Sullivan Center
Cast-iron and terra-cotta department store front with swirling prairie-plant ornament by a pioneering Chicago School architect.
This guide to the Sullivan Center in Chicago opens on a single night in November 1897, when two hundred workmen raced to finish an elevated-train footbridge before Chicago's mayor could stop them, so the department store Schlesinger and Mayer could funnel shoppers straight onto its sales floor. It follows architect Louis Sullivan, hired to make the corner unmistakable amid the city's rebuilding after the Great Fire, and the swirling ironwork he and craftsman Kristian Schneider wrapped around the lower floors. Stand at the rounded corner entrance to take in how the plain terra-cotta tower above gives way to that dense ornament at eye level.
Audio guides are written and narrated by AI.