6 ARCHITECTURE <strong>Performance</strong> 01 | 13 Functions 7Left: the old Stock Exchange Building, Chicago, wasbuilt by Adler and Sullivan in 1893/94 and demolishedin 1972.Right: a masterpiece – the 12-storey Carson PirieScott Building with its characteristic “round corner”of 1899.intention of Sullivan’s motto “form follows function”. For Sullivan,human well-being and architectural design were inseparablyconnected. Aesthetics remained a key parameter for the creationof a space which would make people feel comfortable, whetherthey were passing by it, moving through it or staying in it.The Auditorium Building was followed by other very high buildingsdesigned by Sullivan – establishing his reputation as one of thepioneers of high-rise buildings.The high point in a highly productive careerAfter almost 20 years of success – buildings designed by Adlerand Sullivan became extremely famous and were landmarks inthe history of architecture – Sullivan excelled himself with whatwas probably his most famous building, the Carson Pirie ScottBuilding, a department store.The 12-storey building with an iron and steel frame has characteristicarchitectural features comprising a base, a shaft and acapital, as in the case of a classical column. The base is formedby the ground floor with shops, while offices form the shaft. Thecapital, at the top of the building, consists of service and utilityrooms.The edge of the building on the street corner is rounded, with itspillars stressing the vertical lines of the design, while the wingshave a horizontal structure. The steel frame skeleton gives theinterior more daylight as the structural design allowed for largerwindows. The main entrance features cast iron art nouveaudecoration covered in bronze. The decorations extend to thesides over the ground floor and first storey, stressing the base ofthe structure. The forged ornaments on the facades of the firstand second storeys bear witness to Sullivan’s understandingof “form follows function”. Sullivan was inspired by Celticcraftsmen. Aesthetics, decoration for the purpose of achievingan external effect, is sufficient function for Sullivan.Form and function as equal partners“Whether it be the sweeping eagle in his flight, or the open appleblossom,the toiling work-horse, the blithe swan, the branchingoak, the winding stream at its base, the drifting clouds, over allthe coursing sun, form ever follows function, and this is the law.”– This quote also amply illustrates Sullivan’s affinity to aesthetics.He never saw a contradiction between form and function butrather continuous interaction and an inseparable relationship,with form and function not being subjected to each other butmeeting as equal partners.Author Achim Schaffrina brings this recognition and the currentlyaccepted meaning of “form follows function” to the point asfollows:“Form follows function” does not mean:… Ornamentation is evil… There is only one form for any one function… First you must have the function.It is then followed by the designBut it does mean:… Ornament can also support a function… Form and function merge into one unit… A tailor-made form supports the underlyingfunction in an ideal way(www.designtagebuch.de)“It is the pervading law of all things organic and inorganic, of allthings physical and metaphysical, of all things human and all thingssuper-human, of all true manifestations of the head, of the heart, ofthe soul, that the life is recognizable in its expression, that form everfollows function. This is the law,” wrote Sullivan in 1896.