Lovejoy Library, Noise Box Gallery celebrate Louis Sullivan’s legacy

This article has been updated to accurately cite a source.

Lovejoy Library collaborated with the Art and Design department’s Noise Box Gallery to honor the legacy of architect Louis Sullivan on April 12 with a full day of presentations by guest speakers and tours of SIUE’s Louis Sullivan collection.

Sullivan died on April 14, 1924. For the 100th anniversary of his passing, Fine Arts Librarian and Associate Professor Therese Dickman organized a celebratory day of events to honor his architectural legacy and influence on SIUE’s campus.

“He was known as the father of skyscrapers … He was a mentor to Frank Lloyd Wright, so he was very influential at the time. He's known for his very ornate, elaborate designs, which were often inspired by nature,” Dickman said. “The other thing that he's known for is the phrase ‘form follows function.’ He liked to know what the purpose of each building was, and he would often tailor the design to the purpose of that building.”

Danny Houk is a second-year grad student on the committee at the Noise Box Gallery — the student art gallery in Art & Design East. He said Dickman reached out to the gallery because it was part of her vision for the event to incorporate students.

“We did a call for art a little over a month ago. We asked all the Art and Design students [to] propose any piece they wanted inspired by his life, and then we would select it from however many proposals we got. We ended up getting five of those,” Houk said. “A few of the teachers made Louis Sullivan-inspired assignments in their art classes, so they curated some of the strongest pieces from their students.”

The student gallery will remain on display until May 2.

Sullivan wanted to create an American architectural style. His design philosophy was driven by his tendency to initiate repetition, organic and outward movement from a central point.

Built in 1891, Sullivan designed the Wainwright Building in St. Louis — one of the first-ever skyscrapers. He was born in Boston, studied in Paris and brought his talents closer to home when he was drawn to Chicago following the Great Chicago Fire. Architects flocked to the area to get involved in rebuilding a flame-resistant city.

Years after Sullivan’s passing, as demolition projects in Chicago and St. Louis began to remove Sullivan’s buildings, architectural photographer and historical preservationist Richard Nickel began to salvage Sullivan’s ornaments. As a young university in search of art, SIUE purchased Nickel’s collection.

“We bought the original collection of 200 items for $12,000 in 1966,” Erin Vigneau-Dimick, executive curator for the SIUE University Museum, said.

According to Vigneau-Dimick, SIUE currently has 90 Sullivan ornaments displayed on campus.

“The university purchased it for a very reasonable rate … SIUE actually has the largest collection of architectural ornaments in the world,” Dickman said. “We were fortunate to be at the right place at the right time.”

Michael R. Allen, executive director at the National Building Arts Center, said that cycles of change always tend to circle back around to the old look. He said that the preservation of old architecture, and the reincorporation of that architecture into modern work, is a powerful way to contest the erasure of buildings and design history.

SIUE’s Sullivan collection is mostly displayed on the second floor of Lovejoy Library in the Sullivan Lounge.

The walking tour invited attendees to observe the other pieces located outdoors on the east side of Lovejoy, some designs on the lower level of Alumni Hall, a gold detailing from an arc in the Morris University Center, a part of a column on the third floor of Rendleman Hall and a plaster reproduction in the lobby of Woodland Hall.

The guest speakers encouraged attendees and members of the SIUE community to explore the rich architectural history that SIUE’s campus has to offer.