My Lieber Meisters

Jerry Bywaters

Jerry Bywaters

Dan Wingren

Dan Wingren

Roger Winter

Roger Winter

Louis H. Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright

Froebel Gifts

Frank Lloyd Wright often referred to architect Louis H. Sullivan as his "lieber meister" (beloved master). 

Louis Sullivan designed with the principles of reconciling the world of nature with science and technology. Form ever follows function was his famous dictum (Ludwig Mies van der Rohe later said "form IS function"). His buildings were detailed with lush, yet tastefully subdued organic ornamentation. His attempt to balance ornamentation into the whole of building design inspired a generation of American and European architects; the idea that ornamentation be integral to the building itself, rather than merely applied.

Frank Lloyd Wright joined the firm in 1888, after working for a brief period for J. Lyman Silsbee, also in Chicago. Sullivan provided a loan in 1889 so Wright could start building what is now known as the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio. Wright worked for Sullivan for several years, becoming the "pencil in Sullivan's hand" (as Wright put it). He became chief draftsman for Sullivan, and eventually was responsible for all of the firm's residential contracts (including the Charnley house completed in 1892). Louis Sullivan even asked Wright to design his own (Sullivan's) house. Wright was forced to leave in 1893 after moonlighting houses under his own name while working for Adler and Sullivan -- a betrayal of trust (the Harlan house, built in 1892, was the one that caused the rift). "This bad end to a glorious relationship," Wright reflected, "has been a dark shadow to stay with me the days of my life." While Wright was remorseful of these circumstances, and was usually very positive and enthusiastic about Sullivan and the role Sullivan had in shaping him as an architect, he was to have no contact with Sullivan for 20 years. The six years at starting out at Alder and Sullivan provided Frank Lloyd Wright an excellent foundation for his own advancement of architecture.

The tide of architecture turned against Sullivan around the time of the Columbian Exposition of 1893, during which the leading edge Chicago School-style design was rejected for a traditional neoclassical style. Sullivan's contribution, the Transportation Building, appears to defy the design requirements for the exposition nonetheless (compared to more typical buildings at the exposition, which included the building that now houses the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry). Sullivan predicted that the Exposition would set architecture back 50 years. This return to neoclassicism had liittle place for the design principles of Sullivan, and Sullivan himself was unwilling to follow this trend.

In a later phase of his career, Sullivan wrote books on what came to be called organic architecture. Sullivan insisted that architecture had to embody the human connection with nature and to democracy, while still accepting the most modern functional needs and materials. He railed against the prevailing architectural practitioners for failing to take these principles into account. The book titles were Kindergarten Chats and Autobiography of an Idea

Although Frank Lloyd Wright had reconciled with Sullivan at the end of Sullivan's life, Sullivan died in obscurity and poverty in a hotel room in Chicago in 1924. "Sullivan was elated with the evolution of Wright's work and saw him as a natural successor, the keeper of the sacred flame of architecture" (Donald Hoppen, The Seven Ages of Frank Lloyd Wright)