Carson, Pirie, Scott and Company Building

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Carson, Pirie, Scott and Company
(U.S. National Historic Landmark)
Carson, Pirie, Scott and Company Building
Location:	Chicago, Illinois
Coordinates:	41°52′54.16″N 87°37′39.18″W / 41.8817111, -87.62755Coordinates: 41°52′54.16″N 87°37′39.18″W / 41.8817111, -87.62755
Built/Founded:	1899
Architect:	Louis Sullivan; Burnham,Daniel H., & Co.
Architectural style(s):	Late 19th and Early 20th Century American Movements
Added to NRHP:	April 17, 1970
NRHP Reference#:	70000231 [1]
Governing body:	Private

The Sullivan Center (formerly known as the Carson, Pirie, Scott and Company Building)^[2] is a commercial building at 1 South State Street in Chicago, Illinois. A Chicago Landmark, the building was designed by Louis Sullivan, built in 1899 for the retail firm Schlesinger & Meyer, and expanded and sold to Carson Pirie Scott in 1904. The building was part of the Loop Retail Historic District. It was used for retail purposes from 1899 until 2007.

[edit] Architecture

Abraham Lincoln's 100th Birthday decorations

The building is remarkable for its steel structure, which allowed a dramatic increase in window area, which in turn allowed more daylight into the building interiors, and provided larger displays of merchandise to outside pedestrian traffic. The lavish cast-iron ornamental work above the rounded tower was also meant to be functional. Sullivan designed the corner entry to be seen from both State and Madison, and that the ornamentation, situated above the main entrance, would be literally attractive. The building is one of the classic structures of the Chicago school. The ornate decorative panels on the lowest stories of the building are now generally credited to George Grant Elmslie who was Sullivan's chief draftsman after Frank Lloyd Wright left the firm. When Elmslie left the firm himself the same distinct intricate scrollwork panels left with him and appear in his own designs; and Sullivan's style proceeds elsewhere.

[edit] Recently

Carson Pirie Scott Building during renovations in November 2007

In August of 2006, the parent company of Carson Pirie Scott (Bon-Ton Stores Inc.) announced that after the Christmas 2006 season, the department store business in the building would be closed. There were no immediate announcements as to what new use the building will be converted to. Carson's closed the building in February 2007. The 600,000-square-foot building, now renamed the Sullivan Center, is currently in the midst of a redevelopment by Joseph Freed & Associates, a real estate developer based in Palatine, Illinois. A 2001 report put the budget at $68.9 million.

[edit] Further reading

• Siry, Joseph M. Carson Pirie Scott: Louis Sullivan and the Chicago Department Store. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1988. ISBN 0-226-76136-3

[edit] See also

• Chicago architecture
• National Historic Landmark

[edit] References

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