Business
& Labor
Preservationists Respond to Sullivan Losses
(archrecord.construction.com - 11/17/2006)
By Alan
G. Brake
The 150th anniversary of Louis Sullivan’s
birth has been marked by mourning rather than celebration.
In Chicago, three Adler and Sullivan buildings have been destroyed
by fire since January.
“These buildings represented a
huge link in the chain of Adler and Sullivan’s work,”
says Jonathan Fine, president of Preservation Chicago. Of
approximately 120 Adler and Sullivan buildings in Chicago,
today only 20 remain. The Wirt Dexter building, which Fine
calls “one of their earliest tall buildings and an important
development of the Chicago School,” and the Pilgrim Baptist
Church, originally built as a synagogue, were accidentally
set ablaze by acetylene torches used during renovations. “In
these cases, there was reckless disregard for good construction
practices,” Fine says, “but they were accidents.”
The Harvey House, which Frank Lloyd
Wright likely drafted as a young designer in Sullivan’s
office, burned at the end of October. The case is still under
investigation for arson: The owners wanted to demolish the
house to build condominiums on the site, but had recently
lost a public preservation battle.
Preservationists are pushing for the
city to bestow landmark status to the remaining Adler and
Sullivan structures. They are also lobbying for increasing
the Landmarks Division budget, which would include funding
for an on-site building inspector of landmarks under renovation.
After the Pilgrim Baptist Church burned
in January, Blair Kamin wrote in the Chicago Tribune, “Every
time a Sullivan building dies, Chicago is that much more cut
off from the wellspring of its architectural greatness.”
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