Louis H.Sullivan: The Banks - Tapa blanda

"Whereas earlier writers ... had condemned these edifices for their overwrought lyricism and overbearing ornament, Weingarden praises them for their monumentality, openness, integration of interior and exterior, harmonization of nature and art, and for their gorgeous beauty. This publication buttresses the case with some splendid color plates and a wealth of black-and-white photographs."--Rochelle Berger Elstein, "Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians"

Using an approach that combines literature, philosophy, and the visual arts, Lauren Weingarden restores Louis H. Sullivan's eight midwestern banks, built between 1906 and 1919, to a new and prominent place in his ouevre. Long regarded as the eccentric addenda to a lapsed career, the bank commissions can now be seen as part of a mature architect's vision and perhaps the truest embodiment of the democratic architecture for which Sullivan had campaigned during his entire career.The book includes 15 previously unpublished color photographs by Crombie Taylor and a substantial, detailed catalog of the banks with the history of each, relevant architectural drawings and archival photographs taken by Henry Fuermann shortly after construction was completed.Lauren S. Weingarden is Assistant Professor of Art History at Florida State University.