Customer Reviews

Sullivanesque: URBAN ARCHITECTURE AND ORNAMENTATION

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This is an excellent, scholarly work by University of Illinois professor Ronald Schmitt. This book is a study in which the author traces the development of ornamentation influenced in nature patterns. The book shows how Sullivan's ornamentation was passed down to his former employees (an excellent study in its own right). And finally how terra cotta ornament became massed produced and used by lesser-known architects for the development of a Chicago "Sullivanesque" Vernacular.

This is a very thorough book that will appeal to students of The Arts & Crafts/Prairie School and "vernacular urban architecture" which has all but been ignored by architects and academics. The book contains numerous photographs. There is a great chapter on Sullivan's disciples, and, as mentioned before, the work of lesser-known "blue collar" architects whose background buildings are great contributions to the city of Chicago. There is also an appendix which contains an exhaustive, state by state inventory of Sullivanesque buildings.