Art Nouveau - Part 2, In the USA

Delia Tacheny
INT 332 - History of Interiors II

Art Nouveau In the USA

Art Nouveau, while one of the most short-lived design styles, was also one of the most widespread, becoming an international design style. However, this week, we focused primarily on Art Nouveau in the United States, which is primarily found in the work of two men. 

Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848-1943) studied at the National Academy of Design in New York City and was primarily a designer in the decorative arts. He was especially talented in painting, jewelry making, pottery, and glass. Tiffany and Co., well-advertised and known today, was founded by his father, and made famous by himself. 

Tiffany concentrated on stained glass art and was commissioned by many American churches to produce stained glass windows. His designs were typically inspired by florals, landscapes, and semi-abstract forms. His work was actually at some point sold by Samuel Bing -- owner of the Art Nouveau shop in Paris. His primary utilized materials were glass and metal, and the Tiffany lamp is one of his legacy pieces. 

As a current local of the Chicago area, I'm pleased to introduce Louis H. Sullivan. Louis Sullivan studied at MIT briefly at the age of 16 and then continued his studies at the Ecole de Beaux Arts in Paris for one year. However, Sullivan was displeased with his architectural studies in France, and his work became partially a reaction against it. Sullivan sought out to achieve an Americanized style of Art Nouveau. He desired to create a new style of Architecture that reflected contemporary America. However, he used rich, Art Nouveau style ornamentation, inspired by the flora of America, not Europe. 

Sullivan is often titled as a pioneer of Modernism and the "Father of Skyscrapers," believing in the mantra "form follows function." He moved to Chicago in 1875 and became involved in the rebuilding of Chicago following the Chicago Fire. He was also a mentor to Frank Lloyd Wright and partner with Dankmar Adler. He was the first architect to use steel frames for skyscrapers, and had the ability to create visual unity in tall buildings. The two materials he often worked with were steel and terra cotta. One of his most well-known buildings in Chicago, the Auditorium Building, was a multi-complex building with offices, a hotel, and an opera house. (Pictured below in the "One Step Further")

One Step Further: Dankmar Adler

Dankmar Adler was born in Germany in 1844; immigrated to the US (Detroit) in 1854; and began his architectural studies in 1857. Adler began his career as a draftsman in Chicago, but his career was then interrupted by the American Civil War. Following the war, her served in different positions under three different men, and his first important buildings was the Central Music Hall in Chicago, which utilized his knowledge in acoustics. 

In 1881, Adler and Sullivan (who was already working for Adler) began their partnership designing multiple well-known commercial buildings. Within the partnership, Adler acted primarily as the engineering designer and administrator while Sullivan was the planner and artist. Their partnership ended in 1895. In general, Adler focused more on the technical and legal aspects of architecture, producing some written works on the topics.

Source:

Dankmar Adler | Chicago, Skyscrapers, Structural Engineer | Britannica