Preserving Rudolph During the Perfect Storm

Riverview High School 1957-2009
(photo: save riverview)
This past March, 200 participants from 46 states met to discuss the impact of federal stimulus dollars on current preservation efforts. The members of the conference, sponsored by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, discussed what they see as the perfect storm regarding the proposals to spend the flood of stimulus dollars earmarked to restart the economy:

The perfect storm is created when a flood of new stimulus dollars intended for "shovel-ready" projects hits the ground at the exact same moment when state governments are responding to widespread budget deficits and dreary bottom lines by slashing (or completely turning off) funding for historic preservation programs.

This is creating an unusual situation that both threatens historic resources and offers unprecedented opportunities for their revitalization.

This is the perfect storm.

According to their website, the National Trust has identified two consequences of the effect of the stimulus money:

First, state and local authorities may feel pressured to "fast-track" projects that are under review in order to show they are using the money to generate jobs.

This means that compliance at the state and local level with required environmental and preservation reviews may be repealed or weakened. And though federal-level reviews are required, they may be severely hindered with limited and/or strained staffing.

Second, money earmarked for historic preservation is being slashed in order to redirect it towards development that is believed to result in more immediate economic stimulus.

In response to budget shortfalls, state governments are eliminating preservation programs, cutting funding, freezing positions, and, in some instances, completely restructuring state historic preservation offices.

The Paul Rudolph Foundation is monitoring several projects that have been identified as "threatened" with demolition in the past to see if proposed stimulus money is being used to further the destruction or insensitive alteration of these buildings.

As was the result with Paul Rudolph's Riverview High School in Sarasota, preservation was not considered a viable option by the local school board, which asked for the money to pay for the reuse of the building be in place before they would vote to save it from demolition.

Another problem confronting the efforts to preserve Paul Rudolph's work is the age of the surviving structures. Typically, a building is eligible for landmark status at 50 years of age. As most buildings have a 35 year planned lifespan, there is a window of 10-15 years during which time it may or may not survive to become "worth" preservation by the local community. The bulk of Rudolph's work - when he was at his creative peak - was built from 1957-1970 and falls within this window.

Even as Yale's Art & Architecture Building has been renovated and renamed Rudolph Hall, there are buildings of the same era that may or may not survive to be similarly appreciated. Plans to demolish Rudolph's Chorley Elementary School in Middletown, NY were approved by the community this past year for instance.

While new construction is often seen as the easiest way to generate jobs and answer issues regarding the outgrowth of a building by its occupants, the truth according to the National Trust is that renovation and sensitive adapative reuse are the key to solving employment issues regarding the current economic stimulus:

It is 20 to 40 percent more labor intensive than new construction, and it continually generates more than a dollar return on each dollar invested. As a powerful engine that drives real, sustainable economic growth, preservation can (and should) be a key strategy for our economic recovery.

The Paul Rudolph Foundation is committed to seeing that his work weathers the current 'perfect storm' - to join our efforts, please email the Paul Rudolph Foundation at information@paulrudolph.org

Riverview and the "WOW" Factor

Warning: objects are larger than they appear!
Rod Thomson of the Golf Coast Business Review writes a piece in today's 'My View' section on the site www.yourobserver.com, a website for the local Sarasota newspaper the Observer:

There is certainly a “wow” factor to the new Riverview High School.

Wow that the local school board would vote to demolish a historic building?

Wow that their plans would generate an outcry from preservationists and respected architects from around the world?

Of course not...

In another article by Harold Bubil in the Sarasota Herald Tribune,

"It's so open and massive and aesthetically pleasing," said Linda Nook, the school's principal, "that everybody who walks in the courtyard, their mouth drops and they go 'wow.' They walk in the auditorium, it's 'wow.' There's such an aura about it."

Real Rudolph as seen from Fake Rudolph - the view from the principal's desk
(photo: mike lang)
Now that the Sarasota school board has finished removing Paul Rudolph's Riverview High School to 'wow' everyone with a parking lot, Mr. Thomson and the public are beginning to get a look at what replaced it:

From the mix of the classic to the modern, from the Paul Rudolph influence to the glass to the football-field-size courtyard, the school is gorgeous.

But Mr. Thomson continues,

All great. But gorgeous doesn’t come cheap. This school cost a fortune. By all Sarasota and regional standards, Riverview High School is a gold-plated school in a district that never, ever has enough money — or so its leaders claim.

Sarasota has come a long way since Rudolph designed the original 37 classroom Riverview High School for $1,205,300.

The new gymnasium is so large it was used to store parts of the original building
(photo: mike lang)
From the new 2,200-seat gymnasium to the 1,100-seat auditorium its obvious to see bigger means better to the Sarasota school board, regardless of the cost. So much so, that according to Mr. Thomson the new $120 million (10x the price of the original school) Riverview High School might be the most expensive high school ever constructed in Florida:

The Florida Department of Education does not keep those figures, but a spokesman was literally “wowed” at the cost.

As one school official knowledgeable of the project told me: “There were a lot of upgrades we won’t do in other schools.”

And when the bids came in, that school official said, “We all were shocked at the price tag.” Yet the School Board members OK’d it anyway. Only the best for our kids!

Is bigger always better? A view of the lifeless cafeteria
(photo: mike lang)
According to Mr. Thomson's calculations, the building cost alone will equal $3,840 per every student reasonably expected to attend over the next 50 years, at which time the school board will tear it down for a parking lot for the next big thing. And that doesn't cover costs for operating the building or "costs such as computers, books, desks, chairs, school buses and so forth."

This is particularly galling, as the cost to save the original building was used as the excuse to dismiss preservation - even after plans were drawn showing how the proposed parking lot could have easily been relocated to another part of the site.

But what really 'wows' us is the comparison of the new school's design to Rudolph's original structure by the school administration and the architect, Perkins & Will.

The original courtyard
Inspired by Rudolph, or a maximum security prison yard?
(photo: mike lang)
Sure, it has a courtyard in the center. But unlike Rudolph's original with grass, the new one is a literal sea (1,000,000+) of pavers. The glass classrooms that faced each other in Rudolph's design have become solid walls punched with ribbon windows. The scale of the courtyard and the activity of the glass-walled classrooms have been replaced by a scale and level of detail that is often reserved for a 1960's Travelodge.

The real inspiration for the new Riverview High School?
Sure, it has covered walks. But the columns are grossly oversized to match the scale of the rest of the new building. In addition, the alternating 'floating' planes of the original walkways are gone, leaving the new ones to tower over the users.

2-1/2 story covered walkways really keep the rain off? Impressive or excessive?
(photo: mike lang)
As discussed in the book Paul Rudolph: The Florida Houses, the dark brown vertical steel posts were meant to evoke the dark slender tree trunks of the Southern Yellow Pines that were numerous on the site. The glass, brick and steel composition was the closest Rudolph ever got to designing like Mies van der Rohe.

Rudolph's original steel canopies
The posts of the new building by contrast are the same material and color as the rest of the building, thereby removing any reference to the site which was Rudolph's original inspiration.

One color does NOT fit all - this is what the Sarasota School has become?
(photo: mike lang)
Sure, it even has sunscreens. Rudolph's original sunscreens were suspended over the glass walls of the classrooms by a steel skeletal frame - turning a functional requirement into articulation of the facade and emphasizing the geometry and materiality of the overall design. The new building also has them, but you'll have to look close to see them. They've literally been turned into window dressing.

The original sunscreens

Look Close! Plagiarism or Pastiche?
(photo: mike lang)
Its bad enough the Sarasota school board demolished Paul Rudolph's original Riverview High School, but to compare what replaced it with his original design simply boggles the imagination.

'WOW' is definitely what we were thinking.

Florida Exhibition To Feature Rudolph Work

WORLD MONUMENTS FUND EXHIBITION ON
PRESERVING MODERN ARCHITECTURE TO OPEN
AT THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA ON AUGUST 31

Modernism at Risk: Modern Solutions for Saving Modern Landmarks, an exhibition organized by the World Monuments Fund (www.wmf.org) and sponsored by Knoll, Inc., will travel to design schools and other venues across the U.S. beginning with the University of Florida’s College of Design, Construction and Planning, where it will be on view from August 31 through September 24, at the gallery in the Architecture Building.

The college will hold an opening reception on September 10 from 6 to 8 p.m. A program with a brief presentation by WMF’s Director of U.S. Programs Amy Freitag will begin at 6:45 p.m.

The exhibition will also travel to New York City, where it will be on view at the AIA New York Center for Architecture from January 21 through April 10, 2010.

Modern Solutions for Saving Modern Landmarks, a project of the WMF Modernism at Risk program (visit www.wmf.org/modernism.html), consists of large-scale photographs by noted photographer Andrew Moore and interpretative panels with five case studies that explore the role designers play in preserving Modern landmarks.

The five buildings highlighted are the ADGB Trade Union School in Bernau, Germany, designed by Hannes Meyer and Hans Wittwer; the A. Conger Goodyear House in Old Westbury, New York, designed by Edward Durell Stone and saved from demolition by WMF in 2001; Riverview High School in Sarasota, Florida, designed by Paul Rudolph; the Grosse Pointe Public Library in Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan, designed by Marcel Breuer; and the Kent Memorial Library in Suffield, Connecticut, designed by Warren Platner.

Riverview High School and the Grosse Pointe Library were specifically mentioned in WMF’s 2008 Watch listing “Main Street Modern” as examples of modern buildings needing attention.

A model of threatened Chorley Elementary School by the Paul Rudolph Foundation
will also be on display at the exhibition
“Florida has an overwhelming amount of modern cultural resources, particularly post-World War II structures,” said Morris Hylton III, UF interior design assistant professor and author of the exhibition catalog and text. “The exhibition demonstrates how design faculty and students, like those here at UF, can help raise awareness of the significance of modern architectural heritage and develop solutions that preserve important Modernist landmarks.”

At UF, the exhibition will feature Department of Interior Design student proposals to save Riverview High School and Rudolph’s addition to Sarasota High School, built in 1958 and 1959 respectively.

A model of Riverview prepared by the Paul Rudolph Foundation will also be featured.

Riverview was razed in June 2009, but the Sarasota County School District has agreed to sensitively rehabilitate the Sarasota High School addition and support the nomination of the site to the National Register of Historic Places.

Modernism at Risk

In 2006, WMF launched Modernism at Risk, an advocacy and conservation program with founding support from Knoll. The program was established to bring international attention and resources to address the key threats and challenges facing many modern buildings including inappropriate alteration, perceived obsolescence, and public apathy, as well as the technical problems associated with conserving innovative designs and materials.

Rudolph Biography Added to Foundation Website

A biography of Paul Rudolph has been added to the Paul Rudolph Foundation's website (www.paulrudolph.org) and can be found under the "About Paul Rudolph" section of the site.

“The secret of biography resides in finding the link between talent and achievement. A biography seems irrelevant if it doesn't discover the overlap between what the individual did and the life that made this possible. Without discovering that, you have shapeless happenings and gossip.” - Leon Edel

Tony Monk has also given permission to add his essay about Rudolph and his work that was originally published in his book The Art and Architecture of Paul Rudolph.

Thanks to Mr. Monk for allowing the Foundation to use his excellent essay and stay tuned for more website updates coming soon.

Stern Speaks About Working With Gwathmey

Robert A.M. Stern, Dean of the Yale School of Architecture, is interviewed in the Yale Daily News about working with Charles Gwathmey on the addition to Paul Rudolph's Art & Architecture building:

Nine months after the rededication of Rudolph Hall, how do you view the critique of Gwathmey's restoration and of his design of the Loria Center for the History of Art? What are their strengths and weaknesses?

The strengths of Rudolph Hall’s restoration are unquestioned. Gwathmey brought it back to life — he gave it life. He cleared away the cobwebs of neglect with the consummate mastery of someone who knows when to show his own style and when to defer to someone else’s style. It was brilliant work. About the Loria Center: Not everyone is completely comfortable with it. It is definitely a building with its own character but one that doesn’t threaten or elbow its way in relation to Rudolph’s building. It is strong but not overly oppressive. People change their minds over time. Back when it was built, the Beinecke [Rare Book and Manuscript Library] was detested. Absolutely detested. Now every tourist wants to go there. … I think time will deal more kindly with the Loria Center.

With the recent death of Mr. Gwathmey on Monday, a number of publications have written about his life and close connection with Paul Rudolph, concluding with his restoration and addition to the Yale Art & Architecture Building.

Here are links to more articles:

Fred Bernstein in the New York Times
Paul Goldberger in The New Yorker
Saxon Henry in the Examiner.com
Mason Currey in Metropolis Magazine
Blair Kamin in the Chicago Tribune

The WSJ Covers Rudolph From Wall to Wall

Paul Rudolph: The Florida Houses Book Cover
Alastair Gordon has written in the August 3rd edition of the Wall Street Journal's magazine an essay entitled Wall to Wall: Paul Rudolph’s Florida Houses. The article review's Princeton Architectural Press' re-release of “Paul Rudolph: The Florida Houses”:

Paul Rudolph’s beach houses expressed the sunny side of Cold War brinksmanship. They were light and airy and uplifting, the exact opposite of the bomb shelters that paranoid suburbanites were building at the same time. This was a new way to live, or at the least, a new way to enjoy the increased hours of leisure that Americans were beginning to enjoy. These beach houses and other Florida projects are elegantly chronicled in Christopher Domin’s and Joseph King’s “Paul Rudolph: The Florida Houses”, which Princeton Architectural Press just re-released in paperback with an essay by the authors.

As we've mentioned previously in the blog, the book includes a new essay by authors Christopher Domin and Joe King in which they detail the press the book received and its place in bringing renewed interest in Rudolph's work.

To purchase a copy, you can go to these websites:

Princeton Architectural Press
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Borders

Modern Beach Tour in Florida 09/19/09

Martie Liberman, Paul Rudolph Foundation Advisory Board member and owner of Modern Sarasota Architecture Tours, has annouced a new modern home tour in and around Sarasota. The subject of the tour will be homes designed by Siebert Architects, who renovated Paul Rudolph's 1954 Cohen Residence in 2005-2006. According to the tour's website www.modernsarasota.com,

Since 1955, Seibert Architects has been winning awards for creating classic modern architecture. Come join us as we explore over 50 years of great modern design in Sarasota and the islands of Siesta Key and Longboat Key.

If you'd like to go, here is the information about the tour:

WHAT: SEIBERT ARCHITECTS MODERN BEACHES TOUR
DATE: SATURDAY, SEPT 19, 2009 - 10:00AM to 3:00PM
WHERE: MEET AT HOTEL INDIGO (1223 Blvd of the Arts, Sarasota 34236)

TICKETS: $50 PER PERSON. Your check is your reservation.

Mail checks (sorry, no credit card reservations) to:
Martie Lieberman
474 Magellan Drive
Sarasota, FL 34243
Please include your name and email address - Martie will confirm each reservation received until the tour is sold out.

QUESTIONS? Email or call Martie Lieberman at (941)724-1118.

Charles Gwathmey 1938-2009

photo: Ruby Washington/The New York Times
The Foundation is sad to hear of the death of famed Modernist architect Charles Gwathmey yesterday at the age of 71.

Once a member of the Foundation's advisory board, we last spoke to him during the rededication of Yale's Art & Architecture building about his renovation and addition to Paul Rudolph's original masterpiece.

Fred Bernstein in an obituary in the New York Times said,

Yale University selected Gwathmey Siegel to renovate and enlarge its Art & Architecture Building, a much maligned 1963 masterpiece by Paul Rudolph that had been badly altered over the decades. Mr. Gwathmey was widely praised for bringing Rudolph’s architecture back to life. But when it was completed, last summer, the same critics who loved the restoration dismissed the addition; Mr. Ouroussoff called it “sadly conventional.”

Still, Mr. Gwathmey took pride in having completed a building at Yale, his alma mater, that engaged in a conversation with Rudolph’s building, as well as with the 1953 Yale University Art Gallery by Louis I. Kahn across the street.

Mr. Eisenman said that Mr. Gwathmey deserved more credit than he got for making sure that his building didn’t overpower its neighbors. “Charles was able to sublimate his ego and produce really sophisticated solutions to plan problems, to circulation problems — but those aren’t the kinds of things that make headlines,” Mr. Eisenman said.

In another article in today's Yale Daily News,

Gwathmey said in a speech at the dedication that from the time he walked through the Yale campus with his father at the age of 11, he knew he wanted to be "a Yale man." Although he was rejected by Yale College, Gwathmey was later accepted to the Yale School of Architecture, where he assisted Rudolph, then the school’s dean, as he designed the A&A building.

"I love Yale and now I feel like a Yale man after all these years," Gwathmey said.

Gwathmey said designing the addition — known as the Loria Center for the History of Art — was a “complex, challenging and humbling project.”

Mr. Gwathmey was a well respected Modernist who - much like Paul Rudolph - did not turn to Post-modernism when architectural tastes changed during the 1980s. His attention to detail and steadfastness in his belief that modern architecture remained relevent even as others abandoned it will be missed.