Baluster from the Carson, Pirie, Scott Company, Chicago

In 1898, Sullivan received a commission from Schlesinger and Mayer for a large department store (the building was purchased by Carson Pirie Scott and Company in 1904). It was Sullivan’s most important independent commission. The store was built in two units. The first, small section, built in 1898–99, was nine stories high but only about sixty feet wide; the second section, built in 1903–4, was much larger overall. The facades of both sections bear identical decorative elements and fenestration. During this period, Sullivan employed the same sinuous ornamental elements as he had previously, but he organized them within a more rectilinear

geometric framework.

Credit: Gift of the Art Institute of Chicago, 1973