I'm looking at the Sullivan elevator doors. Can you tell me about them?
The architect Louis Sullivan is often called “the father of skyscrapers”. He worked primarily in Chicago, which experienced a building boom following the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. These elevator doors came from the Chicago Stock Exchange, which was a thirteen-story steel-framed building designed by Louis Sullivan and Dankmar Adler, completed in 1894. The building used the latest elevator technology and Sullivan applied a geometric, mechanical aesthetic to the iron elevator doors. Sadly, the building was demolished in 1972 but some of the more decorative components were preserved and are now in museum collections.
Does the seed-to-plant design of this elevator door from the Chicago Stock Exchange tie into the agricultural commodities trading history of Chicago, like the Ceres statue on top of the Chicago Board of Trade?
Similar! The interior of the stock exchange was designed after the flora and fauna of the surrounding prairie landscape. Chicago was home to the Prairie School, a late 19th to early 20th century architectural style with a focus on the American midwest including its landscape and abundant agriculture.
Tell me more.
This is a fragment from the Chicago Stock Exchange, an important and influential building designed by the firm of Adler and Sullivan. The building was one of the masterpieces of Chicago's architectural landscape. Sadly, the building was demolished in 1972 and fragments from the building are in museum collections around the world.