Lincoln Square

This guide to Lincoln Square in Chicago centers on a knock at a rented room's door in 1921, when a broke and ailing Louis Sullivan, once a founder of modern American architecture, was visited by his former draftsman William Presto. Presto had landed a paying client, music-store owner William Krause, but no design worthy of the commission, and worried his old teacher would think it beneath him. Look up at the leaves, vines and the bold letter K worked into the green terra-cotta storefront above the window.