I shot these 16 Louis Sullivan structures as part of a grad directed independent study while in Chicago attending the 2006 National AAG Convention. I utilized virtually all my spare time for this – many hours after daily presentations. These shots relate to an Urban Geography study on Louis Sullivan; mentor to Frank Lloyd Wright and coined ‘father of the skyscraper’. Louis Sullivan’s story is great then sad; a brilliant architect who created many beautiful structures, but in the end a fallen man, dying alone, almost penniless in a cheap Chicago south side hotel. I knew nothing about Sullivan before this study; but my respect grew enormously location to location. The last place I shot was his simple gravestone. As I stood over it, a scene flashed through my mind that was in the end of the film Alexander. Anthony Hopkins, while sifting sand through his hand recollected Alexander and his accomplishments, uttering: “Men Rise & Men Fall”.
All the numbers following correspond to the numbered locations on the OrthoImages:
1-Eliel House; 2-Pilgrim Baptist Church; 3-Holy Trinity Cathedral; 4-Charnley House;
5-Ryerson Tomb; 6-Sullivan Gravestone; 7-Getty Tomb; 8-Kaufman Store; 9-Krause; Music Store; 10-Dexter Building; 11-Auditorium Building; 12-Old Chicago Stock Exchange; 13-Gage Group; 14-Jewelers Building; 15-Haskell, Barker, Atwater Building;
16-Carson, Pirie, Scott Building
Feel free to use these for any Academic purposes, please cite me (*) or give credit as this took a very lot of work & expense (Jon Cook @ Florida Atlantic University Geo-Dept). If anyone wants any larger versions (5D files)or have questions please email me….. Hope this moves some to explore into Sullivan’s life and other facets of urban architecture – as it has me…
* items not mine: maps came from Mapquest; orthos came from USGS-seemless site; Old Stock Exchange jpeg is a scanned postcard (#RX18725 noncited ) I bought from the Art Institute as the structure was covered for repair; Auditorium Original jpeg is a Rand McNally 1893 3-D map…