Archinect - News

Michael Kimmelman goes in search of Paul Rudolph’s true legacy at the Met

2024-10-17T18:17:00-04:00

He’s now the subject of a modest but riveting retrospective at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan, organized by Abraham Thomas, called 'Materialized Space: The Architecture of Paul Rudolph,' whose first order of business is obviously to answer a question people outside architecture circles will ask, namely: Who was he?

The exhibition, the Met’s first major show on modern architecture in almost fifty years, opened on September 30th and includes over 80 artifacts from the Kentucky-born Rudolph’s five-decade career. The last day to see this is March 16th, 2025.

Kimmelman says it offers an interesting recount of how the "shining light of the Kennedy era" morphed into league with the originator of his failed Lower Manhattan Expressway plan, Robert Moses, bemoaning "his grand plans and recklessness, his truculence and tragic arc."

Massachusetts changes direction for reuse of Paul Rudolph's brutalist Government Service Center

2024-07-29T12:34:00-04:00

The planned reuse of Paul Rudolph’s oft-reviled Boston Government Service Center has taken on a new direction with a housing-focused proposal from the administration of Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey. The updated plan replaced a previously announced NBBJ overhaul that would have remade both the Erich Lindemann and Charles F. Hurley buildings into an office block with labs for scientific research. Now, with the demand for each shrinking, the state is poised to reroute the redevelopment to match its previous benchmarked demand for over 69,000 new homes by 2030.

The newly released press statement noted: “The site remains architecturally significant due to its unique mid-century design, and the Administration will prioritize historic preservation in the renewed redevelopment process.” A formal RFP for the new plan could come as soon as this year.

NBBJ will lead the redevelopment of Paul Rudolph’s Hurley Building at Boston Government Center

2022-08-31T11:13:00-04:00

NBBJ has been selected by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to lead the redevelopment of Paul Rudolph’s iconic Charles F. Hurley Building at the Boston Government Service Center.

The move was announced last week after years of speculation as to the fate of Rudolph’s endangered Brutalist follow-up to his Yale School of Art & Architecture building from 1963. NBBJ will add two glazed towers to the site directly on top of Rudolph’s Hurley Building, while Beyer Blinder Belle is on tap for the interior renovations of the extant structure.

Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker called it a “transformative redevelopment” that would “add much-needed housing, and boost the Commonwealth’s world-class life sciences sector.”

Image courtesy Leggat McCall Properties/NBBJ

As part of the deal, developers Leggat McCall says the remade site will include some 350,000-square-feet of government offices at no cost. The existing central plaza area will be transformed by the local landscaping firm Mikyoung Ki...

Paul Rudolph-designed First Church in Boston prepares for 50th-anniversary celebrations

2022-04-25T19:20:00-04:00

Dedicated in 1972, plans are underway to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Paul Rudolph’s design for the First Church in Boston. In 1967, a fire destroyed most of the original 1867 gothic revival church by William Ware and Henry Van Brunt. The congregation considered proposals from Marcel Breuer, Joseph Schiffer, Joseph Eldridge, and Paul Rudolph. They voted in favor of Rudolph’s design [...]

In celebration of the anniversary, several events are scheduled at the church building for this weekend, April 30th and May 1st, including an Architects Panel on Sunday from 2–4 pm.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by @docomomous

Paul Rudolph's Edersheim Residence listed as NFT

2021-04-20T14:50:00-04:00

With NFT technology enjoying a sizeable media presence at the moment, it was only a matter of time until noteworthy pieces of architecture would be added to the blockchain: a 9,000-square-foot residence in Larchmont, New York, originally designed in 1958 by local firm Finn and Ginter and expanded multiple times in 1989 and 1991 by famed mid-century modern architect Paul Rudolph, is being advertised as the "world's first masterpiece architecture NFT."

Take a video tour with me in the house! #midcenturymodern #paulrudolph #greenenergy #homerenovation #realestatenews #newyorkhomes see website for more details. https://t.co/EXzTkMRa6v pic.twitter.com/XPtdA5lqma
— 862fenimore (@862fenimore) October 27, 2020

862 Fenimore, also known as the Edersheim Residence, sits on 2.49 acres of land and has recently been restored by architect Michael Grogan with the advice of architects of the Paul Rudolph Foundation. Contemporary sustainability features like geothermal systems and a 100-panel-solar r...

Demolition of Paul Rudolph's Burroughs Wellcome Building underway

2021-01-21T12:48:00-05:00

The dismantling of The Elion-Hitchings Building, near where Cornwallis Road meets the Durham Freeway, has been underway internally for several months. But now the demolition has reached the point where workers are pulling the building apart and hauling away pieces by the truckload. Fans of the building and its architect, Paul Rudolph, had hoped to persuade its owner, United Therapeutics, to save it because of its architectural and historical significance.

Despite repeated calls to preserve and protect the Paul Rudolph-designed Burroughs Wellcome Building in Durham, North Carolina — a change.org petition launched by the Paul Rudolph Heritage Foundation in September has collected over 5,780 signatures so far — the demolition of this significant piece of 1970s Brutalism has been well underway, reports Richard Stradling for The News & Observer.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by PaulRudolphHeritageFoundation (@paulrudolphfoundation)

"The building stood out in the Triangle when it opened in 1972," Stradling writes. "Perched on a small hill overlooking the Durham Freeway, the A-frame structure had terraced floors and angled walls and windows. Some called it innovative and futuristic; others simply found it ugly."

Demolition is expected to be completed by April.

Paul Rudolph's Burroughs Wellcome Building threatened by demolition

2020-09-16T14:28:00-04:00

Out of a half-century career of creative and prolific work, Rudolph’s Burroughs Wellcome headquarters & research center stands out as one of his finest works. We’re now fighting to save this magnificent example of the convergence of corporate & scientific vision and architectural talent—and we thought it would be useful to share an outline of it’s history, purpose, and features.

A petition to save the only Paul Rudolph-designed building in North Carolina, started by the Paul Rudolph Heritage Foundation on change.org, had over 1,700 signatures as of September 16th.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by PaulRudolphHeritageFoundation (@paulrudolphfoundation) on Sep 14, 2020 at 12:16pm PDT

Paul Rudolph Heritage Foundation publishes letter urging "respectful" reuse of Boston Government Service Center

2020-03-14T09:00:00-04:00

In light of the planned redevelopment of the Boston Government Service Center (BGSC), designed by Modernist architect Paul Rudolph in 1962, the Paul Rudolph Heritage Foundation has issued a pointed letter advocating for "the preservation of the Boston Government Service Center, as a part of the larger effort to preserve and interpret Boston’s architectural and urban history."

Previously on Archinect: "Paul Rudolph's Boston Government Service Center is in danger." Image courtesy of Flickr user Gunnar Klack.

In October 2019, Archinect reported that the city of Boston was in the process of identifying a developer who could take on the redevelopment of the site currently occupied by the building. The building features the same "corduroy concrete" finish as Rudolph's widely influential Yale Art & Architecture building, which was completed just as design work on the BGSC was being undertaken.

The letter is published below in full:

03/09/2020

Brona Simon, Executive Director
Massachusetts H...

Paul Rudolph's Walker Guest House in Florida heads to auction

2019-12-04T18:45:00-05:00

The Walker Guest House, completed by Rudolph in 1952, will be part of Sotheby's Important Design auction on December 12, with an estimated value ranging from $700,000 to $1 million. The midcentury structure was previously on the market for a reported $6,795,000, an endeavor that ultimately ended with no sale.

The pavilion-like guesthouse makes use of a square plan, split into four quadrants: one with a living room, another a dining room, a bedroom, and and finally section shared by a kitchen and bathroom. Rudolph incorporated 12 large panels around the perimeter of the structure, three on each of the four sides, allowing the flexibility of privacy and shade coupled with light and a connectedness to the surrounding landscape.

“With all the panels lowered the house is a snug cottage, but when the panels are raised it becomes a large screened pavilion,” Rudolph said about the home. “If you desire to retire from the world you have a cave, but when you feel good there is the joy of an op...

Paul Rudolph's Boston Government Service Center is in danger

2019-10-31T11:32:00-04:00

According to a recent article from The Boston Globe, due to city's "hot" real estate market, which has "prompted a number of developers to tear down and build up," the Governor's office now wants to get in on the action.

On Wednesday, the Baker administration unveiled plans to redevelop the state-owned Charles F. Hurley Building, reports the Globe. The efforts will open up a 3.25 acre site with a deal earning the state tens of millions of dollars, "at a minimum." The administration is moving quickly, hoping to identify a developer within 18 to 24 months after putting the project out to bid. Plans are reported to include a new office complex, new ground floor retail, and possible restaurant spaces.

Paul Rudolph began the design process of the brutalist building in 1962 and construction began in 1966, lasting 5 years. Yesterday, The Paul Rudolph Heritage Foundation posted a call-to-action on its website and twitter feed. In a blog post titled, S.O.S: - Save Rudolph's Boston Governmen...

Paul Rudolph's Milam Residence is back on the market

2019-05-25T10:20:00-04:00

In 1961, early in the architect's career, Paul Rudolph completed the Milam Residence in Ponte Verda Beach, Florida. Fortunately, it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2016, and, according to the Paul Rudolph Heritage Foundation, "the family of Arthur W. Milam, who originally commissioned the building, have been owner-residents since the building was finished, and have cared for it with pride. Now, they are making the building available - and they are hoping that the next owner will be struck by the building’s many beauties and virtues, as well as understanding its importance as a work of truly great Modern architecture."

Milam Residence. Photo by Robert Champion.

Rudolph himself described the Milam residence as “a composition of considerable spatial variety with vertical and horizontal interpenetration of spaces clearly defin[ing] inside and out. Gone are the earlier notions of organization through regular structure with subdivisions of space freely spaced. Spa...

Picasso's tallest unbuilt concrete sculpture will be recreated in VR

2018-03-06T15:41:00-05:00

Envisioned to reach a height of 100 feet, the piece, titled “Bust of a Woman,” was approved to tower over the campus of the University of South Florida (USF), with its single cutout eye gazing blankly at its surroundings. The project — which also involved construction of a new art center — had an estimated cost of $10 million, however, and university officials ended up killing it due to lack of funding. Picasso passed away in 1973, and his angular, hard-edged figure never came to fruition.

Originally designed for a museum in Sweden, Picasso's "Bust of a Woman" was donated to USF in 1971 and would have been the tallest concrete sculpture in the world at that time.

Visualization of Paul Rudolph’s building with Picasso’s sculpture. Image: USF Special Collection Library.

He agreed to donate the project, which would have been located next to Paul Rudolph's brutalist building on campus. Currently, researchers at the school’s Center for Virtualization and Applied Spatial Technologies are working to recreate the 100-foot-tall sculpture in virtual reality.

Computer visualizations of the Art and Visitor Center with “The Bust of a Woman”. Image: K. Oles, CVAST.

The completed VR program will enable users to digitally walk through the 1970's version of USF's campus and experience Picasso's monumental sculpture in context.

Unbuilt highway schemes — and the traces they left behind

2018-01-08T15:00:00-05:00

The postwar passion for highway construction saw cities around the world carved up in the name of progress. But as communities fought back many schemes were abandoned – their half-built traces showing what might have been

An ode to Brutalism

2016-06-21T15:59:00-04:00

Brutalism will never happen again. Our stock of Brutalism is limited, and sadly under constant attack. The demolition and ‘refurbishment’ of great buildings by Rudolph, I M Pei, Denys Lasdun and other giants of the movement should be taken as seriously as would the loss of buildings by Donato Bramante, Christopher Wren or Frank Lloyd Wright. Brutalism deserves far better than the wrecker’s ball: it was the pinnacle of world architecture through all of history.

New movement urges to call Brutalism 'Heroic' instead

2015-11-25T12:17:00-05:00

There’s the legacy of Brutalism being such a negative term. It begins the conversation with negativity about these buildings, and this falls into the misreading of them as harsh, Stalinist, or some other kind of monstrous, mean architecture. The name plays into that mischaracterization that’s grown around a lot of them. I think “Heroic’” is a better title for what their actual aspirations were. The architects had a real sense of optimism. They were developing architecture for the civic realm.

Editor's Picks #422

2015-07-06T13:40:00-04:00

Nicholas Korody interviewed Andrés Jacque (of the Office for Political Innovation ) about COSMO, the winning entry of this year’s MoMA PS1 Young Architect’s Program competition. Therein he argued "I believe that the architect’s role nowadays can also be providing alternatives, and enriching through diversity the collective catalogue of desirable possibilities."

Thayer-D commented "I don't think this qualifies as architecture, but it's very interesting" to which Kozumelle responded "I have seen this in person and it is not architecture in the strictest sense but still a wonderful, fantastic idea. Jaque's ideas are always politically charged and veer into other territories and he does it well."

Plus, for Screen/Print #34 Amelia Taylor-Hochberg featured the latest edition of KTISMA , from the University of Oregon’s School of Architecture and Allied Arts.

News
The Guggenheim Helsinki Design Competition selected Paris-based Moreau Kusunoki Architectes as the grand-prize winners.

midlander likes...

Paul Rudolph's Government Center won't be saved, despite preservationist pleas

2015-06-30T13:04:00-04:00

“We can now get back to doing the public’s business and return a functioning Government Center to Goshen,” the Orange County executive, Steven M. Neuhaus, said in a statement. “It is my hope that this delay will not impact the bid prices.”

As of this past April, the fate of New York's Orange County Government Center, a boxy brutalist designed by Paul Rudolph, was pretty much sealed. Preservationist had previously fought to restore the structure in the face of much-needed updates to the Center, but their proposals were dismissed, and (at least partial) demolition was looking more or less imminent.

Now, another loss has cleared the way for work to begin. A lawsuit filed by local residents, claiming that the building was worth saving for both its architectural significance and the existence of a cheaper, alternate plan for an updated government center that spared Rudolph's building, has been rejected.

Work on the building will begin in early July.

Chart the rocky history of Rudolph's Orange County Government Center below:

Paul Rudolph Heritage Foundations Taps NC Modernist Houses' Masters Gallery

2015-04-01T20:50:00-04:00

The Paul Rudolph Heritage Foundation (PRHF) in New York City has designated North Carolina Modernist Houses’ online archive as the official index for the residential work by the former dean of the Yale School of Architecture who inspired a generation of architects.

As the official archive, North Carolina Modernist Houses (NCMH) will maintain and update the Paul Rudolph section of its archive as houses are sold, changed, or threatened. NCMH has modified the page to add the PRHF logo, link, and connection. The Heritage Foundation is now directing visitors to the NCMH website exclusively for Rudolph-designed houses.

“This is an innovative and groundbreaking partnership between an architecture foundation and our Masters Gallery archives,” said NCMH Executive Director George Smart. “We are honored to be the official site for Paul Rudolph’s residential work, which will allow the PRHF to devote more of its resources towards protecting and saving Rudolph’s non-residential buildings across A...

Orange County legislators fail to save Paul Rudolph's Government Center

2015-03-06T13:59:00-05:00

Yesterday, legislators in Orange County, New York failed to stave off the demolition of Paul Rudolph's Orange County Government Center. In January, county executive Steven M. Neuhaus vetoed a proposal that would entertain outside bids like Manhattan architect Gene Kaufman's, to purchase, restore, and repurpose the structure. Kaufman also proposed designing a new government center next door, with a proposed budget less than that of the county's current plan [...].

Previously:

Michael Kimmelman on why Paul Rudolph's brutalist Orange County building is worth saving

2015-03-04T13:47:00-05:00

Michael Kimmelman’s column this week, about the debate over plans to demolish a midcentury Paul Rudolph building in Goshen, N.Y., makes the case for why it should be saved. It is only one example of his taking up a cause. As The Times’s architecture critic, he has not been shy about advocacy. Here, he describes why he’s been outspoken in supporting this building, which doesn’t have the profile of other fights he has taken up.

UPDATE: Orange County legislators fail to save Paul Rudolph's Government Center

Previously:

Future of Paul Rudolph's brutalist Orange County building still uncertain

2015-01-28T18:12:00-05:00

But Steven M. Neuhaus, Orange County executive, seems determined to pursue the teardown plan. [...] He recently vetoed a proposal that would have allowed the county to sell the center to Mr. Kaufman. County legislators meet on Feb. 5. [...] But many people who spoke at a public hearing last month in Goshen endorsed Mr. Kaufman’s proposal. It would save the center, potentially save the county a fortune, bring in tourist dollars and even put the Rudolph building on the tax rolls.

Previously:

Paul Rudolph's brutalist Orange County gem to be repurposed as "arts hub"

2014-12-09T15:25:00-05:00

According to a press release issued last week by Gwathmey Siegel Kaufman & Associates, principal Gene Kaufman has submitted a proposal to buy the Orange County Government Center (Goshen, NY), which has been closed since 2011 due to storm damage. Designed in 1967 by Paul Rudolph, the building is slated to become an "arts hub" in Kaufman's hands, similar to projects he is already developing in Brooklyn, NY – described in the same press release as "combination artists' lofts-gallery-retail spaces".

Previously:

Rethinking a Spurned Landmark

2014-07-07T13:23:00-04:00

As an architect, Gene Kaufman doesn’t typically save buildings; he designs them. But when he heard of plans to change Paul Rudolph’s celebrated but shuttered government building in Goshen, N.Y., as part of a renovation plan, he decided to step in. “To lose a building like this would be a tragedy,” said Mr. Kaufman, a partner at Gwathmey Siegel Kaufman Architects in New York City.

Previously:

Plan to Raze Five Paul Rudolph Buildings in Buffalo

2013-10-30T10:55:00-04:00

The Buffalo Planning Board will be reviewing plans to construct 48 apartments in eight new buildings next week. The complex at 270 Niagara Street sits in the shadow of City Hall. It currently contains 472 units on 9.5 acres and was completed in 1972.

On Nov 6, 2013 in Buffalo the City Planning Board will meet to review plans submitted by Norstar Development that will demolish five buildings of the Paul Rudolph-designed Shoreline Apartments to make room for eight new residential buildings. The is being described as "Phase 1," and the details of the later phases have not yet been made public.

The Shoreline Apartments project was designed by Paul Rudolph and completed in 1974. It was featured in the September 1972 edition of Architectural Record.

Paul Rudolph's Orange County Government Center to be saved

2013-02-13T17:38:00-05:00

The long, rancorous debate over the fate of the Orange County Government Center ended abruptly Wednesday, as a group of Republican lawmakers sided with Democrats to pass a proposal to renovate the 43-year-old complex.

Paul Rudolph’s Brutalism, reworked, at UMass Dartmouth

2012-11-26T17:28:00-05:00

Designed in the late 1960s by one of the most inventive architects in American history, Paul Rudolph, the campus is a powerful, muscular pile of raw concrete. It’s an example of an architectural style that’s known, for better or worse, as Brutalism. Now one of the major chunks of UMass Dartmouth is being transformed. That’s the Claire T. Carney Library, which is being renovated and enlarged — redesigned, really, in many ways — by a talented Boston architecture firm that calls itself designLAB.

Orange County Votes to Keep Brutalist Building

2012-05-04T11:54:00-04:00

Elected officials in Goshen, N.Y., voted Thursday against a resolution to demolish and replace the Orange County Government Center, a late-1960s building in the small Hudson Valley town that sparked debate on the value of modern architecture. "I am deeply disappointed by the outcome of today's vote," Mr. Diana said in a written statement.

Manhattan Memorious

2012-04-10T11:28:00-04:00

Before a city becomes a thing of steel, concrete, and glass it is a theater of visions in conflict. As a city ages, the visions do not die but come up against the physical and ideological resistance of the place and its people. This is an account of a Manhattan that could have been – might have been. A phantasmagorical Manhattan where the visionary meets the everyday. The island as we know it is but a pale reflection of a city designed by visionaries – a city of mad, incongruous utopias.

The film (created for Hong Kong & Shenzhen Bi-City Biennale) visualizes several unrealized projects for Manhattan, including Buckminster Fuller’s dome over Midtown, Rem Koolhaas’ City of the Captive Globe, RUR’s East River Corridor, Paul Rudolph’s Eastside Redevelopment Corridor, Morphosis’ West Side Yard and others.