Wainwright Building
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| Wainwright Building | |
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| U.S. National Register of Historic Places | |
| U.S. National Historic Landmark | |
 Wainwright Building
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| Location: | St. Louis, Missouri |
| Coordinates: | 38°37′36″N 90°11′31″W / 38.62667°N 90.19194°W |
| Built/Founded: | 1891 |
| Architect: | Sullivan,Louis |
| Architectural style(s): | Chicago |
| Governing body: | State |
| Added to NRHP: | May 23, 1968 |
| Designated NHL: | May 23, 1968[1] |
| NRHP Reference#: | 68000054[2] |
The Wainwright Building is a 10-story red-brick landmark office building at 709 Chestnut Street in downtown St. Louis, Missouri. Built in 1890-91 and designed by Dankmar Adler and Louis Sullivan, it was among the first skyscrapers in the world. It was named for local financier Ellis Wainwright[3].
It is described as "a highly influential prototype of the modern office building" by the National Register of Historic Places.[2] Architect Frank Lloyd Wright called the Wainwright Building "the very first human expression of a tall steel office-building as Architecture."[4]
Aesthetically, the Wainwright Building exemplifies Sullivan's theories about the tall building, which included a tripartite (three-part) composition (base-shaft-attic), and his desire to emphasize the height of the building. He wrote: "[The skyscraper] must be tall, every inch of it tall. The force and power of altitude must be in it the glory and pride of exaltation must be in it. It must be every inch a proud and soaring thing, rising in sheer exultation that from bottom to top it is a unit without a single dissenting line."[5]
Historian Carl Condit described the Wainwright as "a building with a strong, vigorously articulated base supporting a screen that constitutes a vivid image of powerful upward movement."[6]
The ornamentation for the building is adopted from Notre-Dame de Reims in France.
After a period of neglect, the building now houses Missouri state offices and is well maintained.
[edit] Image gallery
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[edit] References
- ^ "Wainwright Building". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=807&ResourceType=Building. Retrieved on 2008-06-28.
- ^ a b "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. 2007-01-23. http://www.nr.nps.gov/.
- ^ Sullivan also designed the Wainwright Tomb in St. Louis's Bellefontaine Cemetery for his wife Charlotte Dickson Wainwright.
- ^ Wright, Frank Lloyd (1931). "The Tyranny of the Skyscraper". Modern Architecture (Princeton: Princeton University Press): 85.
- ^ Sullivan, Louis H. (March 1896). "The tall office building artistically considered". Lippincott's Magazine. http://www.njit.edu/v2/Library/archlib/pub-domain/sullivan-1896-tall-bldg.html.
- ^ Condit, Carl W. (1973). The Chicago School of Architecture: A History of Commercial and Public Building in the Chicago Area, 1875-1925. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0226114554.
- "National Register of Historic Places: Inventory - Nomination Form" (PDF). Missouri Department of Natural Resources. http://dnr.mo.gov/shpo/nps-nr/68000054.pdf. Retrieved on 2008-05-30.
[edit] External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Wainwright Building |
- Images and architectural information
- projectchicago.org entry: St. Louis' Wainwright Building
- Wainwright Building Photographs in the Western Historical Manuscript Collection at the University of Missouri-St. Louis
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