Discover Top Posts Tagged with #guaranty building

The Guaranty Building is a Hollywood Boulevard landmark built in 1923. The ground floor has been under renovation for years now and resembles a gigantic ballroom.

During its prime it housed the headquarters of lunatic columnist Hedda Hopper, the offices of the American Federation of Radio Artists, and the Don Marlowe Agency, which represented Bela Lugosi at the end of his career.

Located at the corner of Hollywood Blvd and Ivar Ave, it is just north of the roughest block directly off the Boulevard.

Most people think that the filthy and chaotic Hollywood Boulevard is a new phenomenon, but drug addicts were already breaking into the Guaranty Building in 1956.

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Guaranty Building Buffalo, NY

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Louis Sullivan’s 1895 Guaranty Building Buffalo NY

Photograph by Bobistraveling

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Louis Sullivan’s Guaranty/Prudential Building, 1894-1896, Buffalo, New York

Louis H. Sullivan was probably the most important American architect of the 19th century and is still considered the “Father of the Skyscraper.” One of the first steel skeleton skyscrapers, the Guaranty Building has a richly decorated terra cotta skin inspired by flowers, seedpods, and, at the top of the building, the spreading branches of a tree.

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Historypin of the Week Prudential Building (also known as the Guaranty Building) Location: 28 Church Street at Pearl Street

The land on which the building sits was originally purchased by Hascal L. Taylor, a local oil magnate, in 1890. Taylor wanted to create the finest office building in the country, but he passed away before he could see the project completed. The Guaranty Construction Company of Chicago acquired the plans and construction ran from 1895 to 1896. The building, the tallest in the city at the time of completion, was renamed in 1898 to the Prudential Building to acknowledge the refinancing provided by the Prudential Insurance Company.

The building was designed by architect Louis Sullivan (1856–1924). The Guaranty Building, now called the Prudential Building, has been recognized internationally as one of Sullivan’s masterpieces and an outstanding example of his architectural innovations.

Known as “the father of the skyscraper,” Sullivan attended the new program for architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, traveled to Italy for inspiration, and later settled in Chicago, Illinois, to form the firm Adler and Sullivan in 1883. Dankmar Adler (1844–1900) and Louis Sullivan undertook the building of the skyscraper together, although Adler dropped out of the project before it was completed. This building would be their last architectural collaboration.

The building’s steel skeleton structure was an entirely new and uniquely American building style. Sullivan’s design rejected traditional classical European styles and celebrated the skyscraper’s verticality. The Guaranty Building represents the pinnacle of Sullivan’s forward-thinking design and marks the beginning of the uniquely American style of architecture that would go on to inspire Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959).

Similar to what occurred with other buildings in the City of Buffalo at the time of the Great Depression, the Prudential (Guaranty) Building faced hard times. Although recognized as an architectural masterpiece, the building deteriorated over the years due to a lack of upkeep, unfortunate modernization projects, damaging cleaning projects, and a destructive fire.

Despite being designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1975, the building was marked for demolition in 1977. After herculean efforts were made by local and national preservationists and politicians, money was raised for its restoration in the early 1980s by architects Canon Design and Genseler. In 1998, the building was purchased by the law firm Hodgson Russ, one of the companies that had worked so hard to save the building in previous years. The building still stands today.

TOP: Images courtesy of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery Digital Assets Collection and Archives, Buffalo, New York. © 2015 Albright-Knox Art Gallery BOTTOM: Screenshot of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery’s channel on Historypin.