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Wainwright Building

 
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The Wainwright Building is a 10-story red-brick landmark office building at 709 Chestnut Street in downtown St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis, Missouri

St. Louis is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri, located near the confluence of the Mississippi River and the Missouri River. St....
. Built in 1890-91 and designed by Dankmar Adler
Dankmar Adler

Dankmar Adler was an American architecture.Adler was a civil engineer who, with his partner Louis Sullivan, designed many buildings including the Prudential Building in Buffalo, New York, the Chicago Stock Exchange Building and the Auditorium Building, Chicago , an early example of acoustical engineering, and the Pilgrim Baptist Church....
 and Louis Sullivan
Louis Sullivan

Louis Henri Sullivan was an United States architect, and has been called the "father of modern architecture." He is considered by many as the creator of the modern skyscraper, was an influential architect and critic of the Chicago school , was a mentor to Frank Lloyd Wright, and an inspiration to the Chicago group of architects who have come...
, it was among the first skyscraper
Skyscraper

A skyscraper is a tall, continuously habitable building. There is no official definition nor height above which a building may clearly be classified as a skyscraper....
s in the world. It was named for local financier Ellis Wainwright.

It is described as "a highly influential prototype of the modern office building" by the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places

The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation....
. Architect Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright

Frank Lloyd Wright was an United States architect, interior designer, writer and educator, who designed more than 1,000 projects, which resulted in more than 500 completed works....
 called the Wainwright Building "the very first human expression of a tall steel office-building as Architecture."

Aesthetically, the Wainwright Building exemplifies Sullivan's theories about the tall building, which included a tripartite (three-part) composition (base-shaft-attic), and his desire to emphasize the height of the building.






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The Wainwright Building is a 10-story red-brick landmark office building at 709 Chestnut Street in downtown St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis, Missouri

St. Louis is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri, located near the confluence of the Mississippi River and the Missouri River. St....
. Built in 1890-91 and designed by Dankmar Adler
Dankmar Adler

Dankmar Adler was an American architecture.Adler was a civil engineer who, with his partner Louis Sullivan, designed many buildings including the Prudential Building in Buffalo, New York, the Chicago Stock Exchange Building and the Auditorium Building, Chicago , an early example of acoustical engineering, and the Pilgrim Baptist Church....
 and Louis Sullivan
Louis Sullivan

Louis Henri Sullivan was an United States architect, and has been called the "father of modern architecture." He is considered by many as the creator of the modern skyscraper, was an influential architect and critic of the Chicago school , was a mentor to Frank Lloyd Wright, and an inspiration to the Chicago group of architects who have come...
, it was among the first skyscraper
Skyscraper

A skyscraper is a tall, continuously habitable building. There is no official definition nor height above which a building may clearly be classified as a skyscraper....
s in the world. It was named for local financier Ellis Wainwright.

It is described as "a highly influential prototype of the modern office building" by the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places

The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation....
. Architect Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright

Frank Lloyd Wright was an United States architect, interior designer, writer and educator, who designed more than 1,000 projects, which resulted in more than 500 completed works....
 called the Wainwright Building "the very first human expression of a tall steel office-building as Architecture."

Aesthetically, the Wainwright Building exemplifies Sullivan's theories about the tall building, which included a tripartite (three-part) composition (base-shaft-attic), and his desire to emphasize the height of the building. He wrote: "[The skyscraper] must be tall, every inch of it tall. The force and power of altitude must be in it the glory and pride of exaltation must be in it. It must be every inch a proud and soaring thing, rising in sheer exultation that from bottom to top it is a unit without a single dissenting line."

Historian Carl Condit described the Wainwright as "a building with a strong, vigorously articulated base supporting a screen that constitutes a vivid image of powerful upward movement."

The ornamentation for the building is adopted from Notre-Dame de Reims
Notre-Dame de Reims

Notre-Dame de Reims is the cathedral of Reims, where the List of French monarchss of France were once crowned. It replaces an older church, destroyed by a fire in 1211, which was built on the site of the basilica where Clovis I was baptized by Saint Remigius, bishop of Reims, in AD 496....
 in France.

After a period of neglect, the building now houses Missouri state offices and is well maintained.

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