Ferdinand Kaufmann Store & Flats

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[Rachel Freundt/Chicago Patterns]

[Rachel Freundt/Chicago Patterns]

One of the earliest surviving Adler & Sullivan-designed buildings was constructed for Ferdinand Kaufmann in two sections between 1883 and 1887 at 2312-14 N. Lincoln.

Richard Nickel photograph of Ferdinand Kaufmann store and flats. [Ryerson and Burnham Libraries Book Collection, Ryerson and Burnham Archives, The Art Institute of Chicago.]

Richard Nickel photograph of Ferdinand Kaufmann store and flats. [Sullivaniana Collection, Ryerson and Burnham Archives, The Art Institute of Chicago]

Although it might look like any other building, on closer inspection the Kaufmann Store & Flats has elements that would later emerge as Sullivan’s truly American organic architecture, which was based on original abstract forms rather than historic artifice. These ideas were fully realized in his later designs for the Auditorium Building and Carson, Pirie, Scott and Company Store.

[Rachel Freundt/Chicago Patterns]

[Rachel Freundt/Chicago Patterns]

Out of the nearly 200 buildings designed by the architectural firm, only 15 projects still stand in Chicago. This is one of them.


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