Details

Title

Elevator Grill from the Chicago Stock Exchange Building

Artist/Maker

Louis H. Sullivan (American, 1856-1924), designer
Winslow Brothers Company, Chicago, IL, 1856-1924, manufacturer (American, 1856–1924)

Date

1893–1894

Medium

Cast and wrought iron, paint, and bronze

Dimensions

73 x 31 inches

Credit

Virginia Carroll Crawford Collection

Accession #

1982.291 a

On View

On View - Stent Family Wing, Level 3, Gallery 303

This panel originally formed part of the grille surrounding the elevator in the Chicago Stock Exchange Building designed by architect Louis Sullivan. Often dubbed the father of early skyscraper design, Sullivan rejected neoclassical ornament as inappropriate for American building, preferring instead to stylize natural forms into abstractions—as in the seedpod pattern of this grille’s ironwork. Sullivan’s dictum “form follows function” influenced generations of architects, among them his one-time employee Frank Lloyd Wright.

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