The Wainwright Building is a ten-story office building in St. Louis, Missouri, designed by Dankmar Adler and Louis Sullivan and completed in 1891 for a group of investors led by the brewer Ellis Wainwright. Built on a steel frame, its facade is organized into a clear base, shaft and capital, with continuous brick piers running up the shaft to emphasize verticality above the ground-floor storefronts and below an ornamented terra cotta cornice. Sullivan's design for the building became a touchstone for his dictum that form follows function, treating the steel-frame skyscraper as a new architectural type rather than a tall version of older masonry forms. The building is a National Historic Landmark and remains in use as an office building today.
Facts
Building TypeSourced to the subject's own accountCommercial office skyscraper 1 LocationSourced to the subject's own account709 Chestnut Street, St. Louis, Missouri, United States 1 Completed YearSourced to the subject's own accountConstruction ran 1890 to 1891 per the cited source; 1891 is the completion year. Height (m)Sourced to the subject's own account Classification
Standing StatusSourced to the subject's own account Building Type
Building Type (category)Sourced to the subject's own account Connections
Associated With
Designed By
Designed by Louis Sullivan of Adler and Sullivan, a landmark early skyscraper.
Has Building Type
In Style
A defining early example of the Chicago School of skyscraper design.
Uses Element
Source Wainwright Building (Wikipedia)
Source Wainwright Building (Wikipedia)
In the Other Atlases
Same As
Also in Arts and Music Atlas: the same subject.
Located In
Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject is located.
Sources
1. Wainwright Building (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia Foundationlead section, first sentence
The Wainwright Building (also known as the Wainwright State Office Building) is a 10-story, 41 m (135 ft) terra cotta office building at 709 Chestnut Street in Downtown St. Louis, Missouri.
lead section, second sentence
It was designed by Dankmar Adler and Louis Sullivan and built between 1890 and 1891.
Commission, design and construction
Wainwright needed office space to manage the St Louis Brewers Association. It was the second major commission for a tall building won by the Adler & Sullivan firm, which had grown to international prominence after the creation of the ten-story Auditorium Building in Chicago (designed in 1886 and completed in 1889).
Uses Element: Brick, Article text
"Apart from the slender brick piers, the only solids of the wall surface are the spandrel panels between the windows. ... .
Uses Element: Terracotta, Article text
The building includes embellishments of terra cotta, a building material that was gaining popularity at the time of construction.
In Group: Skyscrapers and Office Towers, Lead paragraph
The Wainwright Building (also known as the Wainwright State Office Building) is a 10-story, 41 m (135 ft) terra cotta office building at 709 Chestnut Street in Downtown St.
View the Source Wikidata: Wainwright Building
Wikidata Q1143548, class allow-list match (w-wdresolver-0926)View the Source Reader Challenges (0)
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