The Paul Rudolph Foundation

Orange County Government Center on the World Monuments Fund Watch List

2011-10-06T09:01:00.006-04:00

Paul Rudolph's 1971 Orange County Government Center in Goshen, NY has been included in the World Monuments Fund 2012 Watch List. From their website:

"Poor maintenance practices have led to deterioration, and county government has been calling for the building to be demolished and replaced. Exacerbating the issue, a hurricane in September 2011 caused flooding of and extensive damage to the structure, after which the center was closed by county officials, who renewed the proposal for demolition. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which provides assistance to local governments after disasters, has asked for further study of conditions and the feasibility of repair. The local community is also calling for more review, and grassroots activists have united in support of the Orange County Government Center. It is hoped that inclusion on the Watch will help save this notable piece of progressive architecture."

For more information on the 2012 Watch List, visit the World Monuments Fund.

Open House this Friday

2011-10-05T13:49:00.003-04:00

This Friday, Oct. 7, the Paul Rudolph Foundation will host its bi-monthly open house at the Modulightor building. Located at 246 East 58th Street in New York, it is one of the last projects Rudolph built in the United States and its duplex apartment is the only modernist private residence in the city regularly open to the public.

Tickets are available through NYCharities. Refreshments will be provided by the Paul Rudolph Foundation.

For more information, please contact events@paulrudolph.org

Exhibition of Rudolph's Dana Arts Center

2011-09-10T12:00:00.003-04:00

The Picker Art Gallery, located in Rudolph's Dana Arts Center at Colgate University, has mounted an exhibition on the history of their building. Also on view is a selection of photographs of Rudolph buildings taken prior to demolition by Chris Motallini.

The exhibition closes Oct. 7. For more information, please visit the Picker Art Gallery.

Foundation Open House Friday, August 5th

2011-07-24T23:31:00.004-04:00

Please join The Paul Rudolph Foundation  for our bi-monthly Open House event. Designed and built by Paul Rudolph, this Manhattan townhouse is a private residence and home of the Paul Rudolph Foundation as well as a showroom and laboratory for Modulightor, a custom lighting company created by Rudolph and Ernst Wagner. 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.

Friday, August 5, 2011
6-8PM

Tickets are available through NYCharities.

For more information, please contactevents@paulrudolph.org

Rudolph & Twitchell's 1950 Bennett House for Sale

2011-07-23T11:36:00.005-04:00

One of the few remaining original Twitchell & Rudolph houses, the Bennett House in Bradenton, Florida is now available for sale. Influenced by Mies van der Rohe’s courtyard houses and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Usonian Houses, Paul Rudolph’s design brings together native and modern materials – heart cypress, lime block, plate glass – into a composition of remarkable conceptual discipline and spatial delight.

The play of light across the materials, beautifully assembled by Jack Twitchell, enlivens this gracious home looking out into a subtropical landscape of flowering and fruit-bearing trees. For more information, please contact Bob Grant at All Brokers Realty, 941-714-0555.

Exhibition features Rudolph drawing

2011-05-06T18:39:00.005-04:00

STARchitects

The REAL Luminaries

FOUR Centuries Worth

From Italy: Michelangelo, Palladio, Piranesi

From Great Britain: Inigo Jones, Christopher Wren, Robert Adam, Sir John Soane

From the Continent: Charles Garnier, Antonio Gaudi, Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier

From the United States: H.H.Richardson, Frank Lloyd Wright, Paul Rudolph, Paolo Soleri,

plus post-modernists....Michael Graves, O.M. Ungers, Robert Stern, Arata Isozaki, Tadao Ando

SPACED: GALLERY OF ARCHITECTURE

31 West 26 Street, 6th floor (between Broadway & Avenue Of Americas)

Exhibition runs May 5 through July 30

Please call (212) 213-1720 for opening hours (usually Thursday thru Saturday afternoons) or to make an appointment

Little-known Rudolph Townhouse for Sale

2011-03-30T23:22:00.007-04:00

Few know that behind a nondescript federal style facade in Greenwich Village lies one of Paul Rudolph's last built projects. Designed in 1993, 42 West 11^thStreet is perhaps Rudolph’s final statement on the Single-family townhouse. Historic District regulations required Rudolph to maintain the existing street façade and work within the envelope of the original 1811 structure. The internal layout and garden became the primary means of intervention and the final design bears traces of both the Hirsch Residence and Rudolph's own Beekman Place penthouse. The house is unusual for the fact that many of the interior finishes were selected by the designer Cecil Hayes.

For more information about the townhouse, please contact Cantor-Pecorella.

Susan G. Solomon on Louis I. Kahn

2011-03-19T13:17:00.009-04:00

Susan G. Solomon will join us for a talk on Thursday, March 31st, 2011. A celebrated architectural historian, Dr. Solomon received her PhD from UPenn and is the director of her own consulting firm, out of Princeton NJ: Curatorial Resources & Research (www.curatorialresources.com) where she advises architects, playground patrons and synagogue building committees in their endeavors for meaningful spaces.

With two titles directly on Louis I. Kahn, Dr. Solomon has become renown for her evaluations of Jewish Architecture and the evolution of synagogue design from 1955-1970. The author of Louis I. Kahn’s Trenton Jewish Community Center, Louis I. Kahn’s Jewish Architecture: Mikveh Israel and the Midcentury Synagogue, Dr. Solomon has established herself as an authority on Kahn by situating him within less staid typological contexts and allowing for a wider analysis of modernism in general.

Susan’s talk will evaluate select projects of Kahn’s career in the context of Jewish Architecture. The doors will open at 6:15, and introductions will begin at 6:45. Out of respect for our speaker, no late arrivals will be admitted past 7pm. Refreshments and light discussion will follow the Salon, and a limited number of copies of both titles will be available for dedication.

Click here for tickets to this event.

Modulightor Rising

2011-03-03T18:49:00.056-05:00

Some of you may have noticed scaffolding outside the Modulightor Building, where the Foundation is housed.

Here's the explaination from Ernst Wagner, the building's owner, who is completing the work:

When Paul Rudolph designed 246 in the early 90's, the zoning of that time allowed a 9-story structure, and a building permit was issued. In 1994 the area was downzoned and now, 20 years after - the original 4-story structure will be increased by two additional sistered duplexes in the Rudolph DNA. Likewise, the facade will continue upwards in Rudolph's language, topped by a roof garden. Mark Squeo, the job captain under Rudolph in the 1990's will oversee the addition, this time in the capacity as the architect of record.

The images above show some of Mr. Rudolph's unbuilt facade studies. More history of the MODULIGHTOR Building is available on the Paul Rudolph Foundation website under "about us," or come visit for yourself!

Our next open house is Friday, June 1st, 2012. Tickets will be available two weeks ahead of time.

Is That a Scaffolding In Front of Modulightor?

2011-01-22T22:16:00.024-05:00

It's the new year, and already our next open house is less than two weeks away. Come by and say hello. Maybe you'll ask about the scaffolding in front of Modulightor, or help us stack a couple of CMU's on the roof.

Tickets to Open House on Friday, Feb. 4th from 6-8PM.

1/20/2011: RD Chin on Rudolph

2010-11-24T13:56:00.029-05:00

The foundation will host the sixth installment of our salon series on Modern Architects with a discussion led by R.D. Chin.

Mr. Chin is a former employee of the master architect for various periods in the 80's and early 90's. With most of the commissions coming from Asia, these two decades marked the end of Rudolph's prolific career with the realization of some of the most iconic buildings such as the Colonnade Condominiums in Singapore and the Lippo Center in Hong Kong. Mr. Chin will discuss various projects he worked on under Rudolph and how these experiences shaped him as a practicing architect.

As head of RD Chin Feng Shui Architect in NYC, Mr. Chin aims to create harmony and balance to one's environment using unique spatial alignment strategies. He is the author of Feng Shui Revealed: An Aesthetic, Practical Approach to the Ancient Art of Space Alignment. A limited number of copies of this book will be available for purchase during this event.

Click here for tickets to this event.

Refreshments provided by the foundation. Seats for the event are limited, so reserve your place today to ensure your attendance. Out of respect for our speaker, no late guests will be admitted past 7PM. The gate opens at 6:15PM and introductory remarks begin at 6:45PM. Proceeds from this event benefit the foundation to promote the preservation, knowledge and understanding of the work of architect and educator Paul Rudolph.

Thursday, January 20, 2011

6:45 - 8:00PM

Doors open at 6:15PM

Modulightor

246 East 58th Street

New York, NY 10022

Last Open House of the Year

2010-11-24T01:31:00.024-05:00

If you haven't visited us before, here's your chance before the year is over. It's next Friday, Dec. 3rd from 6-8PM. You can also get some of your Christmas shopping done right here (or if you just want to expand your library collection) by buying some of the various books we have in stock on Rudolph, Kahn, Saarinen, Pei and others. Or add a foundation designed ringer t-shirt to your wardrobe for $20 each. For open house tickets please click here and say hello to full time resident The Bunny.

There is also an interesting event taking place before this open house. RD Chin, a former employee of Rudolph, will be presenting a feng shui evaluation on Modulightor to a group of guests. If you're curious please click here for tickets. We'll admit that this is something we hadn't thought of.

Jack West, 1922 - 2010

2010-11-04T16:52:00.051-04:00

West in front of Sarasota City Hall (image: Sarasota Herald-Tribune archive)
We are sad to report that Jack West, a employee of the Ralph Twitchell - Paul Rudolph Partnership from 1949 - 1951, passed away recently at the age of 88. According to this article from the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, West was hired on the spot by Twitchell after a draftsman was sent packing. One of West's first projects was the Bennett Residence in Bradenton, Florida. An intimidate one story building designed with accessibility requirements to meet the needs of the client, the house was inviting and open to the landscape. The house was sold in 2001 to Joseph King, co-author of Paul Rudolph: The Florida Houses. Currently the building acts as King's architectural office.

West's best known building since branching out on his own is the Sarasota City Hall, one of the last buildings of the Sarasota School of Architecture period (1941 - 1966). Rudolph, Twitchell and West were some of the leading figures of this regional style. King is currently working on an exhibition of West's work that he hopes will be ready in January.

11/04/2010: LoMEX Panel Discussion at the Cooper Union

2010-10-25T14:20:00.007-04:00

On Thursday, November 4, the Paul Rudolph Foundation and the Forum for Urban Design will present a discussion on Rudolph's Lower Manhattan Expressway project in conjunction with the LoMEx exhibition currently on view at the Cooper Union. Panelists Donald H. Elliott, Alexander Garvin, Jaquelin T. Robertson, and exhibition co-curator Ed Rawlings will reflect on the socio-political climate that fueled the project and discuss the the role that mega-structures play in the modern day metropolis.

For more information, please visit the Cooper Union's website.

10/21/10: Zhongjie Lin on Kenzo Tange

2010-09-27T12:35:00.020-04:00

The 5th installment off our salon series on modern architects, the Paul Rudolph Foundation is pleased to host a conversation about Kenzo Tange with a discussion led by Zhongjie Lin.

Zhongjie Lin is an Assistant Professor of Architecture and Urban Design at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. His recently published book Kenzo Tange and the Metabolist Movement: Urban Utopias of Modern Japan is the first full-length account of the Metabolist movement under the lens of urbanism and utopianism. Mr. Lin will share his research and findings on this important time in Japan's reconstruction, discussing the aspirations and realizations of Kenzo Tange and the movement in general.

Click here for tickets to this event.

A limited number of copies of Zhongjie Lin's book will be available for purchase and dedication. Coffee and cookies provided by the foundation. Seats for the event are limited, so reserve your place today to ensure your attendance. Out of respect for our speaker, no late guests will be admitted past 7PM. The gate opens at 6:15PM and introductory remarks begin at 6:45PM. Proceeds from this event benefit the foundation to promote the preservation, knowledge and understanding of the work of architect and educator Paul Rudolph.

Thursday, October 21st, 2010
6:45 - 8:00PM
Doors open at 6:15PM

Modulightor
246 East 58th Street
New York, NY 10022

Icons Need Your Help

2010-09-27T11:34:00.014-04:00

We have just been informed by our friends in the preservation community about an important event taking place at Sotheby's on Wednesday, Oct. 6th. Benefitting Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's Farnsworth House and Philip Johnson's Glass House, Modern Views celebrates these two iconic houses with a Sotheby's auction of artworks donated by various designers with personal statements about how these houses inspire their works. Please click on the following links for more information.

Sotheby's
The Glass House

LoMEx at The Cooper Union

2010-09-26T16:00:00.022-04:00

The Lower Manhattan Expressway, an ambitious unbuilt project Paul Rudolph experimented from 1967 - 1972, was conceived as a megastructure with multiple layers of transportation networks incorporated into a single design. The Irwin S. Chanin school of architecture of The Cooper Union will hold an exhibition from October 1, 2010 through November 14, 2010 to display drawings, prints, photographs, and a model of LoMEx built by architecture students at The Cooper Union. Reception to be held this Thursday, Sept. 30th from 6-8PM. Please click here for additional information on The Cooper Union exhibition.

In conjunction with this exhibition, The Paul Rudolph Foundation will host a special event during our bi-monthly Open House this coming Friday, Oct. 1st from 6-9PM celebrating this important work. Foundation Co-Directors Sean Khorsandi and Dan Webre will share their remarks regarding this project. Original Rudolph sketches of LoMEx and various projects will also be on display. Please click here for additional information on our Open House.

GUNNAR BIRKERTS visits JUNE 24th

2010-06-03T22:19:00.006-04:00

The Paul Rudolph Foundation is pleased to announce Gunnar Birkerts, FAIA will be presenting in our upcoming Salon on Thursday, June 24th, 2010. Mr. Birkerts is known for his many signature buildings and in many regards, from faculty member at the University of Michigan for over three decades, to an integral member of the second wave of Modernists developing the American cultural landscape at mid and century through our bicentennial. Many people are unaware he worked at three key firms before starting his own- Perkins and Will, Eero Saarinen and Associates and at Minoru Yamasaki’s firm.

The work grew progressively more daring as time moved along. In his years with Saarinen in Bloomfield Hills, he participated in the iconic General Motors Technical Center, in Warren, MI, the “Industrial Versailles” of our nation, the Milwaukee War Memorial, in Milwaukee, WI, and three college projects: Concordia Senior College in Ft. Wayne IN, Stephens College Chapel in Columbia, MO, (pictured, showing a keen composition of materials) and the MIT Auditorium in Cambridge. Each of these projects would test a new material, spatial relationship, or technical/structural feat.

The first use of glazed brick, the largest mosaic mural, a 1/8 sphere shell rather than a dome…the audacity of trying was half of the excitement. While I couldn’t yet pin down a list of Mr. Birkerts work with Yamasaki (stay tuned, I’m working on it) interviews that followed the construction of the World Trade Center in NY focused on the sheer bulk of the towers, the shadows they cast and while there was much discussion of massing, the nearly incomprehensible scale of the buildings evaded general design critique. It was lauded more as a feat of engineering- to prove that it could be built. A monument to how well we had harnessed our own technologies.

Gunnar’s work that followed continued to test material strengths and structural possibilities, but without losing sight of the architectural divinity within. It is impossible to discuss his buildings merely on structural grounds because their accomplishments are so intertwined with the designs themselves.
Please join us on the 24th for a visual tour of Mr. Birkerts work, and career and ask him more about his thoughts on architecture in general over coffee after the salon.

Thursday, June 24th, 2010
6:45 - 8:00 pm
doors open at 6:15 pm

Modulightor, 246 East 58th Street

Introduction by
Sean Khorsandi, Foundation Co-Director

Limited copies of Gunnar Birkerts a new look at the Firm's work by Sven Birkerts will be on hand for purchase and dedication.

Coffee and cookies provided by
The Paul Rudolph Foundation

Limited tickets are available on the event's website located here.

Visit a Rudolph in MA!

2010-05-06T09:19:00.014-04:00

The Paul Rudolph Foundation is pleased to announce an invitation to visit the Yanofsky residence in Newton, MA.

As covered by the New York Times and organized by a local historic group, tickets can be purchased directly from Historic Newton

Rudolph's house is just one of the many structures featured. You can learn more about its history here

And from their Press Release:
Newton, MA . . . Historic Newton will hold its 28th Annual Newton Tour on Sunday, May 23 from noon to 5 pm.

The Newton House Tour offers the public a rare opportunity to tour private residences throughout the city. The tour showcases a wonderful selection of outstanding renovations, restorations, old and new architecture, interior design and landscaping.

This year, there are 10 properties included on the tour, encompassing a variety of styles in neighborhoods throughout the city of Newton.

For example, there is a Carriage House in Newtonville. The current owners knocked down the 1960 garage that did not match the original house and rebuilt a new carriage house, matching the character of their 1910 home, while housing 3 cars, a large gym, two new baths and a guest suite. Additional homes on the tour include:

West Newton – c.1876 Stick Style
Newton Corner – c. 1890 Brick Queen Anne
Chestnut Hill – 1957 Modern - Designed by renowned architect Rudolph house/green features
Newton Lower Falls – 1878 Italianate
Newton Center – 2009 Contemporary Arts and Crafts with "green" features
Newtonville – 1900 Shingle Style
Newton Highlands – 1910 Colonial
The Durant-Kenrick House and Grounds

Tickets cost $25, ($20 for members) when purchased by May 21, or $30 ($25 for members) when purchased on the 22nd or 23rd of May. Tickets can be ordered online at the nonprofit's website

For more info. contact HISTORIC NEWTON at 671.796.1450.

Jayne Merkel to discuss Eero Saarinen at the Foundation

2010-04-20T20:53:00.008-04:00

The Paul Rudolph Foundation is pleased to announce the fourth installment of our salon series on Modern Architects with a discussion led by Jayne Merkel.

Jayne Merkel is a Contributing Editor of AD/Architectural Design magazine in London and of Architectural Record in New York. She edited Oculus, the magazine of the American Institute of Architects New York Chapter, from 1994 to 2002 and worked as Architecture Critic of The Cincinnati Enquirer from 1977 to 1988. She is also the author of the monograph, Eero Saarinen (Phaidon Press, 2005), which is the subject of her discussion. Ms. Merkel has published other books, and she won an Emmy for the script of the Civil Pictures’ documentary film, “The Gateway Arch, A Reflection of America” in 2007. Her writing has appeared in trade and design magazines including Architecture, Art in America, Design Book Review, Harvard Design Magazine, the Wilson Quarterly, and Progressive Architecture. She directed the Graduate Program in Architecture and Design Criticism at Parsons School of Design/The New School for Social Research in New York, and has taught at both the University of Cincinnati, the Rhode Island School of Design, Miami University of Ohio, and the Art Academy of Cincinnati.

Ms. Merkel will present in the Modulightor duplex, on May 20th. She will be available to dedicate copies of her recent monograph over refreshments, following the talk.

Thursday, May 20th, 2010
6:45 - 8:00 pm
doors open at 6:15 pm

Modulightor, 246 East 58th Street

Introduction by
Sean Khorsandi, Foundation Co-Director

Limited copies of Eero Saarinen will be on hand for purchase and dedication.

Coffee and cookies provided by
The Paul Rudolph Foundation

Seats for the event are limited, so reserve your place today to ensure your attendance. Tickets are seldom available at the door.

To purchase tickets, please go to the event's website located here.

Please note, this post supersedes our April Newsletter which mis-represented the time and date of this presentation.

Salon Series to Focus on the Work of Alvar Aalto

2010-03-18T13:00:00.002-04:00

The Paul Rudolph Foundation is pleased to announce the third installment of our salon series on Modern Architects with a discussion led by Eeva-Liisa Pelkonen. Ms. Pelkonen will discuss the enigmatic, and staunchly individualistic Alvar Aalto. We will talk about his role in evolving Finnish design and defining Finland's national identity. This will be contrasted with Rudolph's contributions in the U.S. in realizing the American Century.

Eeva-Liisa Pelkonen who holds a PhD from Columbia University and teaches at the Yale School of Architecture will lead our discussion. She is the author of three books including Achtung Architektur!, Eero Saarinen: Shaping the Future, and her latest work, our topic of discussion, Alvar Aalto: Architecture, Modernity and Geopolitics.

Ms. Pelkonen will present in the Modulightor duplex, and be on hand to dedicate copies of her book over refreshments, following the talk.

Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010
6:45 - 8:00 pm
doors open at 6:15 pm

Modulightor, 246 East 58th Street

Introduction by
Sean Khorsandi, Foundation Co-Director

Limited copies of Alvar Aalto: Architecture, Modernity and Geopolitics will be on hand for purchase and dedication.

Coffee and cookies provided by
The Paul Rudolph Foundation

Seats for the event are limited, so reserve your place today to ensure your attendance. Tickets are seldom available at the door.

To purchase tickets, please go to the event's website located here.

Der Scutt (1934-2010)

2010-03-17T13:20:00.005-04:00

Der Scutt in 1997 (image: Don Hogan Charles, The New York Times)
The Foundation is sad to learn of the death this past Sunday of Der Scutt, an architect who studied under and later worked for Paul Rudolph. A biography of Der Scutt's life and work can be found here in an article in the New York Times, and his firm, now run by his son Hagen Scutt, can be found online here.

Kelvin Dickinson, Co-Director of the Paul Rudolph Foundation, remembers meeting Der Scutt:

Before I joined the Paul Rudolph Foundation, I went to see an exhibition in early 2005 of Rudolph's drawings at the New York School of Interior Design. A panel of speakers, including Der Scutt, spoke about their time studying under and employed by Paul Rudolph. I was fascinated to hear Der Scutt's recollections of working in Mr. Rudolph's office.

After the speakers finished, I went into the gallery and studied each of the drawings on display. Looking intently at a project I had never heard of - Rudolph's unpublished design for a building at Staten Island Community College - I was fascinated with Rudolph's use of color and puzzled by the little notes that were scribbled all over it. Perhaps sensing my interest, or that I was analyzing them so closely, I heard a voice next to me say that he had worked on the drawing that I was looking at. I turned to see Der Scutt standing next to me.

As I asked questions about what it was like to work for Rudolph, he explained that Rudolph used very specific colors and abbreviations to explain his ideas to his staff, who would later draft the plans and sections. Der Scutt said everyone that worked for Rudolph learned this 'code' and that it was essential to understanding how Rudolph thought, since he was constantly drawing and changing ideas very quickly.

As we continued to talk, I began to notice people gathered around to listen to our conversation, and I learned a great deal about Rudolph's design process. Afterwards, we shook hands and I could see that Der Scutt remained to that day deeply affected by his time in Rudolph's office.

Chorley's Threat Makes the Front Cover

2010-03-12T07:00:00.003-05:00

Chorley Elementary's 'Spine' (image: Andrei Harwell)
The Chorley Elementary School, a 2010 Seven to Save project of the Preservation League of New York State, is featured on the front page of the Recent Past Preservation Network newsletter.

The article, written by Paul Rudolph Foundation Co-Director Sean Khorsandi, goes into the referendum passed by the voters of Middletown, NY to build a new elementary school. The construction of the new school, which is not opposed by the Paul Rudolph Rudolph Foundation, will be followed by the demolition of the adjacent historic structure designed by Paul Rudolph in 1964-1969 for a school bus parking lot.

The Paul Rudolph Foundation is working with the Preservation League of New York State and local members of the community to find alternatives to allow the historic register eligible building to either be preserved or saved for adaptive reuse.

A petition to save the structure has begun and can be found here.

To read the article, you can find it on the Recent Past Preservation Network's website here.

Yamasaki's Archives - Both Lost and Found

2010-03-11T07:00:00.000-05:00

Yamasaki in the 1950's (image: The Detroit News)
We received an update from Dale Allen Gyure, Associate Professor of Architecture at Lawrence Technological University about the threat to Minoru Yamasaki's architectural archives. We originally received the news from the Society of Architectural Historian's listserv, and wrote a blog post about it here.

According to Mr. Gyure,

I have good and bad news to report about the Yamasaki archives.

The county had scheduled an auction on March 9 to sell off as many office furnishings and equipment as possible. Amazingly, they also intended to empty all the file drawers and throw away the contents. The good news is that representatives of the Michigan State Archives were given access to the material. They arrived only an hour ahead of the shredders! Much important material was saved. The team also examined a self-storage facility but found only recent financial documents. Go to the Michigan Modern site for more information and a press release (http://michiganmodern.org/).

The bad news, however, is that Kip Serota, a longtime former employee who worked with Yamasaki, reported that when the firm moved offices back in the 1980s or 1990s they rented three self storage units to store all the historical materials, but the people operating the firm didn't pay the rent. Eventually the three units were consolidated into two and then finally into one. According to Serota, each time they downsized they simply threw out what didn't fit into the other units. When there was one unit left they again failed to pay the rent and the last of the material was simply thrown into a dumpster by the storage company. So it appears that whatever the Michigan State Archives was able to save is all that is left to document the history of this important firm.

Look for a story soon in the New York Times. Photos of the rescue are available at the Michigan SHPO’s Flickr site:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mishpo/sets/72157623429423325.

We hope something was able to be saved by these efforts - it is sad that so much can be lost by a little carelessness. Thanks for the update, and we hope to see Mr. Yamasaki's work get the attention it deserves.

Reading Rudolph's Work - from Paper to Reality

2010-03-10T08:00:00.001-05:00

Rudolph's sketch for the unfinished Government Service Center
(image: archives of the Paul Rudolph Foundation)
Ian Baldwin, an architect and writer who lives in Providence, Rhode Island, has written a review of "Paul Rudolph: Writings on Architecture" for the Design Observer's website entitled "Reading Rudolph".

Mr. Baldwin begins his piece with the problem facing Rudolph's legacy - its connection in the eyes of the public to the architectural style known as Brutalism:

His brand of Brutalism (the term itself didn't gain traction until the late 1960s, and Rudolph himself never used it) was intriguing, powerful and intensely three-dimensional. By the late 1970s, Brutalism had gone mainstream, becoming derivative and banal, and changing tastes swept any building clad in exposed concrete into the aesthetic dustbin. The poor planning, deferred maintenance, ineffective mechanical systems and lack of owner stewardship plaguing Brutalist buildings became conflated, in the public imagination, with their design.

Interspersed with images of Rudolph's work, Mr. Baldwin summarizes the importance of collecting Rudolph's thoughts on Modernism, the architectural profession, and urban design:

This argument, like the others Rudolph weaves throughout his writing — the requirement for diversity in urban space, the futility of a continual search for novelty, the need for architects to practice urban design — remains unchanged over the four decades covered by the book. This means not that the Paul Rudolph of 1992 was outdated but that the Paul Rudolph of 1952 was well ahead of his time. Even then, he objected to the visual and spiritual emptiness of mainstream modernism, writing, "One doubts that a poem was ever written to a flat-roofed building silhouetted against the setting sun."

The author links Rudolph's thoughts on architecture to two later works: UMass Dartmouth in Massachusetts and Boston's Government Service Center. In each case Mr. Baldwin illustrates how Rudolph's thoughts about architecture and design were applied in a built context. But, sticking to his beliefs about Modernism and the profession ultimately colored the public's perception of his work:

Unlike his postmodern detractors, Rudolph actually tried to form novel urban solutions that went beyond artifice and labored symbolism. He knew the risks of doing so, and was willing to accept them. When he was interviewed about the Yale building in 1988, he was honest about the building's shortcomings but said that wouldn't change the design. His sanguine acceptance of changing tastes might be read as a resolution — or an epitaph — for any of his buildings:

"I'm pleased that the building touches people, and part of that is that people's opinions oscillate about it. That's okay. The worst fate from my viewpoint would be indifference."

Exploring the 'Architect as Urbanist'

2010-03-09T08:00:00.000-05:00

Rudolph's original design for the Concourse in Singapore
Robert Bruegmann, an historian of architecture, wrote "The Architect as Urbanist" which appeared originally in Paul Rudolph: The Late Work, by Roberto da Alba, published by Princeton Architectural Press in 2003. With permission from the author, the website Design Observer has reprinted it in a two part series.

Mr. Bruegmann begins with Rudolph's idea that architects need to focus more on the issues of urban design:

One way to reconsider the work of Paul Rudolph, particularly his late work, is to follow a single thread that ran throughout his career — his concern for architecture as an urban art.

He continues by looking at Rudolph's position within the context of 'Modernist' architects:

Rudolph is consistently described as modernist and antagonistic to any kind of postmodernist pastiche. This commonly accepted dichotomy between modernist style and postmodernist style is unfortunate. It has tended to throw Paul Rudolph into the camp of many supposedly "modernist" architects, for example Peter Eisenman or Zaha Hadid, whose goals and methods he does not share, and to separate him from many architects, like Robert Venturi, whose goals if not whose stylistic sensibilities he does share. (...) To understand how this has happened, it is necessary to locate historically Paul Rudolph’s ideas about architecture and urbanism.

Mr. Bruegmann analyzes Rudolph's ideas concerning urbanism through the exploration of five projects late in the architect's career: the Lippo Centre in Hong Kong; the Daiei Company in Nagoya, Japan; the Colonnade and Concourse in Singapore; and the Dharmala tower in Jakarta.

Mr. Bruegmann also witnessed Mr. Rudolph's unwaivering dedication to his profession as he neared the end of his life:

In the months before his death, Rudolph was working on a new town outside Surabaya, the second largest city in Indonesia. In his New York office he pulled out huge sheets of drawings on which he had sketched the topography, the flow of the watercourses, and, on top of this natural data, the proposed town center, with a huge mound at the center providing parking and housing units, which rode the hills and gave views of the water. The city would conform to and be an extension of the underlying land, and it would have all the complexity of traditional urban forms. As he talked, he became carried away by the opportunities, the chance to show how to unite buildings and land, how to order the town in such a way that it might appear orderly, rational and spatially exciting. “I am hell-bent,” he said, “to get this town into comprehensible form.” Comprehensible urban form. That was the quest from the day Paul Rudolph first discovered architecture. It was a goal that remained constant over the years, despite his maturing and the oscillations in style of his colleagues. No one has ever worked with more energy or with more devotion to this task than Paul Rudolph, and no one has been as successful in creating a body of work in which those most ancient of architectural elements — space and light — are better fused with modern urban needs.

Part 1 of the essay can be found here, and part 2 of the essay can be found here.

Chorley Elementary in the Spotlight

2010-03-08T07:00:00.001-05:00

Paul Rudolph's threatened Chorley Elementary (photo: Andrei Harwell)
The threat to Paul Rudolph's John W. Chorley Elementary in Middletown, New York will be featured in a panel discussion at the Center for Architecture in New York City this Thursday, March 11th.

The Paul Rudolph Foundation and several local activists are campaigning to prevent the tear down of this educational monument. Equipped with professional skills, architects can be instrumental in defending modern structures from destruction.

An introduction about Paul Rudolph's legacy and the current efforts to save Chorley Elementary will be by Sean Khorsandi, Co-Director of the Paul Rudolph Foundation.

Panelists will be on hand to discuss strategies used in recent preservation efforts, including Rudolph's Riverview High School in Sarasota, FL (demolished, 2009) and the Yale University Art and Architecture Building (renovated, 2008):

- Carl Abbott, FAIA, Carl Abbott FAIA Architects / Planners discussing Riverview High School, Sarasota, Florida

- Steven Forman, AIA, Senior Associate at Gwathmey Siegel discussing the Art & Architecture Building at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut

The event will be moderated by Fred Bernstein, an architecture critic whose work regularly appears in the New York Times. Fred has written a number of articles about Paul Rudolph.

Organized by the Center for Architecture in partnership with the Paul Rudolph Foundation. Additional support provided by the Preservation League of New York.

When:
6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
THURSDAY, MARCH 11

Where:
The Center for Architecture
536 LaGuardia Place
NY, NY 10012
(212) 683-0023
info@aiany.org

Price:
Free for Members
$10 for Non-members

At Risk! is organized as part of Modernism at Risk: Modern Solutions for Saving Our Modern Landmarks on view at the Center for Architecture through May 1.

Gallery Hours
Mon-Fri: 9am to 8pm
Sat: 11am to 5pm

Modernism at Risk is organized by the World Monuments Fund and sponsored by Knoll.

Everything's Coming Up Rudolph...

2010-03-05T08:00:00.007-05:00

What a difference another year makes. In the rush of activity here at the Paul Rudolph Foundation, we completely passed by the anniversary of the third year of the Art & Architecture of Paul Rudolph group on Flickr.

online interest keeps growing
A year ago, the flickr group begun by members of the Paul Rudolph Foundation had 323 members and 4,226 images from fans of Rudolph's work from around the world. Today we have 429 members and 5,327 images.

The group began in early 2007 after the demolition of the Micheel's Residence in Westport, Connecticut. Members of the Paul Rudolph Foundation realized that preservation of Rudolph's work would be easier if more people in the general public knew about his contributions to modern architecture.

A number of Paul Rudolph's obscure works and drawings have been uploaded to the site by Foundation Co-Director Kelvin Dickinson, who has begun to make trips to the Library of Congress to obtain scans of photos and drawings to support the Foundation's preservation efforts. To date, the Foundation has compiled drawings for UMass Dartmouth, Chorley Elementary, the unbuilt Shuey Residence, Riverview and Sarasota High School, among others.

Visitors and Fans from around the World
Help us celebrate another year of Rudolph! If you have photos of his work and would like to contribute to this effort, you can go to the site here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/paulrudolph/

Lost Rudolph Residence Recreated for Exhibition

2010-03-04T08:00:00.000-05:00

Paul Rudolph's Micheels Residence, built in 1972 in Westport Connecticut and demolished in January of 2007, is one of the features of a photographic exhibition of Modern architecture in Westport and Weston. 'Westport Modern: when cool was hot' is on display at the Wesport Historical Society from January 24 to May 1.

The reason for the show is noted in an article in the Connecticut Post,

"As preservationists we often show up on the scene too late," said head curator Morley Boyd. "This is a modest attempt to build a stage for a group of residences that haven't received the recognition they deserve."

Mr. Boyd and architect Michael Glynn were instrumental in leading the effort to save the Micheel's residence from destruction back in 2006. The Paul Rudolph Foundation joined them and was present at the end when a judge allowed a local developer to tear down the home after finding it did not have enough criteria to warrant its preservation.

The loss of the building resulted in a number of efforts meant to preserve modern residential architecture, which is often overlooked because it is hidden away in suburban enclaves where wealthy owners can afford to build bigger homes. The Connecticut Trust created a 'Modern Homes Survey' of residences in New Canaan, which features a page for each of the 91 homes that were discovered in the community. The Paul Rudolph Foundation created a flickr group to reach out to local fans of modern architecture, and in the process has been alerted to threats to Paul Rudolph's Chorley Elementary and Concourse building in Singapore.

The animation of the Micheels residence was created by Stephen Lasar Architects of New Milford using photographs, sketches and measurements made before the demolition by Trust staff and historical consultants. The materials produced during the survey of the home will be submitted to the Historic American Buildings Survey. To visit the exhibition:

Where:
Westport Historical Society
25 Avery Place
Westport, CT

When:
January 24th-May 1st

for more information, you can visit the event's website here.

When a House is not a Home

2010-03-03T12:18:00.007-05:00

A house divided against itself cannot stand.. (image: Kelvin Dickinson)
Amir Sharif of the Yale Daily News reports today that students at the School of Architecture and the History of Art Departments are beginning to notice that a shared roof does not necessarily make a home. According to the article,

More than a year after the opening of the Loria Center in November 2008, which finally put the art history department and the School of Architecture under the same roof after some 40 years of separation, some students and faculty members in the two disciplines said they still feel as distant as ever.

Professor Peter Eisenman even goes as far as to compare the perceived separation between Paul Rudolph's iconic building and Charles Gwathmey's Loria addition to the Cold War. "I feel like I’m on the other side of the Berlin Wall," he told Mr. Sharif.

Difficulties in scheduling classes between the two disciplines is noted as one of the problems, but more interesting is that the architecture is seen to contribute to the feeling of separation. The article notes that student lounges, terraces and bathrooms in the Loria Center are exclusively for the use of the Art History students, and even require a card key to access them. Mr. Sharif continues,

"I honestly resent not being able to use those spaces, especially when walking by lounges that are completely empty,” Eisenman added. “It’s a hostile act. If I could meet somebody on the terrace [of Loria] on a nice spring day, that would be the start to a natural interaction."

But School of Architecture Dean Robert A.M. Stern believes the architecture students should meet in the Loria's Arts Library. Charles Gwathmey, the architect of the Loria Center, intended for the library to be a communal "bridge" which would allow the students from both schools to mix and socialize. According to Dean Stern, the library was the place for students to hang out in the 60's. But, as the article notes, "the loudest thing in the library is usually the paprika carpeting."

Garage Likened to Rudolph's Temple Street Refused Preservation Status

2010-02-05T07:45:00.000-05:00

The Preston Bus Station in Lancashire, England (image: Dr Greg)
Richard Waite writes in the January 29 edition of the Architect's Journal that,

Architecture Minister Margaret Hodge has again gone against English Heritage (EH) advice and turned down a second bid to list Preston’s 1969 bus station.

Having rejected calls to give heritage protection status to John Madin’s 1970s brutalist Birmingham library last in November, the minister has now decided that the impressive, ‘neo-Corbusian’ concrete BDP bus station does not merit a Grade II listing. On both occasions EH had recommended the buildings for listing, hailing them as ‘nationally important’.

Hodge, who is known for her ambivalence towards post-war architecture said ‘neither the design of the building nor the methods used in its construction have the qualities of innovative planning or structural interest.’

A detail of the Preston Bus Station's facade
(image: Tony Worrall Foto)
Former BDP chair Richard Saxon wrote in response to the decision,

‘This opinion does not surprise me. The parking building has great presence but the bus station element was never a success and one would not do it that way today. The garage, with its T beams morphing into upturned balustrades, captures influences from the New Haven garage by Paul Rudolph to neo-Corbusian Japanese museum cornices of the early 60s.

‘Its scale and panache are rare in UK work of the period. One can imaging keeping the garage and building new things below it, but if it is all to go I hope it is well documented beforehand.’

Paul Rudolph's iconic Temple Street Parking Garage in New Haven, Connecticut
(image: Kelvin Dickinson)
According to a wikipedia article the building's engineers, Ove Arup and Partners, designed the distinctive curve of the car park balconies "after acceptable finishes to a vertical wall proved too expensive, contributing to the organic, sculptural nature of the building. The edges are functional, too, in that they protect car bumpers from crashing against a vertical wall. The cover balustrade protects passengers from the weather by allowing buses to penetrate beneath the lower parking floor."

Foster Influenced by Time With Paul Rudolph

2010-02-04T07:45:00.000-05:00

A visualization of Lord Norman Foster's design for Yale's new School of Management
(image: Yale Daily News)
Lord Norman Foster, founder of Foster + Partners and a 1962 graduate of Yale's School of Architecture, wrote a guest column in Friday's Yale Daily News in which he connects Paul Rudolph's teaching methods to the way he runs his office:

'I have very strong memories of my time as a student at Yale. The architecture school then, in 1961-’62, was led by Paul Rudolph, who demanded a lot from his students but gave a tremendous amount back in return. In a sense, I think there are strong links between my experience at Yale and the ethos and tempo of my office in London, where we are united in a common belief that only the best will do — whether that’s at the scale a major public building or the detail of a door handle.'

Foster has championed the importance of Paul Rudolph's work in the past - at last year's rededication of Yale's Rudolph Hall (once known as the Art & Architecture building) and in a 2006 letter to the Sarasota school board asking them to save Riverview High School from demolition.

Foster is currently designing the future School of Management at Yale, due to be completed by the fall of 2011.

Is this Chorley 2.0?

2010-02-03T07:00:00.000-05:00

Yesterday we mentioned that Robertson Strong Apgar Architects is the architecture firm designing the new elementary school in Middletown, NY and that once complete, Paul Rudolph's Chorley Elementary will be demolished.

As illustrated on their website, the following are renderings and site plan are what the new school will look like:

Let us know what you think - and please sign our petition to save Rudolph's building!

Saving Rudolph's Chorley Elementary - The Price is Right?

2010-02-02T07:00:00.000-05:00

There's an old joke that inflation allows you to live in a more expensive neigbourhood without moving. According to budget numbers being used to support the demolition of Paul Rudolph's Chorley Elementary, that actually is happening in Middletown, NY.

Heather Yakin, a local reporter who writes the blog 'The Middletown Report' notes that Someone wants to save Chorley:

Renovations to fix the place up would cost an estimated $35 million, according to the district. That cost, on top of expansions that would be needed to accommodate an expected boom in the elementary population in the next few years, would be throwing good money after bad, the district believes.

Yakin repeats the district's estimate of $35 million to fix the existing school. This number has been used by local School Superintendent Kenneth Eastwood for shock value to justify the demolition of Chorley to build a new facility - but has anyone seen (let alone published) a detailed estimate to back this claim up?

What is the economic and cultural value of Rudolph's school - which has been deemed eligible for the State and National Historic Register. How much is history worth? First, a little history...

As reported in the July 26, 1964 edition of the Times Herald Record, Peter Barbone - a local architect who met Rudolph when he was a visiting critic at the University of Pennsylvania in 1950 - asked Rudolph to join him in the design of the Orange County Government Center three years previously. As noted in the article,

When Barbone decided to to apply in competition with several other architects for the Clemson Park school, he called Rudolph. Rudolph was interested and they applied as associates.

Barbone, himself a Middletown resident and graduate of the Middletown school system, was chosen with Rudolph to design the school on July 1, 1964.

As illustrated in a letter from Peter Barbone to Rudolph's project manager William Bedford, the original 1964 proposal for Chorley Elementary was estimated to be $1650 per student. A letter from the Chairman of the Building & Grounds Committee addressed to Mr. Barbone reiterated that the building not 'exceed in cost the state reimbursable figure' and the school be 'functional, practical and economical.'

Barbone and Rudolph figured the student population was to be 500 minimum, with the school eventually to accomodate 'close to 1000'. At that rate, the estimated cost to build the school was $1,650,000.00 and was to cover the 'building, site, surveys, architectural and engineering fees, attorney's fees, furniture and equipment, clerk of the works salary, and all miscellaneous expenses.' 'In other words,' notes Barbone in the letter to Rudolph's office, 'it includes everything.' According to records, the price of the 27-acre site was $100,000.

Paul Rudolph supplied a preliminary area and cost estimate in December, 1964 listing the school population as 918 students, with a total project cost of $1,330,000.00.

In a February 4, 1965 presentation (page1, page2) to the Board of Education, Rudolph estimated the cost of the building to be $1,985,321.00.

When completed July 18 1968, the school cost $1,939,690.00 - and included 'site work, construction, mechanicals, carpet, furnishings and equipment for the building including a 27 acre site.' Chorley Elementary was completed on time and under budget according to the Architectural Record at the time.

Rudolph's design, worth $11,155,596.00 in today's dollars (using an adjusted consumer price index at http://www.measuringworth.com/) cannot possibly justify the district's estimate of $35 million dollars to glibly "fix the place up."

The school board's chosen architect - Robertson Strong Apgar Architects - should provide detailed and itemized estimates to the public that justify the cost, using industry-approved (AIA) methods.

The school principal's December, 2008 newsletter stated - before the referendum vote - that "the cost of upgrading the present structure will be comparable to the same amount of money to construct a new building." Later the cost to build a new school was revealed to be $63.5 million dollars. A far cry from what it would cost to renovate Chorley Elementary - let alone rebuild it today from scratch.

According to a 09/26/08 article in the Times Herald-Record, Superintendent Eastwood claimed the building needed $10 million dollars to bring it to current state code. Who's keeping track of this? "This is public money," he (Mr. Eastwood) said. "We wanted to make sure we were spending it properly." In the same article Mr. Eastwood stated "the new building would be less expensive than trying to salvage Chorley." That is some rate of inflation!

How much is history worth? Oscar Wilde observed that a cynic "is a man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing" - which goes a long way to explain Middletown's justification for tearing down Chorley Elementary.

Petition to Save Chorley Elementary Begun

2010-02-01T06:00:00.001-05:00

Paul Rudolph's Chorley Elementary (1964-1969)
(image: Andrei Harwell)
The Paul Rudolph Foundation has begun a petition to save Paul Rudolph's 1969 John W. Chorley Elementary from demolition.

On December 18th, 2008 voters in the Middletown, NY school district passed a referendum to acquire property to build a new elementary school. At the last minute a provision was added to demolish John W. Chorley Elementary School. Designed by Modernist architect Paul Rudolph, it is composed of open classrooms naturally lit by saw-tooth clerestory windows reminiscent of the many factory buildings dotting the nearby Hudson River. The property has been deemed State and National Register eligible by the State of New York.

The school district plans to replace Rudolph's building with a parking lot, despite the construction of the new school does not require Chorley's demolition and without consideration of integrating the historic structure into the proposal or the possibility of Chorley's adaptive reuse.

The letter to be sent to the school board states:

Dear Middletown School Board,

I understand the John W. Chorley Elementary School in Middletown, NY - an icon of Modern architecture by Paul Rudolph - is to be demolished and replaced with a parking lot and playing fields.

This decision is disappointing, given the property is State and National Register eligible and the construction of the new school does not require Chorley's demolition. The decision to demolish John W. Chorley Elementary does not consider integrating the historic structure into the proposal nor the possibility of Chorley's adaptive reuse.

This building represents a style of architecture specific to an era of American history. 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 Modern masterpiece and thank you for taking the time to read this letter.
Sincerely,

(sign this now!)

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

Please forward this to everyone you know who is concerned about the preservation of modern architecture!

For more information about John Chorley Elementary and the Paul Rudolph Foundation's efforts to save the building, visit the foundation's Chorley Elementary page at www.paulrudolph.org/chorley.html

Paul Rudolph and the Psychology of Space

2010-01-29T07:45:00.002-05:00

Paul Rudolph's space study for the chapel at Boston's Government Service Center
(image: The Paul Rudolph Foundation)
The Hindu, an online version of India's national newspaper, refers to Paul Rudolph's use of psychology in a recent article titled 'Psychology of Spaces.' The author, Ranjani Govind, writes:

Dr. Shyam K. Bhat, a integrative medicine specialist and neuropsychiatrist, explains how architecture has a telling effect on human psychology. How would you react when someone said, “Architects and psychiatrists have a lot in common?”

Diverse fields, unlikely to come together, one would have thought. Not after hearing Dr. Shyam K. Bhat’s talk recently in Bangalore had a packed hall with doctors, architects and students who never actually stopped their volley of questions to understand the not-much-thought-about ideas on built space and its design consequences.

That architecture has a telling effect on human psychology was the underpinning point of his talk, ‘Psychology of Space,’ backed by studies, theories and experiences.

“An architect who practices in a holistic manner would incorporate insights from different fields including psychology, sociology and perhaps even vaastu, to arrive at functional, aesthetic and healing space,” says Dr. Shyam.

According to Dr. Shyam,

Paul Rudolph, the Carl Jung of architects, believed that architecture was basically about manipulating space, light, proportion, texture and material to fulfil the psychological needs of the occupants.

Famously, he said, “People, if they think about architecture at all, usually think in terms of materials.

While that’s important, it’s not the thing that determines the psychology of the building. It’s really the compression and release of space, the lighting of that space and the progression of one space to another.”

New Yale Journal Includes Gwathmey Piece on Rudolph Hall

2010-01-28T08:00:00.000-05:00

According to an article by Amir Sharif published January 26th in the Yale Daily News,

The first issue of the Yale Library Studies journal, a new annual publication put together by the University’s librarians, faculty, related experts and invited authors, was released this month.

Contributors to the inaugural issue include Yale School of Architecture Dean Robert A.M. Stern ARC ’65 and the late Charles Gwathmey ARC ’62, who renovated Paul Rudolph Hall and designed the Jeffrey H. Loria Center. His piece, “Reconstituting the Legacy,” was completed just two months before he passed away last August.

The theme of the publication's first issue deals with the development of Yale’s libraries and reactions to their aesthetics. The first volume of Yale Library Studies can be purchased for $50 through the Yale University Press and, starting Jan. 31, on Amazon.com.

In Praise of Boston's Recent Past

2010-01-27T17:44:00.000-05:00

Paul Rudolph's 1962-1971 Government Service Center (photo: Bruce T. Martin)
Sarah Schweitzer writes in the January 24th edition of the Boston Globe Sunday Magazine that the Boston Landmarks Commission (BLC) recently reviewed the city's collection of modern buildings and,

concluded that earlier surveys of post-World War II buildings had displayed a "widespread lack of understanding, appreciation, and context for buildings of this period." Some are, in fact, "architectural treasures," the commission concluded, even as "modern architecture has not yet gained the popular stature of traditional design in our culture."

The article mentions two of Paul Rudolph's celebrated buildings in Boston: the Government Service Center (also known as the Lindemann Center and the Furley Building) and the Blue Cross/Blue Shield Building located at 133 Federal Street. Both structures have been mentioned numerous times in this blog, with the Blue Cross building being threatened with demolition for a proposed office tower by noted architect Rienzo Piano.

Paul Rudolph's Blue Cross/Blue Shield Building (photo: Sean Khorsandi)
The article notes the complicated, but not uncommon, problem faced by mid-century buildings located in older, historic cities:

The mid-century-modern buildings -- most notoriously, those that rose in Government Center on the site of the leveled Scollay Square -- buried blocks of history to make room for themselves. But the buildings’ defenders say that past sins must be forgiven and that the buildings should be recognized for their own history -- that of ushering Boston into the 20th century. When they were built, Boston was suffering from the departure of its manufacturing base. Nothing of note had been built in downtown for decades. The new buildings rising on the skyline were a sign of turnaround.

Mentioning Paul Rudolph's design for Blue Cross/Blue Shield at 133 Federal Street, the author goes on to bring up the State Service Center (also known as the Lindemann Center):

Take the State Service Center, a building housing health and welfare agencies on Staniford Street that consistently is waved off as one of the ugliest buildings in Boston. But a close look reveals delicate theatrics, much like a Gothic cathedral. The concrete walls are chiseled to look like corduroy, stairs curve and bend around pillars and bridges like unfolded paper fans, and painstaking detail can be glimpsed throughout -- a handrail perfectly molded to fit the grip of a human hand. The building is commentary, too. Rising when social strictures were being jettisoned as artifice, its concrete structural components were deliberately left visible to the eye, with no brick walls or stone sheaths as a veneer. The building leaves mid-century-modern fans awe-struck. “Spectacular,” Fixler (a Boston architect and president of the New England chapter of DOCOMOMO)says. Pasnik, a Boston architect and co-curator of the pinkcomma gallery exhibit, notes: “So bizarre and bold and full of chutzpah, at a minimum everyone should agree it is compelling.” Yet calls continue for its demolition.

But what to do with these buildings? Too often demolition is seen as a simple solution after a lack of attention and necessary upkeep allowed them to become eyesores.

Even some tending-to would help. Many of Boston’s mid-century-moderns have been allowed to deteriorate, and their exteriors have turned sooty and water-stained.

In conclusion, Ms. Schweitzer pleads the case for patience:

Bostonians owe these buildings a bit more time. Architecture styles tend to suffer the heaviest criticism 30 to 50 years after their introduction, Fixler explains. Victorian architecture came under ridicule in the mid 20th century, and calls for its eradication were heard. Mid-century-moderns may have landed in a pool of criticism from the get-go. But with open minds, Bostonians could come to love them. Or at least respect them.

A response critical of the author's support of these buildings can be found online here. While not every building built during the '60s and '70s is necessarily representative of the era and of good design worthy of preservation, the response in general reflects the attitude of those who would rather see the entire period returned the to very architecture the mid-century buildings were designed to replace.

Chorley Elementary Listed Among Seven to Save for 2010

2010-01-26T16:30:00.000-05:00

Paul Rudolph's John W. Chorley Elementary School (1964-1969) was added to the 2010 'Seven to Save' list of endangered places in New York State by the Preservation League of New York State. The announcement was made at a reception at the Museum of New York last Tuesday, January 19.

According to their website:

The Preservation League of New York State promotes historic preservation as a tool to revitalize our communities, celebrate our heritage, and enrich our lives. As New York’s statewide preservation organization, the League works to protect our cultural heritage by:

- advancing effective public policies
- providing expert legal assistance
- building stronger local preservation groups
- focusing on threatened resources
- making targeted grants
- engaging in strategic community outreach

Seven to Save is an Endangered Properties Program of the Preservation League of New York State. The Preservation League has highlighted New York’s most threatened historic resources through its Seven to Save list since 1999.

The Seven to Save program has mobilized community leaders and decision makers to take action when historic resources are threatened. With this designation the League provides invaluable technical and legal assistance, increased media coverage and public awareness, and counsels endangered properties to seek new funding sources.

The application was written and submitted by Sean Khorsandi, Co-Director of the Paul Rudolph Foundation. The Paul Rudolph Foundation has advocated for the preservation of Paul Rudolph's built works since its founding in 2002.

Built in 1964-1969, Chorley Elementary's addition to the 2010 list marks the fourth modern building ever to make the Seven to Save.

The Paul Rudolph Foundation is actively seeking to save Paul Rudolph's Chorley Elementary from demolition, which has been found to be both State and National Historic Register eligible.

For more information about the Foundation's efforts to save Chorley, please contact us at information@paulrudolph.org.

Riverview H.S. Loss Among Worst of 2009

2010-01-20T08:00:00.003-05:00

The magazine editors at Preservation Magazine, a publication of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, have listed the demolition of Paul Rudolph's Riverview High School as one of "the most crushing losses of historic buildings throughout the country" in 2009.

In its online edition published December 28th 2009, the magazine notes that the loss of the architecturally significant building last summer - in order to make way for a parking lot - ranked it among one of the biggest losses of the year.

Riverview High School was designed in 1957-1958 by Paul Rudolph, and was widely recognized as a landmark example of what later became known as the 'Sarasota School' of American architecture. Over subsequent years, the building suffered several unsympathetic renovations (including a pitched roof) to the point that the local school board voted to tear it down claiming it could not be salvaged. Preservationists held an international competition to come up with an adaptive reuse scheme which failed to win over the school board after money to save the building could not be found.

Also listed as the worst of 2009 is the loss of the Walter Gropius designed Michael Reese hospital to make way for a planned Olympic Village, despite Chicago having lost the bid to host the next olympics. The city has yet to announce what it will do with the now vacant property.

Boston Rediscovers the Beauty of Concrete

2010-01-19T08:00:00.004-05:00

Paul Rudolph's 1962-1971 Government Service Center (photo: Kelvin Dickinson)
Architecture critic Robert Campbell writes in the January 3, 2010 issue of the Boston Globe,

A bunch of young architects in Boston are singing the praises of a whole generation of Boston buildings made of concrete. They call it the 'heroic' period of Boston architecture. It lasted maybe 20 years, from the late 1950s to the middle 1970s.

About one thing, they’re absolutely right. Love it or hate it, there really was a Boston Age of Concrete. It’s time we began to accept it as one of the historic periods of local architecture, just like Colonial or Victorian.

Mark Pasnik, Chris Grimley, and Michael Kubo of the local design firm 'over,under' (http://www.overcommaunder.com) ran an exhibition entitled 'Heroic' in the gallery the firm also runs, known as pinkcomma. Writes Mr. Campbell,

They identified 154 buildings, in Boston and Cambridge alone, that qualify for inclusion in 'Heroic.' Today the Age of Concrete is timely again for the simple reason that many of its monuments are in danger of being demolished. That’s most notably true of City Hall, the crown jewel of the era, which Mayor Menino hopes to get rid of.

As Mr. Campbell notes, "The Boston Society of Architects gives an annual award, the Parker Medal, for the 'most beautiful' new building of the year. Between 1964 and 1976, 11 of the 12 Parkers went to buildings made almost entirely of concrete. Only the pink granite tower at 28 State St., in 1971, broke the string."

According to Mr. Campbell, the 'over,under' team might be the harbinger of a renewed interest in the concrete buildings that are sprinkled throughout downtown Boston.

The Age of Concrete was a brief chapter, but a fascinating one, in the history of Boston architecture. We don’t have to sanctify it, but we shouldn’t rip it all down either. The task today is to recognize that the era existed and that it mattered, and to begin the task of evaluating what was good and what was bad.

For an interesting - somewhat paranoid - critique of the above article, you can find Thomas Garvey's response here entitled When he says 'heroic', he means 'Harvard'.

Long Island Exhibition Features Rudolph

2010-01-18T08:00:00.001-05:00

A new exhibition at the The Heckscher Museum of Art in Huntington, NY will include Paul Rudolph's work in Long Island, New York. Included in the show will be Mr. Rudolph's 1960 Endo Labs building in Garden City and his 1969 residence for Mr. Maurice Deane in Great Neck.

Arcadia/Suburbia: Architecture on Long Island, 1930–2010
January 16, 2010 - April 11, 2010

Arcadia/Suburbia: Architecture on Long Island, 1930 - 2010 will bring to light the impressive architectural history of Long Island over the past 80 years and will underscore the role that Long Island has played in the broader development of Modernism and Post-Modernism in the US. This exhibition charts the region's development from a largely agrarian society with a significant role as a leisure destination to a "mature" suburban culture through an examination of residential architecture ranging from the experimental and economic prototypes of the 1930s and 40s to highly refined expressions of the Modernist aesthetic in the 1950s and 60s, ending with the more diverse buildings that were designed and built as the Modernist movement fractured in the subsequent decades. The architects included form a pantheon of Modernism and Post-Modernism: Albert Frey and A. Lawrence Kocher, Frank Lloyd Wright, Percival Goodman, Wallace Harrison, Edward Durrell Stone, Marcel Breuer, Josep Lluis Sert, Philip Johnson, John Hejduk, Paul Rudolph, Charles Moore, Robert Venturi, and Res4, among others.

This exhibition is curated by architectural historian Dr. Erik Neil and is supported with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA), a state agency. A major publication that includes essays relating to Modernism in both architecture and the fine arts, the latter the subject of the Heckscher's preceding show, Long Island Moderns: Artists on the North Shore from Edward Steichen to Cindy Sherman, accompanies the exhibition. The Long Island Moderns: Art and Architecture on the North Shore and Beyond catalogue is available for purchase - Members $25, Non-Members $30. Visit the Museum or call 631.351.3250 for your copy.

WHEN:
The exhibition runs January 16, 2010 - April 11, 2010
Wednesday - Friday
10:00 am - 4:00 pm

Saturday and Sunday
11:00 am - 5:00 pm

Monday and Tuesday
Closed

Closed on holidays celebrated Monday and Tuesday, as well as Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day.

First Friday
Every month, except April 2
4:00 pm - 8:30 pm
7:00 pm Performance

$8.00 Adults
$6.00 Seniors (62 years)
$5.00 Students (10 and over)
FREE Children (under 10)
FREE Museum Members

WHERE:
The Heckscher Museum of Art
2 Prime Avenue
Huntington, New York 11743-7702
631.351.3250 for more information or visit the museum's website at www.heckscher.org

Yamasaki's Archives Threatened?

2010-01-16T15:28:00.008-05:00

Judith York-Newman, a friend of the Paul Rudolph Foundation, alerted us to the following post on the Society of Architectural Historians' listserv:

Dear Colleagues:

Ten days ago the chief financial officer of Minoru Yamasaki's successor firm, Yamasaki Associates in Troy, Michigan, announced that the firm was going out of business and all employees had been terminated as of December 31, with the offices to close by the end of January. The firm faces numerous lawsuits and default judgements from contractors, consultants, and employees totaling millions of dollars.

Yesterday the Oakland County Sheriff's Office seized the office and its contents and intends to auction the property if back taxes aren't paid (and they won't be).

My concern is for the firm's archives, which are said to be extensive and covering the years when Yamasaki was one of the most prominent architects in the country. Its contents could include materials pertaining to the World Trade Center, the Pruitt-Igoe housing development, and the MacGregor Conference Center at Wayne State University, among other projects.

Does anyone have any advice on how to proceed, or know an individual or institution that might want to get involved?

Dale Allen Gyure, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Architecture
Lawrence Technological University
21000 West Ten Mile Road
Southfield, MI 48075-1058
(o) 248.204.2925 (f) 248.204.2929
dalegyure@yahoo.com

Mr. Yamasaki's work is a significant contribution to modernist architecture, his unique style having come to be known as "Romanticized Modernism." The potential loss of the firm's archives - either sold to collectors as individual drawings or destroyed entirely - will have a detrimental affect on the future preservation of the architect's work.

The Paul Rudolph Foundation knows first hand the difficulties of preserving architectural works when little documentation is available for concerned preservationists or potential owners wishing to find copies of original details to aid in restoration work. If you know of an individual or organization that could help keep Mr. Yamasaki's archives together, please contact the Paul Rudolph Foundation at information@paulrudolph.org or Dale Gyure at dalegyure@yahoo.com.

Give the Gift of Brutalism!

2009-12-14T07:45:00.000-05:00

Ever wonder what to give a fan of Paul Rudolph for the holidays? Especially after they have bought every book about his work from Amazon or Ebay? Well look no further.

Archinect, the website about architecture, has come to the rescue this season - Tshirts that that let you (or your friends) show that you love Brutalsim - and we know you do, or else you probably wouldn't be reading this blog post right now.
If your taste runs into other architectural styles - they also offer Tshirts that say I ♥ METABOLISM, I ♥ POMO, I ♥ MINIMALISM.

The shirts are $25 each and come in womens and mens sizes. To order one, you can go to the website here.

Trip to the Library of Congress Adds to Foundation's Collection

2009-12-11T07:45:00.003-05:00

A court room interior - Orange County Government Center (circa 1971)
This past month Paul Rudolph Foundation Co-Director Kelvin Dickinson visited the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. to view the Paul Rudolph Archive.

When Rudolph passed away in 1997, he left the drawings, slides and models in his collection to the Library of Congress as a part of the Center for American Architecture, Design and Engineering - which was created from a bequest by Rudolph to the Library as a part of his will.

Construction Photo - Orange County Government Center (circa 1970)
The purpose of the trip was to photograph materials to add them to the Paul Rudolph Foundation's digital collections. In July, the Foundation hired a consultant to create an online archive of Paul Rudolph's work which is to be a significant segment of its existing website, www.paulrudolph.org. The archive's content management system (CMS) software has been completed, and graphic designers are now working on the site's visual design. The archives will be the subject of a more in-depth blog post at a later date.

Construction Photo - Orange County Government Center (circa 1970)
Mr. Dickinson was able to photograph the complete specifications and construction drawings for two projects that are currently threatened with demolition, to be used for the Foundation's preservation efforts. Kelvin worked for two and a half days with Greg Marcangelo, a cataloger for the Pictorial Collections and Ford Peatross, the Curator of Architecture, Design, and Engineering Collections, as well as two of their assistants.

Among other materials photographed were drawings of many little-known projects throughout Rudolph's career, such as the 1974 Jerusalem Hotel, and construction photos of various residences and the 1963-1971 Orange County Government Center. While there, Kelvin was able to collect information on two previously unknown projects which were not on the Foundation's list of Rudolph's work - which currently runs almost 300 individual works.

Main lobby interior - Orange County Government Center (circa 1971)
The Paul Rudolph Foundation is in the process of collecting images and drawings for each of Rudolph's projects, with the goal of making them available to scholars and students through an online portal.

Stay tuned for more information about the Foundation's digital archive which will be going live in the next couple of months.

Tracey Towers in 'Architecture of the Bronx'

2009-12-10T07:45:00.000-05:00

Tracey Towers (photo: Kelvin Dickinson)
Artdaily.org writes on its website that:

"Bronx Architecture" is an online guide to the architecture of the borough developed by Lehman College Art Gallery/CUNY. Designed as a companion to "Public Art in the Bronx," the Web site features over 75 buildings, background on architects, neighborhood walking tours, maps, lesson-plans for high school teachers, neighborhood histories, a resource section, and glossary. Like the Web site devoted to public art, we hope that this guide will provide a useful resource for the general public as well as teachers and encourage exploration of the art and architecture of the Bronx.

included in the list of significant buildings are Paul Rudolph's Tracey Towers, "a visible landmark from northern Manhattan to Westchester County, incorporates organic curves that make its towers look like futuristic sandcastles."

The website includes a description of the buildings by David Bady:

The tallest buildings in the Bronx, one 38 and the other 41 storeys, the Tracey Towers dominate sight lines from as far away as Manhattan’s upper Broadway and the New York State Thruway in Yonkers. From the distance they are imperious: two isolated dark-gray cylinders rising straight up, without setbacks, from high ground. As they are approached, something more complicated and “futuristic” emerges. Each cylindrical building reveals itself to be a circle of nine narrower columns, windowless concrete rising to a spiral crown. In the core of the bundle, horizontally bridging the space between the columns, are the windows and balconies, which one would expect to find on the exterior of a conventional high-rise apartment house.

The Towers appear to be what was known in the ‘sixties as a mega-structure, a group of service cores forming the armature for an array of modular apartments and offices “plugged into” or suspended between them. This avant-garde engineering scheme fascinated architects as they followed the work of Japanese designers such as Kenzo Tange and Arata Isozaki. One of those most attracted to the “city within a city” was Paul Rudolph, an important American modernist who served as Chairman of Yale’s Department of Architecture from 1958 to 1965. In the mid-‘sixties, Rudolph’s proposal of a 280-million-dollar mega-structure, Graphic Arts Center, for Manhattan’s Hudson River front had been rejected by its union sponsor. (In truth, almost none of the original Japanese designs got beyond the drawing board, either.) A few years later, engaged by developer Frederick De Matteis to plan adventurous middle-class apartment houses for Kingsbridge, Rudolph seems to have returned to his thwarted plans.

Erecting an actual mega-structure on a Mitchell-Lama-subsidized, affordable-housing budget was out of the question. Rudolph settled for the sci-fi appearance. The difference between seeming and reality becomes finally clear when a visitor stands in front of one of the Towers. What appeared from a distance to be a ring of tall thin columns are in fact only segmented arcs of concrete wall, the rounded tips of vertical fins protruding at right angles from the faces of the central block of the building—whose plan is, surprisingly, a conventional square. (The projections contain a master bedroom ending in a windowless wall.) What appeared to be continuous concrete walls incised with deep grooves (a Rudolph trademark) are built of aligned pre-cast blocks. Although their views are reputedly spectacular, the balconies and windows crammed into the spaces between the blind “columns” can seem small and overshadowed.

Disappointments: but the visionary experience of the Towers is ineradicable.

the site also includes a biography of Rudolph.

Library at UMass Dartmouth Getting Renovated and an Addition

2009-12-09T07:45:00.001-05:00

UMass Dartmouth library (photo: Kelvin Dickinson)
Paul Rudolph's library at UMass Dartmouth - renamed the Claire T. Carney Library in 2006 - is getting a $43 million renovation and expansion.

Rudolph's original rendering
Rudolph's original rendering
Ground breaking for the library - designed by Paul Rudolph and Desmond and Lord - occured on November 26, 1969 and the building was completed in 1972. On March 13, 1972 the building opened to students and the public. The adjacent ampitheater, known as the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Amphitheater, was dedicated on May 6, 1978 and is used for the university's graduation ceremonies.

rendering of proposed exterior
According to a September 18, 2009 article in the Herald News, a local newspaper:

...the expansion of the 37-year-old library has already begun. The space, now open on the first floor with two floors of lecture rooms above, will become an enclosed entrance to the library, with a new circulation desk, cafe, state-of-the-art presentation space and areas for group studying.

The second component of the project, which was paid through private fundraising and state bonds, will be the renovation of the existing space. The first floor, which has already added a new computer lab, will have “learning commons” and a “grand reading room,” said Catherine A. Fortier-Barnes, the assistant dean for library administrative services.

Architects have also made sure to keep with the Paul Rudolph-designed campus’s signature modernist look, Fortier-Barnes said.

No timeline has been set for completion, she said, but the renovation of the existing spaces will take place in phases so the library can remain open.

current conditions (photo: Kelvin Dickinson)
current conditions (photo: Kelvin Dickinson)
UMass Dartmouth, which was originally called Southeastern Massachusetts Technological Institute when Rudolph was hired to design the campus master plan in 1963, was known as "Smitty" in the office according to architect Der Scutt - who worked on the drawings in Rudolph's office at the time. A brief history of the project can be found on a website hosted by UMD's library:

In addition to the unique character of the buildings on the UMass Dartmouth campus, one of Rudolph’s major achievements was the master plan. On over 600 acres of undeveloped land, he had the opportunity to incorporate his longstanding theories and ideas about large scale construction and human habitation.

All of the elements of the campus design had a particular interest and meaning to him, whether it be the function of Ring Road to the relationship of classrooms and stairways. No detail escaped his consideration.

That much of his work at UMass Dartmouth and his other similar projects are enigmatic at best to those who encounter them is the great paradox of his legacy. Critics acknowledge him as a great designer whose buildings are often difficult to appreciate or understand but are permeated with an extraordinary creative skill.

SMTI / UMass Dartmouth, then known as Southeastern Massachusetts University, bestowed an honorary degree in Fine Arts to the architect in 1970.

rendering of proposed interior
rendering of proposed interior
rendering of proposed interior
On another page of the library's website, the university's introduction to the building's program includes a description of the existing building:

The University Library is at the center of campus discourse, learning, and scholarship. With the addition of the space that connects the Library to Group II its welcoming presence is more humansized, more open. Although the basic concrete structure is there as Paul Rudolph designed it, the library is a beguiling mixture of action, color, and real life captured in the moment all visible as you approach either from the inner or outer campuses.

On the Charlton side, the roof swings upward like an awning giving a panoramic view of the interior. On the inner campus side, the roof is lower creating a more intimate space. Inside the changes in ceiling heights help to define meeting spaces, social, reading, and functional library spaces.

As you enter the library from either side it is evident that this is the University Library. There are books, of course, and a solid, serious aura that is unmistakable. At the same time there is awelcoming air of informality that includes café service, gallery/display space, and areas for collegial discourse. Signage and design lead the visitor seamlessly to the services and resources they need.

Plan of proposed ground floor
Phase 1 of the Claire T. Carney Library Renovation Project began August 4, 2009 and consisted of "the removal of all concrete located beneath the bridge and lecture halls (campus gateway) connecting the Science and Engineering Building to the Claire T. Carney Library." Plans for the renovation include enclosing the area that is currently an open breezeway.

'Modernism at Risk' Coming to New York in 2010

2009-12-01T07:00:00.000-05:00

Modernism at Risk: Modern Solutions for Saving Modern Landmarks, an exhibition organized by World Monuments Fund and sponsored by Knoll, Inc., will travel to design schools and other venues across the U.S. beginning in Gainesville, Florida, and traveling to New York City in 2010. The exhibit consists of large-scale photographs by noted photographer Andrew Moore and interpretative panels with five case studies exploring the role designers play in preserving Modern landmarks. In this brief gallery tour, Henry Ng (Executive VP of WMF) interviews Professor Marty Hylton of the University of Florida, Gainesville.

Models of Paul Rudolph's demolished Riverview High School and threatened John Chorley Elementary School are featured as part of the show and seen in the video.

Gwathmey Goes Gold

2009-11-30T07:00:00.000-05:00

Yale's Rudolph Hall (photo: Kelvin Dickinson)
According to Dexigner, a website about design related news and events, the completely renovated and expanded Paul Rudolph Hall at Yale University designed by Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects (GSAA) has received a LEED Gold certification:

The 114,000 square foot building, constructed of cast-in-place concrete in the Brutalist style, was formerly known as the Art and Architecture Building.

It was designed by then chair of the Department of Architecture, Paul Rudolph and completed in 1963.

GSAA's design results from the integration of programmatic, structural and mechanical needs.

It includes the restoration of exterior walls, the installation of historically correct windows, and upgrades to all building facilities including the exhibition gallery, jury and studio spaces, study areas, and administrative and faculty offices.

It also introduces new lighting and furnishings throughout, in many cases replicating the originals, and brings the structure into compliance with current building and fire codes.

According to previous reports from Yale, the building originally was intended to be LEED Silver.

House Inspired by Rudolph On Best LA List

2009-11-25T08:00:00.000-05:00

Pugh & Scarpa's Solar Umbrella House (photo: Marvin Rand)
The Solar Umbrella House designed by Pugh & Scarpa Architects has landed on Curbed LA's "Best LA Buildings - Top of the Aughts (runnerups)"

According to their website:

The Amazing Invisible, Energy-Efficient House:
Solar Umbrella House by Pugh + Scarpa.

Proving it is indeed possible to marry affordability, sustainability, and high design, architects Larry Scarpa and Angela Brooks' 2005 remodel of a 1920s Venice bungalow was at the forefront of solar design strategies. Inspired by Paul Rudolph's Umbrella House of 1953, it's almost 100% energy neutral, cost less than $400,000 to remodel, and--spoiler alert--appears to have no walls, no windows, and no roof. Hey, we said appears, since it has all of those things, and 89 amorphous photovoltaic panels for energy.

Built in 2005, the project was chosen as an AIA Committee on the Environment Top Ten Green Project for 2006.

Rudolph's 'Umbrella' sun shade in 1953
An extensive description of the house can be found on the AIA website here.

The house was also featured in a 2007 episode of 'Building the Ultimate House' TV series which has a page dedicated to it here.

Rudolph's Umbrella House Today (photo: Dan Webre)

Sarasota Architecture Exhibition Features Rudolph

2009-11-24T08:00:00.000-05:00

The exhibit “Sarasota Modern: The Sarasota School of Architecture, 1941-1966” is open through Dec. 24 at the University of Florida in the Special Collections exhibit gallery on the second floor of the Smathers Library.

This exhibition features architectural models, drawings and photographs from John Howey’s Sarasota School of Architecture Collection in the UF Architecture Archives. Architects Ralph Twitchell, Paul Rudolph, Victor Lundy, Tim Seibert, Jack West and Gene Leedy, among others, are represented.

WHERE:
University of Florida
George A. Smathers Libraries
Gainesville, FL 32611-7000
(352) 273-2505

WHEN:
The exhibition runs now through December 24, 2009
The gallery is open 9 a.m. to 4:15 p.m., Monday through Friday.

Exhibition Features Rudolph's Temple St. Garage

2009-11-23T08:00:00.000-05:00

Paul Rudolph's rendering for Temple St. Garage
An exhibition at The National Building Museum in Washington D.C. entitled "House of Cars: Innovation and the Parking Garage" focuses on the role of parking on the built environment. According to the exhibition's website:

We have all spent time in parking garages, but we rarely stop to think about what they have meant for our cities and ourselves. House of Cars: Innovation and the Parking Garage explores the unique relationship between parked cars and the built environment and encourages visitors to see these familiar structures in a whole new way. A showcase for innovation; a training ground for the 20th century's best-known architects; and now, a new direction for sustainable city planning; the parking garage tells many stories.

As soon as there were cars, there was a parking problem, and cities responded both by finding ways to fit cars into old structures – such as carriage houses – and inventing a new building type made specifically for automobile storage. As the parking garage's building type evolved, innovative engineers explored the best ways to lay out parking places and create structural systems to accommodate both cars and people.

The parking garage may have a reputation as an eyesore, but House of Cars challenges this notion using examples of well-designed garages that add a creative tapestry to our streetscapes. It concludes with the question, "What does the future hold for parking?" and invites visitors to think about new types of parking solutions.

Included in the exhibition is Paul Rudolph's design for the Temple Street Parking Garage in New Haven, Connecticut.

Paul Rudolph visiting the job site
WHEN:
The exhibition is open from October 17, 2009 through July 11, 2010.

WHERE:
National Building Museum
401 F Street NW (Judiciary Square Metro, Red Line)
First Floor Galleries

Paul Rudolph atop the completed garage
For more information:
The National Building Museum website
New York Times article about the exhibition

One Step Closer...

2009-11-19T15:52:00.009-05:00

Paul Rudolph's 23 Beekman Place
On Tuesday, November 17th, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission held its monthly public meeting and on the agenda was the possible landmarking of Paul Rudolph's famous penthouse apartment building on 23 Beekman Place. The site, listed in the agenda as item LP-2390, covers the proposed site listed simply as "Paul Rudolph House" on Borough of Manhattan Tax Map Block 1361, Lot 118.

According to the Commission's website,

The Landmarks Preservation Commission is the mayoral agency responsible for protecting and preserving New York City’s architecturally, historically and culturally significant buildings and sites. Since its creation in 1965, LPC has granted landmark status to more than 25,000 buildings, including 1,245 individual landmarks, 110 interior landmarks, 10 scenic landmarks and 99 historic districts in all five boroughs. Under the City’s landmarks law, considered the most powerful in the nation, the Commission must be comprised of at least three architects, a historian, a Realtor, a planner or landscape architect, as well as a representative of each borough.

Kelvin Dickinson, Co-Director of the Paul Rudolph Foundation, attended a public hearing as a representative of the Paul Rudolph Foundation. Also attending was Joe Smith representing Docomomo, an organization dedicated to promoting the preservation of modern architecture.

Rudolph's original rendering
Matt Postal, an architectural historian who is a member of the Commission, made the initial presentation to the board:

Paul Rudolph, one of the most celebrated and original architects of the second half of the 20th century, owned 23 Beekman Place from 1965 till his death in 1997. A leading member of Florida’s so-called Sarasota Modern School, he studied at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and served as Dean of the Yale School of Architecture, where he designed the celebrated Art and Architecture Building, completed in 1963. Two years later, he moved his practice to Manhattan, purchasing a neo-Georgian style townhouse on Beekman Place, between East 50th Street and East 51st Street. During the next three decades, the five-story structure was continuously altered, producing one of Rudolph’s most best-known works. Initially, he converted the five-story structure into apartments, and later, between 1975 and 1982, added a multi-story, cantilevered, steel-and-glass penthouse that resembles a piece of architectonic sculpture. New York Times architecture critic Paul Goldberger praised the design, calling it "a handsome composition, a neat arrangement of geometric forms that is visually pleasing in itself and a welcome addition to Beekman Place’s already long list of architectural styles." 23 Beekman Place was also home to the prominent stage and screen actress Katharine Cornell (c. 1893-1974). Once described by drama critic Alexander Woolcott as the "First Lady of the Theater," she purchased the house in the 1920s and lived here, with director and producer Guthrie McClintic, until the early 1950s. Although the multi-level interiors fashioned by Rudolph have been modified by subsequent owners, the exterior is virtually unchanged. 23 Beekman Place is a significant and highly personal example of this important modern architect’s late work. Visible from Beekman Place and various points east, it is one of only four buildings designed by Rudolph in New York City, and arguably, his most significant.

A photo by Rudolph before
A photo by Rudolph with his planned addition
During the public comment portion of the presentation, Kelvin Dickinson presented the Paul Rudolph Foundation's statement of support for the designation:

The Paul Rudolph Foundation was established in 2002 with the intent to further the preservation, knowledge and understanding of the work of architect and educator Paul Marvin Rudolph. The Foundation has long supported the protection of Rudolph’s architectural legacy, which currently numbers 271 buildings throughout the United States and the world.

Paul Rudolph’s residence at 23 Beekman Place is one of a handful of works by Mr. Rudolph in New York City. Purchased in 1965, Mr. Rudolph began a decade later to add a multi-story sculptural cage that cantilevered over the traditional neo-Georgian style townhouse below. The exterior composition of shifting steel and glass cubes is a personal example of Rudolph’s evolving theories of modernism and has become one of the architect’s most recognized works.

The importance of Paul Rudolph’s contributions to the field of architecture has seen a resurgence upon the recent renovation and rededication of his Art & Architecture building at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Paul Rudolph’s work spans the period of modernism in America during which architects began to question the strict functionalism of the International Style. Mr. Rudolph’s design for his residence at 23 Beekman Place was used as a private laboratory to explore spatial concepts and his ideas regarding scale, complexity and urbanism.

Yet while appreciation of his legacy has grown, threats to his work have increased as well. The Foundation has identified 13 buildings which are presently threatened with demolition. The designation of Mr. Rudolph’s residence would protect one of his most celebrated works as a rare remnant of an enormously important time period.

The Paul Rudolph Foundation hopes you will expeditiously consider this vital and important piece of American architectural history for landmark designation.

Rudolph's original rendering
Speaking in addition was a lawyer representing the current owner of the property, who stated the owner will release a letter addressing the proposed designation before the final vote on the matter next month.

Finally, a representative of Community Board 6 stated they did not have an opinion on the matter, save for wondering what affect designating a modern addition would have on the future plans to designate the entire block as a historic district.

The matter will come up again for a vote by members of the Commission during the next month's meeting.

Immediately following the meeting, City Room - a blog hosted by the New York Times - prematurely reported that the property had been designated a landmark by the city.

We will have to wait another month to find out the commission's decision.

Invisible Cities Filled With Rudolph

2009-10-24T08:00:00.002-04:00

Fedora by Colleen Corradi Brannigan

'In the center of Fedora, that gray stone metropolis, stands a metal building with a crystal globe in every room. Looking into each globe, you see a blue city, the model of a different Fedora. These are the forms of the city could have taken if, for one reason or another, it had not become what we see today. In every age someone, looking at Fedora as it was, imagined a way of making it an ideal city, but while he constructed his miniature model, Fedora was already no longer the same as before, and what had been until yesterday a possible future became only a toy in a glass globe.'

So writes Italo Calvino in his 1972 book 'Invisible Cities', which imagines descriptions of various cities as related by Marco Polo to the aging emperor Kublai Khan. As mentioned in its wikipedia page,

The book, because of its approach to the imaginative potentialities of cities, has been used by architects and artists to visualize how cities can be, their secret folds, where the human imagination is not necessarily limited by the laws of physics or the limitations of modern urban theory. It offers an alternative approach to thinking about cities, how they are formed and how they function.

In his story about Fedora, Marco Polo tells Khan that in his large Empire there must be a place for both Fedoras - big and small ones, as they are both real cities as well as assumptions, as a big one represents what is accepted as necessary and a small one what is imagined as possible. The difference between what might have been and what actually exists is a common dichotomy in architecture and urban design. And like other architects, Paul Rudolph had a number of proposed buildings which continue to exist only on paper.

Rudolph's Lower Manhattan Expressway
With the dramatic drop in real estate over the last years, much has been written about New York City's construction boom and later bust. The New York Times wrote 'Ghost Buildings of 1929' about proposed buildings that were abruptly halted after the stock market crash and later Great Depression. More recently, Curbed featured 'The Missing Skyline' about a number of planned developments that were,

'starchitectural masterpieces, neighborhood-creators (or neighborhood-destroyers, depending on who you talk to), or, well, just freaking huge buildings that were totally-definitely just last year.'

With so much planned and so much lost - and other shoes still waiting to drop - is it no surprise when technology steps in to organize a collective 'what if'?
'The building with the globes is now Fedora's museum: every inhabitant visits it, chooses the city that corresponds to his desires, contemplates it, imagining his reflection in the Medusa pond that would have collected waters of the canal (if it had not been dried up), the view from the high canopied box along the avenue reserved for elephants (now banished from the city, the fun of sliding down the spiral, twisting minaret (which never found a pedestal from which to rise).' -Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities

An unrealized apartment building for Donald Zucker
UrbanOmnibus, a project of the Architectural League of New York, has been following an iphone application called 'Phantom City' which was created to,

"transform the city into a living museum of speculative proposals for the city of New York."
In addition to downloading the iphone application, you can visit the project's website to see more information and even add projects for consideration. The advantage of having the iphone application, besides being able to see a project as you stand in the very spot it was to have occupied, is the ability to rate it:
A rating function allows one to vote on each proposal, and to see how others have voted: Was Paul Rudolph’s Lower Manhattan Expressway project utopian or dystopian? Beauty or beast? Yawn or yell? You decide. Then roam elsewhere and discover another city that could have been.
So far, the application and site only identifies Paul Rudolph's 1967-1972 proposal for the Lower Manhattan Expressway sponsored by the Ford Foundation. What's missing are his 1970 plans for 725 units of public housing, the 1967 Fox Hill Development in Staten Island, his 1970 plans for 10 apartment towers in Kew Gardens and the enormous 1967 proposal for the Graphic Arts Center.

A model of the proposed Graphic Arts Center
As technology continues to advance allowing the imagined to meet the real in realtime, we can foresee the day when handheld devices would really become the glass globes that Calvino's imagined Fedora residents use to inhabit the city of their desire.

'On the map of your empire, O Great Khan, there must be room for both the big, stone Fedora and the little Fedoras in glass globes. Not because they are equally real, but because all are only assumptions. The one contains what is accepted as necessary when it is not yet so; the others, what is imagined as possible and, a moment later, is possible no longer.' -Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities

Calvino must be pleased.

To read more about the iphone application:
New York Times - 'An iPhone App to Tour the City That Never Was'
Flavorwire - 'iPhone App for Architecture Geeks'

Happy Birthday, Mr. Rudolph

2009-10-23T11:00:00.004-04:00

Paul Rudolph was born October 23rd 1918, exactly 91 years ago today.

The Paul Rudolph Foundation is named after Mr. Rudolph, who expressed a desire that an organization be created to preserve his work and educate the public about the importance of modern architecture and urban design. In accordance with his wishes, The Paul Rudolph Foundation was founded in 2002, five years after his death in 1997.

Since then, we have grown in size as Paul's work is rediscovered by later generations of architects and the general public. A number of successes, including the renovation of his Art & Architecture building (renamed Rudolph Hall), have shown that Rudolph's work still resonates. The Foundation's Open House every other month continues to grow in attendence; student groups call regularly to walk through the duplex apartment at Modulightor. Next month begins our Paul Rudolph Lecture Series - dedicated to discussions about the profession Rudolph spent his life caring about.

The Paul Rudolph Foundation continues to work to preserve and educate the public about his ideas regarding architecture. We celebrate his work and know he would be happy to see that it continues to inspire.

Happy birthday, Mr. Rudolph.

Siesta Key Tour Announced For 11/21/09

2009-10-20T13:41:00.004-04:00

Martie Lieberman, Sarasota resident and Paul Rudolph Foundation member, is offering a tour of modern homes in Sarasota.

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

SIESTA KEY: THE MODERN ARCHITECTURE TOUR
November 21, 2009 from 10AM - 3PM

Come and explore modern architecture on the resort island of Siesta Key. Siesta Key has always been an architectural hot spot, from the beginnings of the Sarasota School of Architecture to the present. We'll go inside several great houses, enjoy a light lunch on-the-go, stick our toes in snow-white quartz sand, and at our very last stop, we'll enjoy a glass of wine and meet the homeowners and architects involved in our tour. Samuel Holladay AIA and Principal of Seibert Architects will lead our group.

WHAT: SIESTA KEY: THE MODERN TOUR

DATE: SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 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.

If you have questions, contact Martie directly via email at martie.lieberman@gmail.com or call her at (941) 724-1118

Martie is also planning a future tour of Sarasota architect Carl Abbott's work in January 2010.

Thanks to Martie for the head's up and everything she's doing to keep Sarasota's modern architecture in the spotlight!

Society of Architectural Historians welcomes the Paul Rudolph Foundation

2009-10-02T10:52:00.006-04:00

SAH New York Chapter President John Maciuika (left) with Paul Rudolph Foundation Co-Director Kelvin Dickinson (right)
(photo: Julien Aleksandres)
This past Tuesday evening Kelvin Dickinson gave an informative speech to about 25 very attentive sets of ears at Baruch College in Manhattan. The Society of Architectural Historians’ New York chapter invited the Paul Rudolph Foundation’s Co-Director to discuss Mr. Rudolph’s life, work, and legacy.

Kelvin’s 30 minute plus speech thoroughly explored Mr. Rudolph’s career and the depth of his significance in 20th Century architecture in America and Asia. Stand out themes included the architectural press’ confusion and ultimate derision of Rudolph’s seemingly many style directions as contrasted with the reality of the master’s steadfastness to his architectural principles.

A diverse crowd of highly informed members expressed interest in Rudolph’s relationships with both his mentors and disciples. Discussion about the status of modernist works and the perils of saving them lead to laughter over the joys of being invested in architectural history (the crazies, the fans, the surprise jewels of information.) But the particular threats facing structures from the late Modernist period reminded attendees of the special urgency for preservation efforts.

Overall the evening gave two kindred organizations chance to connect and forge a friendship. Thanks to the newly elected officers and the members of the SAH New York Metropolitan Chapter for the thoughtful and receptive atmosphere they provided. http://www.sah.org

- Julien Aleksandres, Modulightor Inc.

Rudolph Designed Home For Sale in New York

2009-09-22T08:00:00.001-04:00

In 1982, Paul Rudolph was asked by Maurits and Claire Edersheim to renovate a house they owned in Larchmont, New York. Mr. Rudolph and the Edersheims had a very close relationship ever since Rudolph's design for the couple's Manhattan apartment in 1970.

In 1989, Paul was asked to completely rework the interior of the house, and then in 1991 he created an addition to the front of the residence.

The Paul Rudolph Foundation visited the home and took photographs a few years ago, and knew of Mrs. Edersheim's wish to sell the house. This past week, we were contacted by a real estate broker at Houlihan Lawrence Inc. telling us that the house was indeed being listed for sale.

As we always wish to see that Paul Rudolph designed homes are preserved and in the hands of those who recognize and appreciate the unique character of Rudolph's work, we offered to list the house for sale on the Foundation's website. To see the listing, you can find it here.

The sale of a residence designed by Mr. Rudolph is a rare find, and does not always result in its preservation. The Micheels residence in Westport, Connecticut was demolished in 2006 following a court battle to save the building led by the Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation and the Paul Rudolph Foundation. Another house, the Cerrito Residence designed by Rudolph in 1955 was demolished in 2007 following attempts to find the home an owner interested in its preservation.

Connecticut Exhibit To Remix Brutalism

2009-09-21T10:00:00.003-04:00

The Westport Arts Center will present "Aggregate: Art and Architecture – a Brutalist Remix", Friday, September 25 through Sunday, November 22. WAC will host a public opening reception on Friday, September 25, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the gallery, 51 Riverside Avenue, Westport, Connecticut. Exhibition programming includes a talk on the spirit of Brutalism by architect John Johansen at Westport Arts Center on Sunday, October 4 at 4:00 pm. Curator Terri C. Smith will also give an informal talk about the exhibition on Thursday, October 22 at 7:00 pm.

According to the Westport Arts Center website,

Aggregate is a new contemporary art exhibition designed to encourage fresh conversations about the impact of Brutalist architecture on society. The show features sculptures, videos, photography, prints, and documents that reflect, evaluate, and expand upon Brutalism’s monumental forms, social goals, gutsy materials, and mixed receptions. Brutalist architects aspired, in part, to create buildings that conveyed the visual immediacy of sculpture and were often designed to surprise, uplift, and challenge their users. The exhibition explores aspects of the theories, failures, materiality (especially concrete) found in Brutalist architecture by including artists who remix these qualities in ways that complicate or comment on them. Aggregate, through a combination of artworks and documents, asks visitors to look at the nuances of this, sometimes polarizing, twentieth-century architectural style.

Aggregate makes a metaphor of concrete, “a collection of items that are gathered together to form a total quantity” and the sand, gravel and crushed stone that is added to the chemical mix and water when making concrete.

Aggregate asks questions about how this type of architecture might challenge our expectations of beauty, good design, and useability. Of all the twentieth-century architectural movements, few have surpassed Brutalism’s frank use of materials and ability to elicit strong emotion in its users. By asking viewers to look more broadly at the intentions as well as the successes and failures of an often maligned (cold, ugly, aggressive) component of twentieth century architecture, Aggregate encourages us to take a fresh look at both distant and familiar environments.

Included in the show will be photos of Paul Rudolph's Micheels Residence - once located in Westport - which was photographed by Chris Mottalini shortly before its demolition in 2006.

For information contact Westport Arts Center at 203-222-7070 or go to the website at www.westportartscenter.org. Gallery hours are M-F, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Sat. and Sun. from noon to 4 p.m., at 51 Riverside Avenue, Westport.

Foundation Built Models On Display in Florida

2009-09-18T11:00:00.003-04:00

Photos by Julien Aleksandres

The Paul Rudolph Foundation has built two models for the exhibit "Modernism at Risk: Modern Solutions for Saving Modern Landmarks", currently on display at the College of Design at the University of Florida.

Photo by Julien Aleksandres

The first model is a reconstruction of the original Riverview High School designed by Paul Rudolph in 1957-1958. Using copies of the original construction drawings, Foundation member Dan Webre built the 1/8" scale model of the structure, cut through the center of the building's courtyard.

Photo by Julien Aleksandres

The second model is a partial section through the center of John W. Chorley Elementary School, which was designed by Paul Rudolph from 1964-1969. The building's future looks in doubt after the Middletown, NY school board voted to tear it down following the construction of a new school adjacent to it. The 1/8" scale model was built by Foundation Co-Director Sean Khorsandi from drawings that were pulled from the Rudolph collection at the Library of Congress.

Photo by Julien Aleksandres

The exhibition is currently on view at the College of Design at the University of Florida and will later move to the College of Design, Construction and Planning in Gainesville. In January of 2010 it will be on display at the Center for Architecture in New York City.

To learn more about the exhibit, visit the UF College of Design website here.

Not Your Father's Architecture...

2009-09-17T14:00:00.001-04:00

Why does 1920's architecture tend to get preserved yet mid-century modern buildings of equal importance often get demolished?

So asks Harold Bubil in an article in the September 6th issue of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Mr. Bubil put the question to Marty Hylton, assistant professor in the College of Design at the University of Florida, after the opening of his exhibition "Modernism at Risk: Modern Solutions for Saving Modern Landmarks". According to Mr. Hylton it was Lewis Mumford, the architecture and social critic, who postulated people reject our fathers and embrace our grandfathers.

One can see this occuring in Rudolph's work and the later reaction to it. First, it was Rudolph who early in his career began to reject the strict rigor of his teacher Walter Gropius and the International Style in favor of more "caves" and less "goldfish bowls". Functionalism in Rudolph's early work would eventually give way to his belief that unused space in a building is just as important to a building's occupants as the function of the building's program. That space he mused was "psychologically" occupied if not physically.

Later, it would be Rudolph's own students - notably Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown - who would hold up Rudolph's work as a foil to their own understanding of what is important for a building to represent. Rudolph's reputation would suffer only for his work to be rediscovered by students who had never had the chance to work for or be taught by him.

Mr. Hylton's exhibition focuses on the role architects and designers can play in preserving the recent past so that it does not fall prey to the whims of those who wish to reject the architecture of their fathers. As both he and Mr. Bubil note in the article - these important structures will eventually become the work of someone's grandfather.

The tour is currently on view at the College of Design at the University of Florida and later at the College of Design, Construction and Planning in Gainesville before moving on to New York City in January. To learn more about the exhibit, visit the UF College of Design website here.

Yale Reconsiders Rudolph

2009-09-09T12:02:00.011-04:00

As we finished reading yesterday's articles about Rudolph's work in Docomomo's newsletter, we received the Fall 2009 issue of "Constructs: Yale Architecture Fall 2009" which featured two stories about Paul Rudolph's work.
The first is "Reconsidering Rudolph" by Brad Walters and it covers each of the speakers who presented during the "Rudolph Reassessed: Architecture and Reputation" symposium at Yale on January 23 and 24, 2009. The event, organized by architectural historian Timothy Rohan, featured several themes surrounding Rudolph's tumultuous career.

The first panel covered Rudolph's early projects and his examination of regionalism in regards to applying the tenets of the International Style to the local climate of Florida. The second panel then addressed Rudolph's experimentation with materials. During this part of the discussion, Rudolph's work with wood and glass segues into his later use of lucite and concrete.

The second day focused on Rudolph's spatially complex interiors. Beginning with a discussion of Rudolph's use of the perspective section to relate the interior and exterior spaces of his buildings, the panel then addressed Rudolph's blurring of interior and exterior, public and private as his work evolved over time. Despite the attention to detail exemplified in the interiors displayed during this part of the symposium, Rudolph continued to remain interested in architecture's other extreme - the environment of the cityscape.

The last part of the day addressed Rudolph's pursuit of relating the scale of his buildings to that of their surroundings, and his eventual experiments with mass-produced housing and megastructures.

At the conclusion of the article, Mr. Walters notes that the discussion turned to how Rudolph presented himself in the media and personal stories from those he influenced. Despite his much documented rise and fall in reputation, the symposium finished with recollections of people profoundly influenced by his work and teachings - a sign that Mr. Rudolph will continue to fascinate and inspire future generations.

The second article in the magazine, "Rudolph Hall Restoration Discussed" by Nina Rappaport, focused on the January 29th panel devoted to the restoration of Rudolph Hall and the addition by the late Charles Gwathmey. The panel addressed the complications of preserving the original building and restoring the parts that had been lost over time to insensitive renovations following the infamous 1969 fire. Ms. Rappaport notes the event concluded with Charles Gwathmey, a former student of Rudolph's:

[He] concluded the evening by comparing the intensity of the project to "being in school presenting a new project to a jury. That was the pressure that consumed us full-time. But I feel we have reincarnated Rudolph in his rightful place in the history of architecture."

Docomomo Revisits Rudolph

2009-09-08T12:20:00.009-04:00

Docomomo New York/Tri-state's 2009 newsletter arrived today with not only one but two articles regarding Paul Rudolph's work.

The first article is a review of the Yale School of Architecture's January symposium "Reassessing Rudolph: Architecture and Reputation" by John Morris Dixon. Mr. Dixon's review focuses on how the symposium not only discussed Rudolph's career highs and lows following his leaving Yale; it also points out the role of reputation in the architectural community as a whole. He also notes that dispite what people think they know of Paul Rudolph's built works, the later obscure projects (including the architect's experimentation with materials in small residential interiors) hold just as much interest as the more popular projects featured in the glossy architecture magazines of the time.

Mr. Dixon also reviews "Paul Rudolph: Writings on Architecture" which was compiled by Nina Rappaport for the Yale University Press. The book, a piece released to compliment the symposium, allows Rudolph to speak for himself - just as others gather to discuss his public reputation.

The second article to feature Mr. Rudolph is "At Risk: Paul Rudolph's Chorley Elementary School" by Kathleen Randall. Ms. Randall's piece covers the proposed demolition of another school by the architect, coming after the demolition of Riverview High School this past June.

Rudolph's original rendering
In December 2008, the community voted to tear down Chorley Elementary, built originally in 1969, to be replaced by a parking lot for a new larger facility. If that story sounds familiar, its because that's what happened to Rudolph's Riverview High School in Sarasota, Florida.

The original school, a complex of classroom wings that branch off from a center spine, climbs up its sloped site as a repetitive series of single story classrooms covered with shed roofs. Clerestory windows are fixed into the sawtooths, echoing the nearby factories along the Hudson River, allowing natural light to flood the interiors and causing the roofs to appear to float.

the clerestory windows above the cafeteria
(photo: Andrei Harwell)
Maintenance was deferred until the cost to renovate and upgrade the building overcame the cost to build a new school. A referedum was proposed to approve the construction of a new school, but language was added at the last minute unbeknownst to the school board to allow for the demolition of Chorley Elementary.

The Paul Rudolph Foundation has discovered that in the rush to approve plans for the new school, architects and the current school administration downplayed the significance of the building's architect in papers filed with the state. The Foundation is working with organizations such as Docomomo New York/Tri-State and concerned Middletown community members to see that a reuse alternative can be proposed to save the building from demolition.

Preserving Rudolph During the Perfect Storm

2009-08-29T18:13:00.008-04:00

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

2009-08-27T14:25:00.038-04:00

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

2009-08-20T11:00:00.003-04:00

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

2009-08-19T12:12:00.003-04:00

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

2009-08-07T09:00:00.000-04:00

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

2009-08-06T09:00:00.002-04:00

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

2009-08-05T11:00:00.001-04:00

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

2009-08-04T13:50:00.003-04:00

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.

Rock out to Rudolph

2009-07-25T11:04:00.007-04:00

One of the many great design websites out there, Flavorpill offers a daily news on the arts and culture. A recent feed from their Flavorwire was Mixtape which ranks the ten best architecture songs.

Atop the list is an ode to the Boston Behemouth, Rudolph's Government Services Center. They claim Government Center by Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers is

The only anthem to bureaucracy — and the architectural altar at which all lesser bureaucratic buildings worship, Boston’s Government Center— we’re aware of. Richman and Co. confirm that, even with “a lot of great desks and chairs,” the best way to animate a space is with a dance party

We were thinking more along the lines of an all-night charrette in the studio.

You can find it HERE via YouTube.

Plug in, Turn on and Tune out...

Open House New York Fundraiser Photos

2009-07-24T08:00:00.000-04:00

Paul Goldberger with members of OHNY and the Paul Rudolph Foundation
(photo: Sean Hemmerle)
Paul Rudolph's Modulightor building, featuring the last residential space designed by the architect that is open to the public, was the subject of a fundraiser for Open House New York last month.

Guests tour the Rudolph-designed duplex apartment
(photo: Hae-In Kim)
The event, part of the organization's "Private Spaces/Private Access" series to raise money for the upcoming Open House event later in October, featured a discussion about the building by Paul Goldberger, the Architecture Critic for The New York Yorker and recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Distinguished Criticism.

Paul Goldberger speaking to the guests about Paul Rudolph's work
(photo: Sean Hemmerle)
Volunteer members of Open House New York
(photo: Sean Hemmerle)
More Photos of the event can be found here.

Dharmala Neighbors Say "Back At You!"

2009-07-23T12:00:00.001-04:00

Too many Angles?
Since its construction in 1982, Paul Rudolph's Dharmala headquarters located in Jakarta, Indonesia has been considered one of the best examples of "green" architecture in the city. In fact, the government cites this building as an example of how other buildings should be designed in order to conserve the local environment according to an article in the Jakarta Globe.

Exterior Facade
The building, previously known as the Wisma Dharmala Sakti, is now called the Intiland Tower, after the Dharmala Corporation changed its name to PT Dharmala Intiland.

Rendering of the project by Paul Rudolph
As reported in IndonesiaDesign, the building bears the slogan "Health of the Future," a catchphrase that was conceived by Paul Rudolph to represent a building that cares for the physical as well as the mental health of its occupants.

Rudolph's drawing of the open air court at the building base
During the design of the building Rudolph was quoted as saying,

"Traditional Indonesian architecture offers a wide variety of solutions to the problems of a hot and humid climate. The unifying element in this rich diversity is the roof."

The building plan itself is roughly the shape of a square, rotated around itself to create alternating floors of projected balconies and terraces. Not allowed to use exposed concrete by local building codes, the tower is instead completely covered in bright white ceramic tile. The resulting form was so striking that the Dharmala Corporation uses it as a symbol of its company.

A typical floor plan
While the occupants of the Dharmala building celebrate Rudolph's combination of traditional architecture within the design of a modern building, the owners of neighboring buildings do not see themselves as so fortunate. As reported in the Jakarta Post, owners of the Sampoerna Towers facing Wisma Dharmala on the busy Sudirman business strip believe the design of the building is bringing them bad Feng Shui.

A cross section showing the balconies

Rudolph's rendering of a typical balcony

As described on Wikipedia,

The goal of feng shui as practiced today is to situate the human built environment on spots with good qi. The "perfect spot" is a location and an axis in time.

Qi (roughly pronounced as the sound 'chi' in English) is a movable positive or negative life force which plays an essential role in feng shui. A traditional explanation of qi as it relates to feng shui would include the orientation of a structure, its age, and its interaction with the surrounding environment including the local microclimates, the slope of the land, vegetation, and soil quality.

Feng shui makes calculations involving geography, compass points, design and birth to predict where to place certain elements in order to create harmony among the environment, the house, the owner and the living creatures surrounding them.

According to the Jarkata Post article,

In Feng shui, a sharp corner is considered "Shar", which means killer or disharmony. People surrounded by large amounts of Shar are likely to become embroiled in conflicts. Their mental and physical well-being can be affected.

In the case of the Sampoerna Towers, known previously as Danamon towers, the sharp angles of the white high-rise designed by American architect Paul Rudolph, which stands in front of it, is said to be bad for business.

A rumor in the business world says the towers are losing tenants because of the negative energy.

Feng Shui experts are installing 20 round mirrors on the facades and building a garden after having spent nights on the building's roofs to test the flow of energy believed to be emanating from the Rudolph-designed structure.

Pei Cobb Freed, the architect of Sampoerna Towers, is not thought to have considered Feng Shui when designing them. Mr. Pei is considered to be a non-believer of Feng Shui, and his design for Hong Kong's Bank of China caused a neighbor to install a pair of metal rods to deflect negative energy.

Foundation Website Posts New Material

2009-07-22T17:16:00.004-04:00

The Paul Rudolph Foundation's website continue to grow in size!

Foundation volunteers have been busy requesting permission to reproduce and make available online newspaper articles and essays written about Paul Rudolph's work. As we receive them, we add new content to the Written Materials portion under the Archive section of the Foundation's website.

Today we added an article by Tammy Ayer for the News-Press.com about how the Walker Guest House on Sanibel Island was Paul Rudolph's favorite residential project.

In addition, we posted an essay by Cristina Mehrtens, a faculty member in the Department of History at University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth. She wrote the essay as a result of her participation in a symposium held at the university to celebrate its campus’s 40th anniversary entitled "Brutal Identity: Paul Rudolph, the city and the renewal of the modern". It analyzes Paul Rudolph's design for the campus and includes multiple images of the campus's exterior and interiors.

Continue to check out the website as we will be adding more content soon - and are working on a section of the site that will feature individual project materials including images, documents and project histories.

Foundation Welcomes Visit By Nora Leung

2009-07-21T14:23:00.010-04:00

The Bond Centre (now Lippo Centre)
This past Saturday the Paul Rudolph Foundation was visted by Nora Leung, a Hong Kong architect who worked as the project manager for Paul Rudolph on the design on the Lippo Centre - known then as the Bond Centre. Mrs. Leung, who worked closely with Mr. Rudolph from 1983 until his death in 1997, was fascinating in her recollections of what it was like to work with him on various projects in and around Asia.
A rendering of the towers by Paul Rudolph
In addition, Mrs. Leung gave the Foundation permission to reproduce material from her book "Experiencing Bond Centre" which is about the building's design and what it was like for her to work with Paul Rudolph during its construction. We are excited to have her invaluable assistance in putting together the archival materials of not only the Bond Centre, but her knowledge about the other buildings Mr. Rudolph designed during the last two decades of his life.
The base of the building as rendered by Paul Rudolph
The base of the building as constructed
One of the more interesting stories told by Mrs. Leung was of Paul Rudolph's lectures to architects in Taiwan and China. The fact that Mr. Rudolph was given the opportunity to deliver a speech in China was a rare honor during a time when not many Western architects were studied in the country. With her assistance, we are working to assemble records of his travels and lectures.

The Paul Rudolph Foundation is thankful to Mrs. Leung for her offer to add materials to the archives and help "fill-in" missing information regarding the later work. As soon as we are finished - a link to the material will go up on the archives page of the Paul Rudolph Foundation's website - www.paulrudolph.org

Monuments to Metabolism- Architecture on a Binge

2009-07-18T13:37:00.024-04:00

Nicolai Ouroussoff's Future Vision Banished to the Past laments the pending loss of Kisho Kurokawa's Nakagin Capsule Tower. Recognized by its inhabitants as being 'squalid' and 'cramped' they voted to demoish it and start over. While this would be the erasure of a key example of one of the few realized and even fewer extant examples of the Japanese Metablolist stlyle, its preservation would go against the very tenants of the style's own making.

Introduced at the World Design Conference in Tokyo in 1960, by the Japanese Architects Kenzo Tange, Kisho Kurokawa, and Kiyonoru Kikutake, this style was intended to create structures that were

thought of as a tree- a permanent element, with the dwelling units as leaves- temporary elements which fall down and are renewd according to the needs of the moment. The buildings can grow within this structure and die and grow again- but the structure remains

The structure within Kurokawa's tree is not the problem- but the leaves themselves. Outmoded, these machines for living hang on. Contrary to the Metabloist mantra, they were never regenerated. They are all in their autumnal state with no new buds to take their place.

Ideally Toyota or another local company would come along with 'this years model' and allow the movement to realize its intent of guided rebirth. It could even be a yearly design competition in the way that their wildly popular Uniqlo commands hundreds of entries from around the country for its t-shirt designs every year. Had this ocurred periodically throughout its 37 years of existence, Japan would have a lovely ecclectic monument to their technological advances, architectural integrity and megastructure sensibility all in one. It would also provide legitimacy to the
original Metabolist claims.

This vertical "used car lot" could perhaps allow one original unit to remain intact as a testament to the movement- a control unit to measure this scientific, social and techological experiment against. With so many still intact this vision is still possible in ways America has missed out on (of the hundreds of homes built in Levittown, NY as the last published inventory, only TWO remained unaltered from their original states).

As Ouroussoff explains,

In theory, more capsules could be plugged-in or removed whenever needed. The idea was to create a completely flexible system, one that could be adapted to the needs of a fast-paced, constantly changing society. The building became a symbol of Japan's technological ambitions, as well as of the increasingly nomadic existence of the white-collar worker.

But resistence against change, and the impractical nature of replacement modules has left this building static, and unable to achieve the flexibility its creation strove to realize. The author's very acknowledgement that nobody has "stepped up with a viable plan for how to save it" is ironic in that its salvation is in own leprosy and regeneration. It by its very existence was meant to shed its parts to the technological trash heap and be rebuilt. What would ever be expected to remain is the "permanent"- the armature holding the units- a skeleton never recognized as the organizing factor and impractical out of the context of its functional living-pod "ornaments".

The Japanese claiming ownership for Metablosim is akin to the Modernists hijacking their term from future use in the discipline and even Rudolph taking credit for the Sarasota or Regional Style. Forever linking Regionalism to Florida, the style negates its potential for ubiquity based upon design responsive to the climate and context. Similarly the Japanese were not the only ones to pursue Metabolism.

While Rudolph was known to be a Regonalist, a Brutalist, a Late Modernist, or, if like other blogs you read and quote the mis-informed Wikipedia page, he's apparently also a "cubist".

Regardless, the Japanese Metabloist in him is also present. His figuration of the Buffalo Waterfront (image Left), although never fully realized, was a massive expansion of the city into the water, similar to Kenzo Tange's progressive, and aggressive proposal for Tokyo.

Perhaps his most famous Metabolist-like proposals are for the Lower Manhattan Expressway aka LoMEx (image Below) and the Graphic Arts Center (image Left). Both of these proposals were mega-structures which straddled the city beneath. By building structures where buildings weren't suppsed to go i.e. on the grid lines themselves and not within the grid, Rudolph created serpantine armatures to install his prefabricated "20th Century Brick"s of moudlar houses. Growing, aggregating and reorganizing, these proposals were largely D.O.A. but provide a fantastic insight to the further densification of the city, one perhaps future generations will come to realize.

In viewing these one cannot help but recall Kenzo Tange's design studio at Harvard when he brought Metabolism to Massachusetts (image Below).

The similarities are more than coincidence. If Tange's proposal were built, it would have transformed the Harbor and extended the valuable waterfront views to the masses.

If Rudolph's got built, they would perhaps be his most recognizable structures, and the most protected from deomolition as by their very construction, they would call for reorganization and constant change. A preservation via evolution.

Little Known Project Intact - But Not For Long?

2009-07-17T15:11:00.009-04:00

In 1961, Paul Rudolph was hired by the State of Connecticut to design an addition to the juvenile detention center located in Bridgeport Connecticut. Like many other small projects designed by Mr. Rudolph, it was unmentioned in the press that was focused on his Art & Architecture building still under construction.

With Rudolph busy working in the office above his residence a few blocks from Yale's construction site, he continued to design and build structures located throughout the Northeast that were doomed to obscurity once the press discovered his brutalist masterpiece upon its completion in 1963.

Despite being overshadowed, the buildings are no less examples of Rudolph's explorations of space and structure. 1961 included a host of small projects lost over time, reduced to a title on a project list - often without location or construction status. A parking manager's office for the Temple Street garage in New Haven (a model of which was created for an exhibit at Yale); a Fraternity house which currently sits vacant at Auburn University.

These projects represent the part of Rudolph's career during which he was melding the materiality of Yale's A&A with the rigorous spatial and structural geometries left over from his time in Florida. The work treads between the lightness of the Sarasota School and the ruggedness of bush-hammered concrete. The buildings were caught between the two points of his career that would define Rudolph's reputation - and as a result they got lost in the process.

Like all architects, not every work is considered worthy of publication. Rudolph was no different - in his many project lists found in the archives of the Paul Rudolph Foundation, the addition to the Juvenile Detention Center appears on only some of them. If the result was not to his satisfaction (which happened often to Rudolph) he would remove his name from it and strike the project from his curriculum vitae.

The Paul Rudolph Foundation is in the process of surveying and filling in the blanks regarding these projects (in addition to the more celebrated ones). Occasionally we find that buildings were built and Mr. Rudolph decided not to publicize them for one reason or another. In other cases, we find photos or drawings of projects that were never built but discover the reason for their remaining "projects".

The project known only as the "Addition to a Juvenile Detention Home" was in fact built, but in the process of finding more information we learned that its days are numbered.

A new juvenile detention facility was was designed by Jeter Cook Jepson/Ricci Greene Associates and completed by Turner Construction in 2008. The new building is down the road from the original facility, which is located at 790 Fairfield Avenue. According to a story in the local Fairfield Weekly.com the Bridgeport Juvenile Detention Center is,

a facility that has operated as temporary housing for troubled youths from throughout the area for over 50 years. The campus, located on Fairfield Avenue, consists of 10,000 square feet with 28 beds, an all-purpose room and an outdoor activity yard.

The conditions, says Superintendent Kathy Vernon, offer tight quarters for the youths calling this place a temporary home. Vernon says the all-purpose room is where kids eat, attend classes and hang out when not in their cells, which reveals just how outdated the current facility has become. "We need to be in a better facility for our children," she says.

An image of the new facility by Jeter Cook Jepson/Ricci Greene Associates
According to reports, the state had approved funding for a new facility as early as 1990. Now that the new center has been completed, the future of the original building with Rudolph's addition is up in the air.

Exhibit Features Yale's A&A Renovation

2009-07-15T07:00:00.000-04:00

Charles Gwathmey and Robert Siegel of New York's Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects are the subjects of a new exhibition at the Cameron Art Museum in Wilmington, North Carolina.

Museum director Deborah Velders put the show together about the architects - who also designed the museum it is being shown in. According to Velders in an article in the Star News,

"Before I actually even got to this job I went to see Charles Gwathmey," Velders said. "Part of the reason I interviewed here was because (the Cameron) was a Gwathmey Siegel building. It's not that I'm so knowledgeable about architecture, I just knew they were an important architectural firm and it impressed me that the leadership here was serious about having an important art museum, just (by) their choice of architect. So I thought a good show sometime would be an exhibition devoted to their work, because I understood that people here didn't like the building."

After their meeting, Velders said, Gwathmey "walked me to the door and said, 'I'll help you.' And now here we are, four years later."

The resulting exhibit, "Inspiration and Transformation" examines five projects along the architects' careers over the past 40 years. The most recent work featured in the exhibition is Gwathmey's design for Yale's Art & Architecture building (now known as Rudolph Hall):

Featuring a stunning photograph of the building illuminated by a lightbox, the display also includes a series of paintings of squares by Joseph Alpers, an artist who also taught at Yale. (The paintings are owned by Gwathmey and are usually housed in his New York apartment.) A video loop will show the 3-D modeling that was used to design the complex project, which Sprunt (the curator of the exhibit) said might not have been possible without the aid of computers.

For Velders, "Inspiration and Transformation" has "the potential of trying to inform people in this community, and visitors, about the importance of architecture," she said. "Having had the great privilege of working in buildings by significant architects, great buildings I would say, I've seen the difference (in) how you work and live and feel just being in it."

If you want to go see the show:

What: “Gwathmey Siegel: Inspiration and Transformation,” featuring the work of American architectural firm Gwathmey Siegel and Associates Architects

When: Public opening is 7-8 p.m. June 22, and the show will remain on display through January 10, 2010

Where: Cameron Art Museum, 3201 S. 17th St., Wilmington South Carolina
Details: 395-5999 or www.CameronArtMuseum.com. Museum hours are 11 a.m.-2:00 p.m. Tuesday-Friday; 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday-Sunday.

Sarasota Modern Home Tour - 07/25/09

2009-07-13T16:58:00.005-04:00

Martie Lieberman, Sarasota resident and Paul Rudolph Foundation member, is offering a tour of modern homes in Sarasota including the work of Paul Rudolph. According to her email,

You are invited to join a small (fun!) group of architecture enthusiasts from Tampa and Temple Terrace, Florida, for a special tour of "Sarasota School of Architecture" homes and buildings designed by architects Paul Rudolph, Ralph Twitchell, Seibert Architects and more. Our final tour location will include a cocktail party for homeowners, architects and tour-goers. Join us!

If you are interested in going, these are the particulars:

WHAT: Sarasota School of Architecture Tour
DATE: SATURDAY, JULY 25, 2009 - 1:00PM to 5:30 PM
WHERE: HOTEL INDIGO, downtown Sarasota, Florida
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.

If you have questions, contact Martie directly via email at martie.lieberman@gmail.com or call her at (941)724-1118.

Thanks to Martie for the head's up and everything she's doing to keep Sarasota's modern architecture in the spotlight!

New Works Inspired by Paul Rudolph

2009-07-09T10:25:00.014-04:00

The Ivy by Woods Bagot is influenced by Paul Rudolph
As we've mentioned before in the blog (here and here) - Paul Rudolph's name has been coming up frequently when buildings are reviewed in the press. Whether comparing an architecture school in the Southwest to Yale's A&A or an office building in Florida to the Milam residence, Paul Rudolph's iconic architecture has left a lasting impression on many architects to this day.

During his lifetime there were other architects whose work appeared very similar to Mr. Rudolph's. Brutalism was big in the 60's for example - and many architects were inspired by the images of Rudolph's work in architectural publications. The result was buildings around the country that looked like something he would have built, but upon closer inspection usually lack the density that Paul's work displayed.

Rudolph also taught many well known architects - Lord Norman Foster, Robert A.M. Stern, Lord Richard Rogers, Stanley Tigerman, and many more in and around Sarasota. His influence did not necessarily result in buildings that appear like something Mr. Rudolph would have done himself, but his method of design is what continues to this day. When he taught at Yale, Paul Rudolph expressed a desire that the students not turn into miniature versions of himself.

The Ivy by Woods Bagot as seen from the street
Now, a new generation of architects who never studied or were employed by Rudolph have discovered his designs and used them as inspiration for work of their own. The most recent example is the work of Woods Bagot, an Australian architecture firm with offices around the world. As mentioned in an article in the blog Dexigner, the firm's design for the Ivy in Sydney includes references to the work of Paul Rudolph:

Designed by Woods Bagot and interior designers Hecker Phelan Guthrie, Ivy includes 18 bars, nine restaurants and a rooftop pool but the scale of the complex is "deftly understated" according to the awards jury of the Architects Institute of Australia (AIA).

"A reprieve for the public within a predominantly commercial domain, Ivy has been conceived as a house for the people of Sydney which redefines Palm Spring glamour and nostalgia," said Nik Karalis, Principal at Woods Bagot and lead designer on Ivy.

"As green oasis in the city centre, it draws inspiration from the modern houses of California and Florida created by architects such as Paul Rudolph, Richard Neutra and John Lautner."

Another project by Woods Bagot that reminds us of the Milam Residence
Paul Rudolph's work continues to affect a younger generation of architects and designers, over a decade after his death in 1997. Whether directly influenced by a project he designed or through his ideas regarding scale, the need for "caves" and the influence of the automobile in architecture, Paul Rudolph's work is just as timely as it was during his lifetime.

If you know of another project that reminds you of Paul Rudolph's work, please email us at information@paulrudolph.org and we'll include it in a future post.

Paul Rudolph Book Back in Print

2009-07-07T15:20:00.003-04:00

Paul Rudolph: The Florida Houses Book Cover
Princeton Architectural Press has reprinted the book "Paul Rudolph: The Florida Houses" and plans to release it August 16th, 2009. According to their website,

Paul Rudolph, one of the 20th century's most iconoclastic architects, is best known—and most maligned—for his large "brutalist" buildings, like the Yale Art and Architecture Building. So it will surprise many to learn that early in his career he developed a series of houses that represent the unrivaled possibilities of a modest American modernism.

With their distinctive natural landscapes, local architectural precedents, and exploitation of innovative construction materials, the Florida houses, some eighty projects built between 1946 and 1961, brought modern architectural form into a gracious subtropical world of natural abundance. Like the locally inspired desert houses of another modern master, Albert Frey, Rudolph's Florida houses represent a distillation and reinterpretation of traditional architectural ideas developed to a high pitch of stylistic refinement.

Paul Rudolph: The Florida Houses reveals all of Rudolph's early residential work. Along with Rudolph's personal essays and renderings, duotone photographs by Ezra Stoller and Joseph Molitor, and insightful text by Joseph King and Christopher Domin, this compelling new book conveys the lightness, timelessness, strength, materiality, and transcendency of Rudolph's work.

The book, along with the recent renovation and rededication of Paul Rudolph Hall at Yale, is credited with launching a renewed interest in Paul Rudolph's life and work. According to Joe King, he and co-author Christopher Domin have added a new preface detailing the response their book has received and the reexamination of Rudolph's legacy.

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

Princeton Architectural Press
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Borders

Modern House Survey Prompted by Rudolph Loss

2009-07-02T10:42:00.004-04:00

The Micheels Residence before demolition in 2007
David Hay writes in Protecting New Canaan’s Modernism in yesterday's New York Times about an online survey of modern homes in New Canaan, Connecticut. The New Canaan Mid-Century Modern Houses Survey was sponsored by the National Trust for Historic Preservation Northeast Office, the New Canaan Historical Society, the Philip Johnson Glass House, and the Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation. According to their website,

The New Canaan Mid-Century Modern Houses survey was designed to provide a more complete study of Modern residences in New Canaan and serve as a national model for surveys of other mid-century houses in the United States.

According to Christy MacLear, Executive Director of the Philip Johnson Glass House,

"The Survey of New Canaan homes was prompted by the demolition of the Paul Rudolph home in Westport CT in 2007. A part of the Judge’s decision to allow demolition was the “lack of criteria for significance”. That same year we were opening the Philip Johnson Glass House to the public with great fanfare and interest. How could our Modern assets garner such interest but simultaneously be threatened because of a lack of terminology, criteria or documentation?

As Modernism is our newest entrant into the continuum of architectural movements requiring historic preservation, this tear down was a call to action. The National Trust for Historic Preservation, through the Glass House, partnered with the New Canaan Historical Society to leverage an earlier study done by DoCoMoMo’s Northeast chapter to expand/ enhance, publish and put on-line the survey of the remaining 91 modern homes in New Canaan. Across this site you will see our goals, examples and content to create better tools, common vernacular and greater awareness. Our hope is that other communities embarking on a modern survey will connect to these tools and expand this site to showcase the homes and architects of this newest era of preservation."

The home designed by Paul Rudolph that Ms. MacLear refers to is the Dr. Louis Micheels residence in Westport, Connecticut that was demolished in early 2007.

The Paul Rudolph Foundation joined with the Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation in the suit to preserve the home from demolition, when a local developer purchased the property and announced plans to tear down the home and build a new one in its place. The Foundation sent representatives to the hearings and was disappointed when the judge ruled in favor of the new owner, who had convinced Dr. Micheels to take the stand and tell the court he did not believe the house had any historical significance. The loss of the residence, the first "modern" structure the Connecticut Trust had tried to save from demolition, was a wake up call regarding threats to other modern architecture both in the state and elsewhere.

In an effort to increase grassroots awareness about the need to preserve modern american architecture (defined as 1935-1975) the Paul Rudolph Foundation established this blog, as well as a flickr group dedicated to posting images of Paul Rudolph structures from around the world. In addition, the Foundation is surveying remaining Rudolph designed structures to ascertain their current conditions and forecast future preservation efforts. To date, the Foundation has a list of 11 threatened buildings, after the recent loss of Riverview High School in Sarasota, Florida.

If you are interested in helping the Paul Rudolph Foundation promote Paul Rudolph's work, please contact us at information@paulrudolph.org. We are always in need of volunteers and donations (which are tax-deductible) to increase our programs and support our preservation efforts.

Riverview Demolition Continues

2009-07-01T10:06:00.008-04:00

'Parking Lot' by Jason Brockert
Harold Bubil, columnist for the Sarasota's Herald-Tribune, has written another article in this past Saturday's edition about the continuing demolition of Riverview High School. According to Mr. Bubil,

"After stopping a few times in the past two weeks to view the demolition of Riverview High, I must admit that it leaves me oddly unmoved.

A lot of great things happened there in the past 50 years. A lot of work went into making that building, and preventing it from being torn down. Now it is rubble. Whether it is waste remains a matter of debate --and I am over it."

Mr. Bubil's feelings reflect a lot of what we heard during the debate of the building's preservation: that the building had been let fall apart to the point people in the community couldn't see it for the historic structure it had once been - metal roofs covered the skylights designed to bring light into the building's interior, fabric awnings covered parts of the exterior. In its place, the school board prefers a parking lot.

The demolition is expected to be complete by the third week of July - no later the end of the month. The 1958 dedication plaque, once a symbol of the community's pride in the modern glass and steel building, has been put in storage to make way for asphalt delivery trucks.

Mr. Bubil notes none of the architects he has spoken to about the building have gone to see the demolition. According to emails we've received from friends in Sarasota, members of the community who went to show their kids the building before it is gone were turned away by security guards.

"Pits and the Pendulum" in Boston

2009-06-30T07:00:00.001-04:00

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

2009-06-29T10:32:00.002-04:00

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"

2009-06-27T08:00:00.000-04:00

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)

2009-06-26T08:00:00.001-04:00

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

2009-06-25T08:00:00.002-04:00

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

2009-06-24T08:00:00.005-04:00

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

2009-06-22T12:50:00.000-04:00

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

2009-06-18T11:26:00.004-04:00

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

2009-06-12T16:37:00.003-04:00

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.

Benefit to Feature Rudolph Designed Building

2009-05-21T21:38:00.006-04:00

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 eveningâ€™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

2009-05-20T22:09:00.017-04:00

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

2009-05-14T08:30:00.000-04:00

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

2009-05-13T07:00:00.002-04:00

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...