THE PRAIRIE SCHOOL BANKS OF FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT, LOUIS H. SULLIVAN, AND PURCELL AND ELMSLIE

During the first two decades of the twentieth century over twenty banks were built by the Prairie School architects Frank Lloyd Wright, Louis H. Sullivan, and Purcell and Elmslie. Within the conservative world of American bank design, Prairie School architects built exceptional, one-of-a-kind works whose crisp geometry, organic ornament and rich color set them apart from the typical Beaux-Arts Classical banks of the period. Despite this tendency towards striking compositions, the underlying principles of bank design, both on the exterior and interior of Prairie School banks, often drew directly from established conventions in American bank architecture. Although not revolutionary in plan, or in such basic features as monumentality, Prairie School banks were an expression of very different meanings than a Beaux-Arts bank. With an aesthetic based on the eternal truths of nature and geometry, rather than historical association, Prairie School banks emerged as a modern and regional expression.;The tomb-like security of Wright's few "strong box" designs for bank buildings stressed the longing for new monuments for a new culture. Sullivan's National Farmers' Bank at Owatonna, Minn., 1906-1908, was the central landmark in this development and led Sullivan to over a decade of designing bank buildings during his last, difficult years. His "jewel box" designs for banks balanced the practicality of a well conceived and built financial institution, with a poetical lyricism which ultimately challenged the communities in which they were built. The less poetical and more pragmatic architectural firm of Purcell and Elmslie drew from the examples of both these masters to create an exceptionally appropriate bank building for small towns. Community service was stressed in the home-like character of Elmslie's last bank buildings. From the imagery of tombs to homes, the Prairie School and struggled for a contemporary expression for these buildings which were so conspicuously placed in their prairie communities.