Geology & Botany of the Sullivan Jewel Boxes, Part 17: Chaos in the Heart of Symmetry | Farmers & Merchants Union Bank, Columbus, Wisconsin, USA (1919)
This photo, like the Part 16 image, was taken from the mezzanine at the rear of the original bank building.
Looking at the interior of the northwestern elevation.
The folks at the bank have turned the aforementioned mezzanine into a wonderful historical exhibit that features plans, documents, and examples of the American Terra Cotta that adorns the exterior.
My focus in this shot is the superb set of stained-glass windows with their typically Sullivanian forms. Aquamarine is not a color one associates with the Wisconsin countryside, but it works here beautifully as the windows' general tinting.
Despite their dependence on tight, rectilinear symmetries, the window figures are clearly a species of the architect's botanical structures. These often feature a vertical axis (the stem or rachis) surmounted by a flower bud or fruit that in turn often has objects extending from it. See, for example, the terra-cotta ornamentation on the outer side of this same wall.
What I find so interesting is the large roundels that represent the seeds in the inner sanctum of each structure (the germ in SullivanSpeak).
As der lieber Meister himself wrote in his valedictory A System of Architectural Ornament,
The Germ is the real thing; the seat of identity. Within its delicate mechanism lies the will to power: the function which is to seek and eventually to find its full expression in form.
But note that those disks are made of a wildly patterned material that is more than a little reminiscent of the Mexican Onyx Travertine he'd used in the lobby of Chicago's Auditorium Building thirty years before. I assume that it is in fact stained glass, too. Regardless, it represents a vital core of chaos, almost like the convection currents of the Sun, in the midst of so much rigidly controlled predictability.
One can analyze the symbolism of such things ad infinitum, even though it may be that Sullivan was simply working with whatever materials were available at the time. All I really know is that I find it striking and thought-provoking. Whether the effect was produced by conscious design or mere happenstance hardly matters. It works.
The other photos and descriptions of this series can be found in my Geology & Botany of the Sullivan Jewel Boxes album.
Geology & Botany of the Sullivan Jewel Boxes, Part 17: Chaos in the Heart of Symmetry | Farmers & Merchants Union Bank, Columbus, Wisconsin, USA (1919)
This photo, like the Part 16 image, was taken from the mezzanine at the rear of the original bank building.
Looking at the interior of the northwestern elevation.
The folks at the bank have turned the aforementioned mezzanine into a wonderful historical exhibit that features plans, documents, and examples of the American Terra Cotta that adorns the exterior.
My focus in this shot is the superb set of stained-glass windows with their typically Sullivanian forms. Aquamarine is not a color one associates with the Wisconsin countryside, but it works here beautifully as the windows' general tinting.
Despite their dependence on tight, rectilinear symmetries, the window figures are clearly a species of the architect's botanical structures. These often feature a vertical axis (the stem or rachis) surmounted by a flower bud or fruit that in turn often has objects extending from it. See, for example, the terra-cotta ornamentation on the outer side of this same wall.
What I find so interesting is the large roundels that represent the seeds in the inner sanctum of each structure (the germ in SullivanSpeak).
As der lieber Meister himself wrote in his valedictory A System of Architectural Ornament,
The Germ is the real thing; the seat of identity. Within its delicate mechanism lies the will to power: the function which is to seek and eventually to find its full expression in form.
But note that those disks are made of a wildly patterned material that is more than a little reminiscent of the Mexican Onyx Travertine he'd used in the lobby of Chicago's Auditorium Building thirty years before. I assume that it is in fact stained glass, too. Regardless, it represents a vital core of chaos, almost like the convection currents of the Sun, in the midst of so much rigidly controlled predictability.
One can analyze the symbolism of such things ad infinitum, even though it may be that Sullivan was simply working with whatever materials were available at the time. All I really know is that I find it striking and thought-provoking. Whether the effect was produced by conscious design or mere happenstance hardly matters. It works.
The other photos and descriptions of this series can be found in my Geology & Botany of the Sullivan Jewel Boxes album.