Abstract
This article examines the architectural thought of Louis Sullivan, commonly regarded as the prophet of architectural modernism and the inspiration for the stark Chicago-style skyscraper. Sullivan regarded sociology to he the most urgent of the disciplines as America sought to realize its democratic promise. Animated by certain understandings of self and community that would later define the Chicago School of Sociology, Sullivan saw himself as a kind of social engineer whose architecture would generate democratic space and encourage authentic interaction. Chicago was his laboratory where he fervently called for the escape from the fetters of tradition in order to give form to a democratic present. While the movement he helped inspire reshaped the landscapes where humans labored and lived, few today would confuse the architectural space of a skyscraper, or architectural modernism in general, with the cultivation of authenticity; even fewer would confuse modernism and the sky-scraper with the fulfillment of democracy. Sullivan’s unbridled hopes lor the future have been quelled by postmodern criticisms of the spatial dynamics he espoused. It is argued that this dramatic sea change was a function of a fundamental Haw in Sullivan’s social theory. Following Leo Strauss, it is argued that implicit in Sullivan’s famous dictum“form follows function” was the collapse of the distinction between the real and the ideal. This undermined Sullivan’s voice while framing his sense ol democracy in strictly processional terms. In the end, Sullivan sought an architecture according to which control over circumstance served no higher purpose save control, an architecture whose escape from the past concealed from view the kind of direction that could lend meaning to the control Sullivan was desperate to secure. It is suggested that sociologists are not unlike Sullivan, and that their calls for autonomy and empowerment speak to process and movement rather than ends or destinations.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Adams, Henry. 1961 [11918]. The Education of Henry Adams. Boston: Houghlon, Mifflin.
Calhoun, Craig (ed.) 1992. Habermas and the Public Sphere. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Diggins, John Patrick. 1994. The Promise of Pragmatism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Duncan, Hugh Dalziel, 1989 [11965]. Culture and Democracy. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers.
Elia, Mario Manieri. 1996. Louis Henry Sullivan. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Architectural Press.
Hlstein, Rochelle Herger. 1986.“Fnigma of Modern Architecture: An Introduction to the Critics.” In Wim de Wit (ed.), Louis Sullivan: The Functkm of Ornament. New York: W.W. Norton & Co.
Foucault, Michel. 1979. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. New York: Random House.
Giddens, Anthony. 1981. A Contemporary Critique of Historical Materialism. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Habermas, Jurgen. 1988.“Modern and Postmodern Architecture.” (Pp. 317–329) In John Forester (ed.). Critical Theory and Public Life. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Harvey, David. 1985. Consciousness and the Urban Experience. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Huxtable, Ada Louise. 1982. The 'Tall Building Artistically Reconsidered. New York: Pantheon Books.
Imber, Jonathan B. 1990.“Introduction,” in Jonathan B. Imber (ed.), The Peeling Intellect, by Philip Rieff. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Jacobs, Jane. 1961. The Life and Death of Creai American Cities. New York: Random House.
Klotz, Heinrich. 1987.“The Chicago Multistory as a Design Problem.” In John Zukowsky (ed.), Chicago Architecture: 1872-1922. Munich: Prestel-Verlag.
Macpherson, C.B. 1962. The Political Theory of Possessive Individualism: Hobbas to Locke. Oxford: University of Oxford Press.
Mayer, Harold and Richard Wade. 1969. Chicago: Growth of a Metropolis. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Mead, George Herbert. 1934. On Social Psychology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Miller, Ross. 1990. American Apocalypse: The Great Fire and the Myth of Chicago. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Monroe, Harriet. 1896. fohn Wellborn Root: A study of His Life and Work. New York: Houghton, Mifflin.
Morrison, Hugh. 1935. Louis Sullivan: Prophet of Modern Architecture. New York: W.W. Norton.
Mumford, Lewis. 1933. The Brown Decades: A Study of the Arts in America 1865-1895. New York: Dover Publications.
Newman, M.W. 1982.“Northwestern's Condit Looks Back in Sadness.” Chicago Sun-Times (April 25): 3–4.
Rorty, Richard. 1982. “Pragmatism, Relativism, Irrationalism.” In Consequences of Pragmatism: Essays 1972-1980. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Rybczynski, Witold. 1995. City Life: Urban Expectations in a New World. New York: Scribner.
Salkever, Stephen G. 1990. Finding the Mean. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Sarfatti-Larson, Magali. 1993. Behind the Postmodern FaÇade. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Schleier, Merrill. 1983. The Skyscraper in American Art. Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Research Press.
Smith, Carl S. 1984. Chicago and the American Literary Imagination: 1880-1920. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Steiner, George. 1963. The Death of Tragedy. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
Strauss, Leo. 1953. Natural Right and History. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
—. 1988. What Is Political Philosophy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Sullivan, Louis. 1979 [1896].“The Tall Office Building Artistically Considered.” In Isabella Athey (ed.), Louis Sullivan, Kindergarten Chats and Other Writings. New York: George Wittenborn.
—. 1979 [1918]. Kindergarten Chats and Other Writings. Edited by Isabella Athey. New York: George Wittenborn.
— 1956 [1924]. The Autobiography of an Idea. New York: Dover Publications.
Tocqueville, Alexis de. 1945. Democracy in America, Vol. II. New York: Vintage Books.
Twombly, Robert. 1986. Louis Sullivan: LLis Life and Work. New York: Viking Penguin.
Veblen, Thorstein. 1918. The Higher Learning in America. New York: Huebsch.
—. 1934. The Theory of the Leisure Class. New York: The Modern Library.
Warner, Sam Bass, Jr. 1984.“Slums and Skyscrapers: Urban Images, Symbols and Ideology.” In L. Rodwin and R.M. Hollister (eds.), Cities of the Mind. New York: Plenum Press.
Weber, Max. 1946.“Science as a Vocation.” In Hans Gerth and C. Wright Mills (eds.), From Max Weber. New York: Oxford University Press.
—. 1958. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. New York: Charles Scribners Sons.
Whyte, William H. 1988. City: Rediscovering the Center. New York: Doubleday.
Willis, Carol. 1995. Form Follows Finance. New York: Princeton Architectural Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
He is currently working on a critique of value-driven and value-neutral sociologies from the perspective of Leo Strauss.
I am indebted to Harold Bershady, Natalie Slavens Abbott, Mark Hutter, Hui Huang, and Tony Sommo for their critical comments and suggestions.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Abbott, J.R. Louis Sullivan, architectural modernism, and the creation of democratic space. Am Soc 31, 62–85 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12108-000-1005-0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12108-000-1005-0