Louis Sullivan (1856–1924) was an American architect called a "father of skyscrapers" and a "father of modernism". A leading figure of the Chicago School and mentor to Frank Lloyd Wright, he is credited with the phrase "form follows function", which became a central idea of modern architecture. He partnered with the engineer Dankmar Adler from 1880.
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The Wainwright Building in St. Louis (1891), was called by Wright "the very first human expression of a tall steel office-building as Architecture". His tall buildings were spare in their main forms but broken by bursts of Art Nouveau or Celtic Revival ornament, often cast in iron or terracotta. The Bayard–Condict Building in New York (1899) is his only building in the city. Late in life he designed a series of small Midwestern banks, his "Jewel Boxes", among them the National Farmers' Bank of Owatonna (1908) and the Home Building Association Bank in Newark, Ohio (1914). The Krause Music Store in Chicago (1922) was the last of his 126 buildings. Louis Sullivan's buildings are studied for the tall office building and for ornament grown from nature.
Wainwright Building1891 · St. Louis
National Farmers' Bank of Owatonna1908 · Owatonna
Home Building Association Bank1914 · Newark
Bayard–Condict Building1899 · New York
Van Allen Building1913 · Clinton
Krause Music Store1922 · Chicago