by Michael R. Allen
Louis Sullivan was born in Boston on September 3, 1856. Admirers have launched Louis Sullivan at 150, a series of tours, lectures and other events that celebrate the Sullivan sesquicentennial. The festivities happen in Chicago, although there is no stopping folks in cities with other Sullivan buildings of some importance of coordinating celebrations.
Part of the Sullivan at 150 program is a three-day symposium October 13-15; a tour of the interior of the Charnley-Persky House led by John Vinci, who oversaw the home’s restoration; and, most impressive although mostly coincidental, the completion of the replication of the cornice on Sullivan’s 1899 Schlesinger & Meyer Department Store Building (now the Carson, Pirie, Scott and Company Building).