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GC166.JPG

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Sullivan Tombstone Graceland Cemetery Chicago, Illinois Louis Henri Sullivan (1856-1924), was one of America’s finest architects. His meteoric rise in the often staid profession of architecture is the stuff of legend. By age 24 he had become a full partner with Dankmar Adler, a noted Chicago architect. With Sullivan’s gift for designing exquisite ornamentation and Adler’s engineering genius they designed the Auditorium, a Chicago landmark. Sullivan became a leader in the “Chicago School”, which advocated architecture that responded to technology and human needs of the day rather than the precedents of the past. His bubble burst when the planners of the 1893 World’s Fair rejected the innovations of Sullivan’s Chicago School in favor of the more classical designs of the past. Almost overnight, Sullivan found himself out of work and soon forgotten. Five years after Sullivan’s death, architect Thomas Tallmadge collected funds for Sullivan’s granite tombstone. The sculpted sides of the stone represent the development of the skyscraper and recessed into the stone is Sullivan’s profile set against one of his designs.