Benefit to Feature Rudolph Designed Building

Open House New York (OHNY), has announced tickets are on sale for its benefit "Private Spaces/Private Access". According to the events website,

Over the next five weeks, OHNY will host five intimate cocktail receptions, providing unique access to innovative, inspiring and engaging spaces. Architects and designers will be on site to lead tours and talk about their work.

Included as a part of this event is the Modulightor building, designed by Paul Rudolph in 1989. Again, from OHNY's website:

Designed and built by architect Paul Rudolph, this Manhattan townhouse serves as multi-use space. It is a private residence and home of the Paul Rudolph Foundation as well as a showroom and laboratory for Modulightor, a custom lighting company. The four-story steel structure building was one of the architect's last projects and demonstrates the spatial theories Rudolph was still testing late in his career. Paul Goldberger, the Architecture Critic for The New York Yorker and recipient of Pulitzer Prize for Distinguished Criticism, will lead the evening’s dialogue. In addition, tours of the building will highlight the townhouse's modular, cubist design and highly complex floor plan as well as Paul Rudolph's and Ernst Wagner's - the architect's close friend - extensive collections on display throughout the house.

Event Information:
Modulightor
Thursday, June 18
6:30 - 8:30 pm

Click here to purchase tickets today!

Going 3-D

To our surprise, none of the 400+ Rudolph projects are available to the public in 3-D (if you think otherwise please comment on this blog or e-mail us at information@paulrudolph.org). We did some searching, including a residence in Fort Worth, and found the following on MS Virtual Earth:


Needless to say, this rendering generated by the MS computer program doesn't even come close to the actual work, which was recognized as one of the 25 favorite buildings by the AIA Fort Worth chapter two years ago. Here's an actual image of the splendid residence:


The foundation will begin doing accurate 3-D models of Rudolph buildings and upload them to Google Earth, MS Virtual Earth, and other widely used programs. Some buildings on the list include the Fort Worth residence, Yale A&A, Modulightor and others. If you have 3-D models of Rudolph buildings, please add them to our library by e-mailing them us at the address above. As each project is finished, we will upload it to those programs and post a blog about it. Stay tuned.

You Oughta Be In Pictures

After the death of Paul Rudolph in 1997, his famed penthouse apartment on Beekman Place was offered for rent. It was intended that the income generated would sustain the new Paul Rudolph Foundation, and its goal of keeping the home as a living museum and place to discuss current events in architecture. Sadly, this did not happen.

The apartment was later sold and has been through a series of remodels. Although photographed, it remains closed to the public.

While looking through materials in the archives of the Paul Rudolph Foundation, we found records of the space being used as a set for video and movie productions - prior to its sale and subsequent alteration. This got us wondering - how often has Paul's work appeared in movies or television?

We've put together a list and will feature a different title over the next few posts - so check back.

Tomorrow - Burroughs Wellcome sets the tone in 1983's "Brainstorm"

A Walkthrough Worth Remembering

Leave it to Yale's A+A students to have fun with Rudolph. Could it be they are weary of climbing so many steps? "What's that sound? Its the sound of my shoes!"

jberg105 has posted the ultimate walkthrough video of Yale's rededicated Paul Rudolph Hall. Even though this video runs just under 3 minutes, we wonder what he could have done exploring all notorious thirty floor levels (plus) in its seven stories... but at least we finally get to find out where the bathrooms are hidden!

Click on the video above to groove to the music and paprika-colored carpet...

and if you can't get enough of the music you can find the video here - featuring characters that look like they belong in the middle of a Rudolphian space...

Faster than the Swine Flu

Paul Rudolph has gone viral! Yale University has uploaded a video (linked above) on YouTube featuring Dean Robert A.M. Stern and the renovation of Yale's Art & Architecture Building into Paul Rudolph Hall. Yale has begun to use Youtube to promote its campus, in a viral marketing campaign. What could be next? Paul Rudolph on Facebook? Oh wait.... that's already happened...

Says Yale:

A New Home for the Arts: Restoring Paul Rudolph Hall, Construction of Jeffrey H. Loria Center for the History of Art
and Robert B. Haas Family Arts Library.

Dean Robert A. M. Stern of the Yale School of Architecture and Charles Gwathmey, Partner, Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects, tell the story of the Yale Art and Architecture building: from its lauded beginnings, the period of renovation after a tragic fire, and its new beginning as Paul Rudolph Hall in combination with Jeffrey H. Loria Center for the History of Art and the Robert B. Haas Family Arts Library.

If you weren't able to make the rededication, watch the video above to relive the celebration of all things big and brutalist.

Where in the World is ... Paul Rudolph?

Platial, our favorite blog add-on for "who and what's nearby" has mentioned the Paul Rudolph Foundation in a post entitled "Paul Rudolph, The Man, The Map." In it they reference our map and link it to others dedicated to the work of other architects.

Begun in 2007, Platial maps is a place where people from around the world can share and discover places that interest them using Google Maps. Using a simple interface, users can map anyplace including feeds, photos, videos and stories. We discovered it through Blogger's list of third party apps and thought it would be a perfect way to share Rudolph's work.

With Platial you can zoom in, leave comments, and see satellite images
To date, we've added 21 sites including buildings in New York City, Boston, New Haven and upstate New York. With 400 projects during his six decade-long career, we've got a LOT of work ahead of us.

Being a group of dedicated Paul Rudolph fans with full-time architectural jobs, we rely a lot on the internet to foster recognition of Rudolph's work and its preservation. We've learned that the internet can be a great tool to educate people regarding the significance of a building they may drive by every day or to help other Rudolph fans find that nearby building they've wanted to go see.

Finding Rudolph's threatened Orange County Government Center is a snap with Platial
Thanks to Platial for helping us with our efforts to promote Paul's work and we encourage everyone to check it out for yourself on the map in the right hand column of our blog. Using Platial you can even upload a comment or a question for a particular building.

If you've got any pics of places we've not included yet, please email us at information@paulrudolph.org and we'll put your images up with a marker for others to go and visit.

Original Rudolph Sketches for Sale

Original sketches of the New Haven Government Center are now for sale in the showroom at Modulightor. An unbuilt project (1968 - 1981), it experienced various scheme alterations that ultimately did not materialize due to inadequate funding. Sketches vary from one done on the back of an airplane itinerary to others more refined showing complex sections and elevations.

Click here for images of additional drawings and model of this project.

If you are interested in acquiring these beautiful drawings for your living room, please contact Judith York Newman at SPACED: Gallery of Architecture at (212) 213-1720 or Modulightor at (212) 371-0336. Half the proceeds will go directly to the Paul Rudolph Foundation. Thanks for your support!

Rallying for Riverview

The World Monuments Fund has created an online petition to save Paul Rudolph's Riverview High School from demolition. As of today, they have collected 5,569 signatures - and were expecting 3,000!

On June 17, 2008, the Sarasota School Board voted 3-2 to demolish Riverview High School, an iconic example of the Sarasota School of Architecture designed by Modernist architect Paul Rudolph. The school district plans to replace Rudolph's building with a parking lot.

Despite preservationists' pleas and a viable strategy to convert the historic structure into the Riverview Music Quadrangle, the school board has failed to act in the best interest of Sarasota's architectural heritage.

The letter to be sent to the school board states:

Dear Sarasota School Board,

I understand that Riverview High School in Sarasota, an icon of Modern architecture by Paul Rudolph, is to be razed and replaced with a parking lot. This decision is disappointing, especially given that a feasible alternative was proposed. This building represents a style of architecture specific to an era of American history and specific to Sarasota, and as such, must be preserved. Despite an outcry from around the world, you, as community leaders, have chosen to disregard the significance of this important building.Modern architecture is an essential legacy of the 20th century and I would like to see it preserved for future generations to admire and study.
Please reconsider your decision to demolish this great Modern masterpiece.

Sincerely,

(sign this now!)

Please ask the school board to rethink its decision and save this masterpiece of Modern architecture from the wrecking ball!