Wainwright Building, 709 Chestnut Street. Adler, Sullivan, and Ramsey, Architects. Vertical photograph of tall building with exterior sculptural relief decoration and a cornice. Louis Sullivan’s masterpiece, The Wainwright Building, was built in 1891, heralding a new age in modern skyscrapers. Faced with the problem of incorporating design that was never intended for tall buildings into skyscrapers, architects were struggling on how to treat the new construction innovation of the skyscraper. Sullivan solved this problem by treating the tall office building as a column, evidenced by the overt “‹›
Wainwright Building

Louis Sullivan

Exterior · St. Louis, United States · 1890

Photo: Emil Boehl · 1907 · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Original 2238×2583

Wainwright Building, 709 Chestnut Street. Adler, Sullivan, and Ramsey, Architects. Vertical photograph of tall building with exterior sculptural relief decoration and a cornice. Louis Sullivan’s masterpiece, The Wainwright Building, was built in 1891, heralding a new age in modern skyscrapers. Faced with the problem of incorporating design that was never intended for tall buildings into skyscrapers, architects were struggling on how to treat the new construction innovation of the skyscraper. Sullivan solved this problem by treating the tall office building as a column, evidenced by the overt “

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