In 1889 the prolific architect Louis Sullivan broke ground on what would be his last commercial building, the Schlesinger & Mayer Department Store in Chicago.¹ This late nineteenth-century building features strong vertical and horizontal lines that form a grid of large paned windows. In this way, it is not dissimilar to a modern skyscraper. The upper levels of the building are minimally ornamented with white terracotta panels that disguise its modern steel construction and thin bands of molding. Sullivan is well known for his novel use of architectural ornament, which both emphasized the verticality of his buildings and suggested the structure of the skeletal steel frame within. However, the lower two floors are clad in dark cast iron with foliate and geometric motifs inspired by the Gothic Revival movement.² Constructed at the turn of the twentieth century, Sullivan’s buildings combine the historical taste for richly ornamented surfaces with the clean lines of functional design that characterize modern architecture, bridging the styles of the past and present.

Sullivan complemented his masterful facades with stunning interiors to which he applied equal skill and consideration. This cast-iron baluster was made for a grand staircase inside of the Schlesinger & Mayer Department Store (fig. 48.1). The heavily ornamented baluster features representations of scrolling vines and leaves with Gothic-inspired quatrefoils organized within a rigid, symmetrical design. This combination of naturalistic ornament and geometric order exemplifies Sullivan’s philosophy of organic architecture: “form ever follows function.”³ He contended that ornament should be intrinsic to structure, as he believed it was in nature. Like the building itself, the stair baluster features strong vertical lines with the ornament arranged along the central axis, reinforcing its functional role as a vertical support for a railing. At the same time, the rigid rectangular frame surrounding the swirling ornamental designs provides visual stability. In accordance with his philosophy, Sullivan decisively selected where and how to use ornament so that the overall effect appeared logical and organic. This revolutionary idea would influence many architects and designers throughout the twentieth century, including George Grant Elmslie, Sullivan's chief draftsman and collaborator on the design of the Schlesinger & Mayer Department Store, and Frank Lloyd Wright, who apprenticed with Sullivan from 1887 to 1893. Today Sullivan is celebrated for his role in pioneering the earliest form of the skyscraper and is widely considered the father of modern architecture.⁴ —Sarah Marie Horne