System of Architectural Ornament, Plate 15, Values of the Multiple Leaf

In 1922 a small group of Louis Sullivan’s friends and colleagues gathered at the Art Institute of Chicago and commissioned him to produce a series of drawings illustrating his philosophy of architecture. Completed in the last year of his life, this project—an essay and 20 detailed plates—outlines Sullivan’s belief that ornament was the supreme expression of a designer’s intellect and creative freedom. The resulting 1924 publication, A System of Architectural Ornament According with a Philosophy of Man’s Powers, was highly influential for the next generation of architects in Chicago and remains a powerful expression of Sullivan’s ideals about organic and modern American architecture.