Imagination and Creativity

Where it surfaces

• I: The Child

  The child's vivid imagination is highlighted through his long observations of snow, his emotional response to music, and his picture-memory.

• A Vacation

  Louis's dam-building, his secret domain, and his vivid daydreams about being a strong man demonstrate his creative and imaginative spirit.

• Boston

  Louis finds escape and inspiration in dime novels, contrasting the dullness of school with the romance of adventure.

• VII: Boston

  Louis's fascination with the architect who made a building 'out of his head' and his own imaginative leaps in grammar study highlight his creative drive.

• IX: Boston—The English High School

  Louis's vivid imagination is stirred by algebra's symbols, literature's enchantment, and Woolson's lectures, leading him to see culture as a 'wand of enchantment' to unveil the face of things.

• XI: Chicago

  Louis practices wordless thinking and contemplation, and is inspired by the raw energy and vision of Chicago's builders.

• Paris

  Sullivan's epiphany in the Sistine Chapel leads him to see imagination as a primal instinct, surpassing reason and formal technique.

• XIII: The Garden City

  Louis recognizes the power of the Creative Dreamer who harnesses imagination, intellect, and emotion to create, and develops his own philosophy of a living architecture.

• Face to Face

  The chapter celebrates imagination as a 'true imagination' and 'genius as the highest form of play,' essential for personal and societal growth.

• Retrospect

  Sullivan emphasizes the primacy of instinct and the child-dream as the basis of all creative ideas, contrasting with academic dogma.

• Retrospect

  Sullivan champions the 'flash of imagination' that solved the tall building problem, and decries the lack of architectural imagination that led to 'monstrosities' and the Fair's missed opportunity.