, at first imitating there predecessors, then truly coming into there own
@TheAdekrijger
3 жыл бұрын
Problem is modern architects have tried intententionally to destroy that process by denying form as a function.
@miketackabery7521
8 ай бұрын
And Sullivan imitated no one.
If you have a artistic heart, no mattwr in which time point, you can design buildings with elegance and beauty.
Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright stand together far above all other American architects, IMO. It’s a shame his American Art Nouveau style never caught on like Wright’s Prairie School did.
@charliestuff3684
3 жыл бұрын
You’re right, but there is a lot of Sullivan and Sullivan inspired stuff in Chicago
@TiestoCalvinHarris
Жыл бұрын
Frank gehry?
@miketackabery7521
8 ай бұрын
Sullivan is not related to art nouveau. It only looks that way, but he came to his decorative program in a very personal and idiosyncratic way.
A very great architect, and one of the few great, and truly American, architects.
If you're going to spend a ton of money putting up a building, may as well spend a "little" more to make it beautiful, somehow. A creamware-colored building, wow!
So well done. Thanks 😊
@smarthistory-art-history
Жыл бұрын
Thank you, we are delighted you enjoyed watching.
Joseph Bailey red vase is superb.
Beautiful, I love that creamy white. Great job with the video!
Now *that* is a seriously cool building. (I'd hate to have to clean the walls, though.)
Drs. Postal and Zucker make an interesting pair in this one. 😅 Your voices together remind me of this building - sometimes smooth, sometimes... bolder and "ornamented" with an accent, lol. I associate terracotta with pottery, so that was surprising to learn about. It looks good!
I was fortunate to go on an architectural tour of Chicago, and the innovations made there are some of the best treasures of the city. Yet for all the ongoing experimentation on rather gaudy and grand structures, I tend to side with Alain de Botton that there's no need for buildings to be more than about 5 stories high, and that the most humane cities are constructed predominantly around these proportions.
Very interesting
Charles Coker Wilson's Palmetto Building (1912-13) in Columbia, SC certainly appears Sullivanesque. Does my impression seem right?
While the angels supporting the cornice do seem to be at odds with Sullivan's philosophy and general system of ornamentation, I don't think we need to conclude that they were demanded by the client or not otherwise his idea- they're almost identical to the figures on the Transportation Building he designed for the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago.
@miketackabery7521
8 ай бұрын
Ooooooooooooo nice observation! And NO ONE told him how to design THAT one!
I’d love to see you comment on his Buffalo buildings. Love you guys
@miketackabery7521
8 ай бұрын
And the jewel-box banks!
Did you delete the video about the gettysburg photos?
@guest_informant
3 жыл бұрын
It's been re-uploaded.