Louis Sullivan
Louis Sullivan (1856-1924) ranks among the most influential and brilliant architects in American history. He was the first designer to successfully interpret the skyscraper as the iconic symbol of the modern American city. Frank Lloyd Wright learned so much from Sullivan that he dubbed him his “beloved master.” Louis Sullivan bequeathed to Americans some of the most beautiful and sensibly designed buildings ever created.
Throughout his career in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Sullivan passionately advanced the idea of an authentic American architecture. Meanwhile, his colleagues rushed madly to emulate all things European. Once one of the most celebrated builders of his age, prevailing tastes worked against him and he suffered a swift financial decline. Louis Sullivan died in obscure poverty, but he never stopped creating works of genius and incomparable beauty.
Decades after his death, his surviving work was forgotten and in danger of being completely destroyed until a handful of people began dedicating enormous energy and heartache into saving what are now considered priceless treasures.
This film is the story of Louis Sullivan’s passion to enrich American culture, and the people who came after him who valiantly fought to preserve his art.