Radiator Covers · Victorian (Queen Anne, Eastlake)
Louis Sullivan Elevator Grille from the Chicago Stock Exchange (1894)
A large elevator enclosure grille designed by Louis Sullivan for the Chicago Stock Exchange in 1894, combining a dense band of ornament with a lighter lattice of vertical bars.
Design characteristics
Sullivan treated even an elevator screen as an occasion for ornament. The grille pairs a band of interlacing foliate panels at the top with lighter vertical bars and a repeating ornamental frieze below. That combination of an ornamental band over a simpler lattice is exactly the formula a good radiator cover or vent screen needs: enough openness for air to flow, with decoration concentrated where the eye lands. The Chicago Stock Exchange was demolished in 1972; this grille survives at the Art Institute of Chicago.
Classification
- Category
- Radiator Covers
- Material
- Cast iron, Wrought iron, Copper
- Date
- 1894
- Maker or designer
- Louis H. Sullivan American, 1856-1924
- Recorded medium
- Cast iron, wrought iron, and copper-plated cast iron
- Dimensions
- Approx: 303.6 × 425.5 cm (119 1/2 × 167 1/2 in.)
- Evidence
- Documented historical object
- Source
- Art Institute of Chicago
Architectural context
Carved mantels, layered trim and dark, decorative hardwoods. Britain and the United States · c. 1837–1901.
