"Pits and the Pendulum" in Boston

Ted Smalley Bowen writes in an article for the Metropolis POV "Letter from Boston: It’s the Pedestrian-Oriented Small Commercial Districts, Stupid" about Boston Mayor Tom Menino's quest to remake the city's image at the expense of existing examples of significant modern architecture.

Like a Boston version of Robert Moses, the four term mayor planned in 2006-2007 to seal his legacy by relocating City Hall and building a 1,000 ft tower in the financial district, destroying an office tower by Paul Rudolph in the process. And like Mr. Moses, who famously quipped "if the ends don't justify the means, what does?", the mayor expected everyone else to go along with him.

Fast forward to 2009 - an election year amidst a continuing recession. Much like New York City, Boston has its own share of empty pits marking where grand schemes got started only to be put indefinitely on hold. Fortunately for fans of Paul Rudolph's Blue Cross/Blue Shield building and Kallmann McKinnell & Knowles' city hall, demolition was delayed and the economy kept them from joining the other holes around town.

The mayoral election now finds Menino on the defensive as his opponents use his efforts against him and accuse the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) of cozying up to developers at the expense of neighborhoods and preservation.

Boston is known for some of the first historic neighborhoods in the country. With any luck, Boston's "pits" will result in a swing of the pendulum back towards local control of development and preservation of its Modern architectural heritage.

AIA to Honor Rudolph Project

Saturday's edition of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune includes a story about Paul Rudolph's Cohen residence:

The Cohen House, built by Paul Rudolph in 1955, was restored by Seibert Architects in 2005-2006. That project has earned a merit award of excellence for renovations and additions from the state chapter of the American Institute of Architects. The award was announced this week and will be presented July 30 at the AIA Florida convention in Tampa.

The article also interviews Martie Lieberman about her efforts to preserve the iconic structures in Sarasota known as the "Sarasota School" of architecture. According to Martie,

"I believe you have to buy it and take care of it yourself if you want that to happen."

The Paul Rudolph Foundation congratulates Seibert Architects for the award and is working with Martie to find a preservation "hero" willing to own a piece of history. To find more information about the house, please contact Martie Lieberman at www.modernsarasota.com or go to the Paul Rudolph Foundation website.

Brooklyn wants to be "in the house"

Image courtesy of oliverlamb
The Brooklynist, aka Kelly Berman, has written a blog post on her site about The Cohen Residence. Despite her love for all things Brooklyn (and we've been there - it is nice) she admits she sometimes dreams of abandoning her pre-war studio for the 1955 Paul Rudolph designed house in Sarasota.

Martie Lieberman, a fan of Rudolph and Paul Rudolph Foundation member, is selling the house and can be reached through her website - www.modernsarasota.com And thanks Kelly for the mention of the Paul Rudolph Foundation website on your blog!

If diehard New Yorkers can be tempted by the power of Paul Rudolph's work - there's hope the home will find a new owner who will preserve and ensure it continues to work its magic for decades to come.

Rudolph in the Movies - Brainstorm (1983)

The movie is typical Science Fiction with great special effects
1983's "Brainstorm" is most noted as being Natalie Wood's last film. What's not known as much is that the movie was primarily filmed around Paul Rudolph's Burroughs Wellcome Headquarters.

The company hired Rudolph to design the building in 1969, and the dedication occured in 1972. Paul Rudolph was hired again in 1982-1986 to design an annex, including additional office space and an employee cafeteria. The building features prominantly throughout the film, bringing a noted sci-fi feeling to the fictional corporate setting.

Though the Burroughs Wellcome company has since moved and the building is now available for rent, the local community still refers to it as "the spaceship building."

The Exterior


The exterior of the building as seen in Brainstorm
Paul Rudolph wrote a description of the building for the tour he gave during the building's dedication ceremony on April 7th, 1972:

"The building is conceived as a man-made extension of the ridge upon which it is built. The building is terraced, each floor being smaller than the one below it. Its placement allows people to enter from below walking through a courtyard and porch into the lobby."

left - rendering by Rudolph; right - photo by Joseph Molitor
The Lobby


The lobby of the building as seen in Brainstorm

"The lobby is three stories high, with floors on several levels, following the contours of the hillside. In addition to its function as the building's reception area, the lobby is the focal point of the building's communications. Approximately three-fourths of the building's offices are grouped around the multi-level lobby which will thereby be animated by constant use. This large central area is the interior focal point of the building and eliminates most corridors." - Paul Rudolph, 1972

Original section drawing through lobby by Paul Rudolph


Photo by Joseph Molitor
The Structure


The structure of the building as seen in Brainstorm

"The building utilizes a truncated steel A-frame; that is the diagonal supporting members are linked at the roof of the building by a horizontal system of beams." - Paul Rudolph, 1972

Original rendering of the structural system by Paul Rudolph
The Interiors


The interior spaces of the building as seen in Brainstorm

"From a spatial viewpoint, the interior is given a new dimension with its sloping walls, creating an impression not unlike a growing tree - angles, light and shadow, flexibility. The building imparts a sense of being a living organism, rather than a box-like form. The loboratories, well-lit, complete in all detail, have an individuality and a uniqueness quite unlike other laboratories, because they have higher ceilings lit by skylights." - Paul Rudolph, 1972

Interior photo by Joseph Molitor
Some interesting facts about the structure include the statistics Rudolph added at the end of his description for the 1972 dedication: the building total size was 312,303 square feet, and featured 140,000 sf of exposed aggregate finish exterior walls and 90,000 sf of exposed aggregate finish interior walls. Rudolph estimated the finish required 20,000,000 stones to complete.

Riverview Demolition Nearly Complete

Image from the Sarasota Herald-Tribune
The Sarasota Herald-Tribune posted an article yesterday about the status of the demolition of Paul Rudolph's iconic Riverview High School.

According to the article, only half of the building is still standing, with the demolition crews having reached the student drop-off area with the distinct Paul Rudolph-designed sun shades.

The building had been drastically altered during the last couple of decades, with a metal hip roof and fabric awnings added by school officials who were less sympathetic to the structure than the original patron - Philip Hiss. Mr. Hiss, a wealthy Sarasota builder and chairman of the Sarasota school board during the late Fifties, found the young Rudolph the perfect architect for the job because he thought the current educational environment had grown too stale.

The original condition of the building, with its "exposed steel frame, excessive use of glass and the meticulous planarity of the flush brick panels have a distinct Mies van der Rohe flavor," noted Sibyl Moholy-Nagy in her 1970 book about Paul Rudolph.

Despite efforts by the Paul Rudolph Foundation and other preservation groups - including a proposed reuse for the building by architect Dianne Lewis - the school board chose to tear it down for a parking lot.

The new school building by BMK Architects lacks the openness and originality of the original
The original dedication plaque, which lists Paul Rudolph as the architect and Phil Hiss as the chairman of the school board, has been removed.

Growing the Website

A Portrait of Paul Rudolph from the Foundation's archives

To further promote Paul Rudolph's life and work, the Foundation is developing a collection of information including press clippings, books, and various tangible or digital materials about Mr. Rudolph's architectural achievements and writings. We have assembled hundreds of images and documents, most of it unpublished, from materials he left after his death in 1997.

It is our intent to begin putting this material online for students and other scholars during the latter part of this year. We've hired an information technology company to write the database software while our volunteers are scanning the drawings, photos and other documents. With over 400 known works, it is a Herculean task.

The Foundation has received generous support in this endeavor from many of Rudolph's past clients, employees, associates and friends. In some cases, materials have been given to the Foundation for preservation. In other instances, the Foundation was allowed to borrow the material to have it digitized so it could become part of the collection.

In addition to photographs and drawings, we're looking to collect as much written material about Rudolph's life and work as possible. As we get permission, we will include this material on the Foundation's website, www.paulrudolph.org.

Today we received permission from Kay Kipling to upload her article "Portrait of an Architect." Originally published in Sarasota Magazine in 2004, it is an insightful look into Paul's office and what it was like to work for him.

A pdf copy of the article can be found here.

As we continue to receive permission from authors of other works, we will upload them to the website and announce them on this blog. If you have any work you would like to add to the archives - including photos, essays etc. - please contact us at information@paulrudolph.org. Stay tuned - more will be added as soon as we get it!

New Faces at the Foundation

The past week has been a busy one for the Paul Rudolph Foundation, filled with good news and also disappointment.

One the good side, the Foundation has elected a new Board of Directors, which include Kelvin Dickinson as Chairman of the Board, Sean Khorsandi as Vice Chairman, Ernst Wagner as President and George Balle as Treasurer.

Kelvin Dickinson has also joined the Foundation as a full time staff member, to manage daily activities and the Foundation's effort to add the archival materials to the Foundation's website.

While these activities were going on we learned that Riverview High School in Sarasota was demolished, despite efforts by the Foundation and preservation groups to save it. The loss of this building, one of thirteen identified as endangered by the Foundation, makes the need to educate the public about the importance of Paul Rudolph's work and its significance even more critical.

An important lesson from Riverview is that education about a building's historical significance must be coupled with a realistic plan to reuse the building once (or even before) the owner of the property has decided to sell or demolish it. Even with the current economy favoring the delay of demolition for new construction, most plans to demolish a building - including demolition through neglect - are often finalized months or years before the plans are made public, despite the economy. By the time concerned groups get involved to save a building it can be a very arduous task to prove that financing and new tenants are available to make saving it feasible. Such was the unfortunate case with Riverview High School.

Cohen Residence Open House this Sunday

Martie Lieberman contacted us today about her sale of the Cohen residence by Paul Rudolph. She will be hosting an open house this Sunday 6/21/09, and sent us the following information:

The Cohen House, designed by Paul Rudolph for Sarasota's mayor in 1955, is back on the market and priced to sell at $1.1 Mil.

This Sunday, from 1PM - 4PM, please stop by to see it before or after your Fathers Day celebration.

Address: 101 Garden Lane, Sarasota (Siesta Key) FL 34242.

If you are interested in purchasing this important mid-century modern icon, please call me @ 941.724.1118. I have a survey, floor plan and many details to share.

DID YOU KNOW? The AIA Florida/Caribbean 2009 Award of Excellence, Merit, will go to Seibert Architects PA in July for Cohen House renovations and additions.

SEE THE COHEN HOUSE SLIDESHOW HERE:
http://www.srqvm2.com/101gardenlane/slide.html

The Cohen House was recently featured in the book, "MODERN AMERICAN HOUSES, Fifty Years of Design in Architectural Record." See early Cohen House photos by Ezra Stoller in this vintage "Architectural Record Houses of 1956" article:
http://archrecord.construction.com/projects/residential/archives/PDFs/rudolf.pdf

Better yet, come and see the Cohen House this Sunday, June 21st. But dress for warmth, please. The house is unplugged and unfurnished. It may be hot inside.

Happy Fathers Day!
Martie
MARTIE LIEBERMAN
941.724.1118 direct

www.modernsarasota.com- Modern Architecture Tours and Modern Real Estate.
Get on my email list today!

If you're going to be in the neighborhood please stop by and see the house. It is important Martie finds a buyer who wants to preserve and maintain the house as a significant work of the Sarasota School and of Paul Rudolph.

Gallery to feature Wright; Edgar Tafel

This just in from Judith York Newman, a friend of Paul Rudolph's, who owns a gallery in New York City:

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Guggenheim Museum, Spaced: Gallery of Architecture is featuring rare lithographs and limited edition reproduction prints that document Frank Lloyd Wright’s early achievements experiments with rounded structures of the later years.

“Wright Before the Guggenheim” opens with a reception Friday evening, June 12 from 5 to 8 PM. The show runs through August 22 at Spaced: Gallery of Architecture, 31 West 26th Street, 6th Floor.

A series of limited edition reproduction drawings from the Taliesin archives on view at Spaced: Gallery of Architecture offer insights into Wright’s earlier experiments with round structures.

Both the lithographs from the Wasmuth Portfolio and the prints of drawings from the Taliesin archives are being offered for between $100 to $3000. (When a copy of copy of the 1910 Wasmuth Portfolio came to auction in New York in 1988, it commanded $26,500, without buyers premium.)

"Wright Before the Guggenheim,” at Spaced: Gallery of Architecture, 31 West 26th Street, NYC can be seen most Saturdays through August 22. For additional public hours and appointments, please call the Gallery at (212) 213-1720.

Judith has also emailed us to let us know that Edgar Tafel, a past employee of Wrights now in his nineties, will be there to meet people during the opening tonight, 6/12/09. Mr. Tafel worked with Wright on the construction drawings for Fallingwater, Wingspread and the Johnson Wax company.