One of the first skyscrapers of the United States was built in Buffalo, New York. In 1896, the Prudential Guaranty Building designed by Frank Lloyd Wright’s mentor Louis Sullivan was completed. The richly decorated edifice was tiled with terracotta tiles and its steel frame was taken directly from the Chicago School. Floristic ornamentation covers almost every inch of the facade. Sullivan himself is ranked among the big three of US architects, and the Guaranty Building is proof of his excellence.
A visitor from Chicago
By the end of the 19th century, the crowded centres of American cities were in urgent need of reorganisation. The rise of large private businesses meant a growing demand for large office buildings in convenient locations. This correlation was well understood by the entrepreneurs of Buffalo, located on Lake Erie. In the 1890s, the city of 255,000 began planning large edifices on an unprecedented scale. The problem was that, at the time, New York State was not yet fully familiar with the skyscraper concept. Pioneers from the Chicago School were already building 40 m tall edifices in 1884, but the creation of such buildings was made possible by the rebuilding of Chicago after the Great Fire.
One of the most important architects of the Chicago School, Louis Sullivan, came to Buffalo to design an edifice, monumental for the time, for a local businessman. The architect was already well known for his designs for theatres and office buildings, including the famous Wainwright Building in St Louis. Moreover, Sullivan was a pupil and collaborator of William LeBaron Jenney, responsible for the design of Chicago’s first steel-framed skyscraper. These factors made Louis Sullivan the ideal architect to build a skyscraper for businessman Hascal T. Taylor. At the time, Sullivan was also working with another architect, Dankmar Adler.
Taylor wanted his skyscraper to tower over the local administration buildings. The location in the city centre was intended to attract the wealthier customers of the shops on the ground floor. The skyscraper would further attract wealthy passers-by with its ornate façade. The Taylor Building was to consist of three parts: ground floor retail and services, offices and a loft with lift mechanisms. Of course, the building also included a basement for technical rooms.
Taylor? Guaranty? Prudential?
In 1894, a major problem arose. The originator of the Taylor Building died unexpectedly just before construction was due to start. Fortunately, the architect undertook to complete the building and the plans, along with the plot of land, were purchased by the Guaranty Construction Company of Chicago, which also promised to erect the orphaned skyscraper. Construction was completed as early as March 1896, and the building quickly found further buyers. The Guaranty Building was renamed the Prudential Building due to another construction company buying it out.
The thirteen-storey façade is a true work of art. According to Sullivan’s philosophy, form should keep pace with function, but that does not mean that ornamentation is unnecessary. The building has no sculptures, porticoes or grand Beaux-Arts-style columns, and all its ornamentation is kept in a clear vertical line. In fact, almost all of it, as the skyscraper ends in a curved parapet with circular, goatee-type windows. Despite this detail, the vertical line was intended to be an indicator of what the skyscraper essentially is.
The terracotta tiles were mass-produced and decorated to Sullivan’s design. There is clear inspiration from the then current Art Nouveau in the decoration. One notices mainly plant motifs such as leaves, stems and seeds symbolising man’s potential to create great things. Art Nouveau also shines through in the copper details of the balustrades, lamps and the biforium above the door.
These motifs also run through the interior of the Guaranty Building. The skylight above the lobby consists of oval opal glass resembling seeds. At present, the skylight does not let in sunlight, and newer offices are located just above it. To some, such a design might even bring to mind Arabian art, as glazed mosaics depicting arches in a donkey’s back and accumulated floral ornaments can be found inside.
The skyscraper revolution
The height of a skyscraper measuring 51 metres was impressive in the late 19th century. Historically, the construction of such a large building was not possible due to the durability of the structure and the availability of materials. In addition, commercial lifts were not developed until the mid-19th century, and climbing to the 13th floor would have been cumbersome. The Guaranty Building’s predecessor, the Wainwright Building, also used a steel frame, but its height is less than 40m. The skyscraper built five years before the Guaranty Building was, of sorts, a prototype of the Buffalo skyscraper. Sullivan then designed an office building with curtain walls clad in red terracotta. The Wainwright Building, along with the Guaranty Building, became the model and definition of the modern office building.
Despite the Buffalo pattern, early 20th century modernist movements began to move away from such lush ornamentation. The architect Adolf Loos even declared that ‘ornamentation is a crime’. Such thinking intensified after the First World War. Sullivan himself also referred to lavish ornamentation, but the Guaranty Building remained his magnum opus for years. It is possible that, had it not been for the turmoil of the First World War, economic crises and other disasters, architects would have been designing Art Nouveau-style skyscrapers along the lines of the Guaranty Building in the following decades of the 20th century.
The Great Fire
In the mid-twentieth century, the building underwent a major refurbishment that allowed the offices to continue to fulfil their function. Unfortunately, in 1974, the Guaranty Building went up in flames. What’s more, after the big fire, the skyscraper was in danger of being demolished. Fortunately, thanks to the efforts of the local authorities, the building was placed on the register of historic buildings and a few years later it was carefully restored. Today, the offices in the skyscraper are rented by the law firm Hodgson Russ.
Although the Guaranty Building was not the first skyscraper ever built, it, along with the Wainwright Building, defined the idea of the skyscraper. Sullivan’s genius helped to systematise the principles of skyscraper construction, which in time flooded East Coast metropolises. In this way, the architects of the Chicago School revolutionised the layout of American cities. It should be remembered that such a ‘revolution’ was made possible by lifts and steel frameworks.
Source: Boston Valley Terracotta
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