Sullivan Center (Carson Pirie Scott Building)
Louis Sullivan wrapped the corner of State and Madison in foliate ironwork, America’s answer to European Art Nouveau.
At a glance
On a busy retail corner of the Loop, the Sullivan Center reads as two buildings in one. Above, a clean grid of wide Chicago windows. Below, at street level, an explosion of cast-iron ornament. Louis Sullivan designed the store for Schlesinger and Mayer in 1899 and extended it by 1904. Carson Pirie Scott then traded here for more than a century.
Key facts
- Location: 1 South State Street, Chicago
- Architect: Louis Sullivan (1899; extended 1903–04)
- Signature: cast-iron ornament at the rounded State and Madison entrance
- Style: Chicago School with Sullivanesque Art Nouveau detail
- Status: National Historic Landmark; mixed retail and offices
History
Sullivan built the store for Schlesinger and Mayer in 1899, then enlarged it in 1903–04. H. G. Selfridge bought the building in 1904 and held it only weeks before selling on; Carson Pirie Scott took the lease and stayed until 2006.
The upper floors follow Sullivan’s creed that form follows function: a frank steel cage, expressed as a grid. The drama is saved for the ground, where the public meets the building.
What you see
The rounded corner entrance is a thicket of cast iron, with leaves, stems and medallions curling around the doors and show-windows. It is ornament as invitation, drawing the eye from the pavement. European Art Nouveau grew from the same impulse at the same moment; Sullivan reached it on his own terms, in metal, in Chicago.
Practical information
- Open: ground-floor retail during business hours; upper floors private
- Cost: free to view from the street
- Best for: the ironwork at the State and Madison corner
- Time needed: 15–30 minutes
Getting there
The corner sits above the Loop’s transit hub. CTA trains stop at Madison/Wabash and Monroe within two blocks, and State Street buses pass the door. From Millennium Park it is a five-minute walk.
Nearby
- The Rookery — Burnham and Root, with a Frank Lloyd Wright lobby
- Chicago Cultural Center — a block north on Michigan Avenue
Sources
- Encyclopædia Britannica / Wikipedia — Sullivan Center
- National Park Service — National Historic Landmark record (Carson, Pirie, Scott)
- Wikimedia Commons — image source and licence
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