“Review of *Louis Sullivan and the Polemics of Modern Architecture: The Present against the Past*, by David S. Andrew; *The Curve of the Arch: The Story of Louis Sullivan's Owatonna Bank*, by Larry Millett; and *Louis Sullivan: His Life and Work*, by Robert C. Twombly”

AboutThis review essay evaluates three books central to the mid-1980s reassessment of Sullivan: David S. Andrew's polemical *Louis Sullivan and the Polemics of Modern Architecture*, Larry Millett's *The Curve of the Arch* (on the Owatonna bank), and Robert Twombly's biography *Louis Sullivan: His Life and Work*. Weingarden summarizes Twombly's formalist and biographical treatment of Sullivan's partnership with Dankmar Adler, his ornamental theory, and his controversial suggestion that Sullivan was homosexual. She praises Millett's account of the Owatonna bank's patron Carl K. Bennett and draftsman George Grant Elmslie, including Millett's attribution of much of the bank's ornament to Elmslie while crediting Sullivan with the overall design; Kristian Schneider (terra-cotta modeler) and William Winslow (ornamental ironwork) are also discussed as members of Sullivan's execution team. The review closes with a critical look at Andrew's argument that Sullivan's skyscraper work was socially irresponsible.

PURL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0084-0416%28198722%2F23%2922%3A2%2F3%3C202%3ALSATPO%3E2.0.CO%3B2-5