Portrait of Louis Sullivan

Birthday profile

Louis Sullivan

Louis Sullivan, American architect and educator, designed the Carson, Pirie, Scott and Company Building (died 1924)

Born
September 3, 1856
Died
April 14, 1924
Zodiac sign
Virgo
Birth year
1856

About Louis Sullivan

Louis Henry Sullivan was an American architect, and has been called a "father of skyscrapers" and "father of modernism". He was an influential architect of the Chicago School, a mentor to Frank Lloyd Wright, and an inspiration to the Chicago group of architects who have come to be known as the Prairie School. Along with Wright and Henry Hobson Richardson, Sullivan is one of "the recognized trinity of American architecture." The phrase "form follows function" is attributed to him; it encapsulated earlier theories of architecture and he applied them to the modern age of the skyscraper. In 1944, Sullivan was the second architect to posthumously receive the AIA Gold Medal. While most of their theaters were in Chicago, their fame won commissions as far west as Pueblo, Colorado, and Seattle, Washington (unbuilt). After 1889 the firm became known for their office buildings, particularly the 1891 Wainwright Building in St.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

Louis Sullivan timeline

  1. After 1889 the firm became known for their office buildings, particularly the 1891 Wainwright Building in St.
  2. In 1944, Sullivan was the second architect to posthumously receive the AIA Gold Medal.

The world when Louis Sullivan was born

Louis Sullivan was born in 1856. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Headlines and milestones

  • Top headlineRep. Brooks canes Sen. Sumner on Senate floor
  • Technology milestoneFirst synthetic dye (mauveine) discovered
  • World population~1.36B

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderFranklin Pierce
  • U.S. population27.1M

1856 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Louis Sullivan's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure18562026
Population27.1M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Library of Congress, Wikidata. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.