Skyscrapers' Dad Turns 150

By Alicia Dorr in News on Jun 27, 2006 3:00PM

There are a few things that Chicago totally rocks at, like making hot dogs and yelling. One of the more notable areas of expertise over the course of the city’s history, of course, is architecture. And who was more of an expert at architecture than Chicago’s own, Louis Sullivan?

Breezing right by that unnecessarily long introduction, we wanted to let you know that it’s almost time to celebrate ‘ol Louie’s 150th b-day anniversary. Although the so-called “father of the skyscraper” was born on September 3, the Chicago Architecture Foundation is throwing his birthday party before that – in fact, some of the predictably rowdy partying has already started.

Through September, you can go on a tour of historic skyscrapers of Chicago. If you’re more interested in Sully’s stuff, though, you can participate in a lot of other tours that look more specifically at his work, like an in-depth tour of the Auditorium Building, the Carson Pirie Scott building, or an overview of his impact on the Loop via the still-existing and fallen structures.

No matter which you might decide to partake in, they all seem like they will rock a lot. If you don’t feel like participating in any of these, it is still interesting to take your own tour of Sullivan’s designs in Chicago, even if they aren’t as well known, like the Wirt Dexter building in the South Loop. The reason it is interesting, of course, is because he built them all with his bare hands, out of steel and brawn. It’s science.*

*That might be a lie.

Image via www.biada.org.