Paul Marvin Rudolph was an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
architectAn architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
and the dean of the
Yale School of ArchitectureThe Yale School of Architecture is one of the constituent professional schools of Yale University. It is generally considered to be one of the most prestigious architecture schools in the world.- History :...
for six years, known for use of concrete and highly complex floor plans. His most famous work is the Yale Art and Architecture Building (A&A Building), a spatially complex Brutalist concrete structure.
Education
Rudolph earned his bachelors's degree in architecture at
Auburn UniversityAuburn University is a public university located in Auburn, Alabama, United States. With more than 25,000 students and 1,200 faculty members, it is one of the largest universities in the state. Auburn was chartered on February 7, 1856, as the East Alabama Male College, a private liberal arts...
(then known as Alabama Polytechnic Institute) in 1940 and then moved on to the
Harvard Graduate School of DesignThe Harvard Graduate School of Design is a graduate school at Harvard University offering degrees in Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Urban Planning and Design.-History:...
to study with
Bauhaus', commonly known simply as Bauhaus, was a school in Germany that combined crafts and the fine arts, and was famous for the approach to design that it publicized and taught. It operated from 1919 to 1933. At that time the German term stood for "School of Building".The Bauhaus school was founded by...
founder
Walter GropiusWalter Adolph Georg Gropius was a German architect and founder of the Bauhaus School who, along with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier, is widely regarded as one of the pioneering masters of modern architecture....
. After three years, he left to serve in the
NavyThe United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
for another three years, returning to Harvard to receive his master's in 1947.
Work
He moved to
SarasotaSarasota is a city located in Sarasota County on the southwestern coast of the U.S. state of Florida. It is south of the Tampa Bay Area and north of Fort Myers...
,
FloridaFlorida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
and partnered with Ralph Twitchell for four years until he started his own practice in 1951. Rudolph's Sarasota time is now part of the period labeled
Sarasota ModernThe Sarasota School of Architecture, sometimes called "Sarasota Modern," is a regional style of post-war architecture that emerged on Florida's Central West Coast...
in his career.
Notable for its appearance in the 1958 book,
Masters of Modern Architecture, the W. R. Healy House, built in 1950, was a one-story Sarasota house built on posts. The
roofA roof is the covering on the uppermost part of a building. A roof protects the building and its contents from the effects of weather. Structures that require roofs range from a letter box to a cathedral or stadium, dwellings being the most numerous....
was concave, in order to allow rainwater to drain off. In addition, Rudolph used jalousie windows, which enabled the characteristic breezes to and from
Sarasota BaySarasota Bay is an estuary located off the west coast of Florida in the United States.The bay and its surrounding area appeared on the earliest maps of the area, being named Zarazote on one dating from the early 18th century...
to flow into the house. Adaptation to the subtropical
climateClimate encompasses the statistics of temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind, rainfall, atmospheric particle count and other meteorological elemental measurements in a given region over long periods...
was central to his designs and Rudolph is considered one of the major architects in what is labeled the
Sarasota School of ArchitectureThe Sarasota School of Architecture, sometimes called "Sarasota Modern," is a regional style of post-war architecture that emerged on Florida's Central West Coast...
.
Other Sarasota
landmarkThis is a list of landmarks around the world.Landmarks may be split into two categories - natural phenomena and man-made features, like buildings, bridges, statues, public squares and so forth...
s by Rudolph include the Sarasota County
Riverview High SchoolRiverview High School is a four-year comprehensive public high school in Sarasota, Florida, United States. Riverview educates students from ninth grade to twelfth grade. The school has 2,654 students and 161 teachers...
, built in 1957 as his first large scale project. There was a great deal of controversy in Sarasota, where many members of the community appealed for the retention of the
historicHistoric preservation is an endeavor that seeks to preserve, conserve and protect buildings, objects, landscapes or other artifacts of historical significance...
building after the decision reached in 2006 by the county school board to demolish the structure. As
Charles GwathmeyCharles Gwathmey was an American architect. He was a principal at Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects, as well as one of the five architects identified as The New York Five in 1969...
, the architect overseeing renovation of Art and Architecture Building at
YaleRapidMiner, formerly YALE , is an environment for machine learning, data mining, text mining, predictive analytics, and business analytics. It is used for research, education, training, rapid prototyping, application development, and industrial applications...
, says:
In June 2009, it was demolished.
Paul Rudolph's Florida houses attracted attention in the architectural community and he started receiving commissions for larger works such as the Jewett Art Center at Wellesley College. He took over the helm of the
Yale School of ArchitectureThe Yale School of Architecture is one of the constituent professional schools of Yale University. It is generally considered to be one of the most prestigious architecture schools in the world.- History :...
as its dean in 1958, shortly after designing the Yale Art and Architecture Building. That building often is considered his masterpiece. He stayed on at Yale for six years until he returned to private practice. He designed the Temple Street Parking Garage, also in New Haven, in 1962.
One of his most iconic houses, the Milam Residence, also dates from the early 1960s. It still stands today on Florida's eastern coast, outside Jacksonville. Instead of modular construction, Rudolph used concrete blocks to construct this many-leveled house for the Milam family. This house's iconic seaside facade of stacked rectangles exemplifies the sculptural nature of Rudolph's work during this period.
Whilst Dean of Yale Architecture School Rudolph taught Muzharul Islam, Norman Foster and
Richard RogersRichard George Rogers, Baron Rogers of Riverside CH Kt FRIBA FCSD is a British architect noted for his modernist and functionalist designs....
, all attending the Masters course as scholarship students. Foster in particular has noted the significant influence that Rudolph had upon him. It is also clear that Rudolph's drawing and handwriting styles had a strong effect upon Foster, and his handwriting is near identical to Rudolph's. Rudolph was invited to
BangladeshBangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
by Muzharul Islam and designed
Bangladesh Agricultural UniversityBangladesh Agricultural University or BAU was established as the only university of its kind in Bangladesh in 1961. The scheme for the establishment of BAU was finalized on 8 June 1961 and its ordinance was promulgated on 18 August 1961...
.
In
1958The year 1958 in architecture involved some significant events.-Buildings:* The Atomium is opened in Brussels, designed by André Waterkeyn.* Center of New Industries and Technologies, completed at La Défense in Paris, by engineer Jean Prouvé....
, Rudolph was commissioned to create a master plan for
Tuskegee InstituteTuskegee University is a private, historically black university located in Tuskegee, Alabama, United States. It is a member school of the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund...
in
Tuskegee, AlabamaTuskegee is a city in Macon County, Alabama, United States. At the 2000 census the population was 11,846 and is designated a Micropolitan Statistical Area. Tuskegee has been an important site in various stages of African American history....
. He also collaborated with graduates of Tuskegee's architecture school on the design of a new chapel building, completed in
1969The year 1969 in architecture involved some significant events.-Buildings and structures:* January 8: At the Smithsonian, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden building is begun, with ground-breaking by U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson, Chief Justice Earl Warren, and the Secretary S...
.
He later designed the
Government Service CenterThe Government Service Center is an unfinished, controversial, and neglected brutalist structure by architect Paul Rudolph. It is one of the major buildings in the Government Center complex in downtown Boston, Massachusetts, at Cambridge, Staniford and New Chardon Streets.- Function :The building...
in Boston,
First Church in BostonFirst Church in Boston is a Unitarian Universalist Church founded in 1630 by John Winthrop's original Puritan settlement in Boston, Massachusetts. The current building is on 66 Marlborough Street in Boston.-History:...
, the main campus of
University of Massachusetts DartmouthThe University of Massachusetts Dartmouth is one of five campuses and operating subdivisions of the University of Massachusetts . It is located in North Dartmouth, Massachusetts, United States, in the center of the South Coast region, between the cities of New Bedford to the east and Fall River...
(originally known as Southeastern Massachusetts Technological Institute, and later as the Southeastern Massachusetts University), the Dana Arts Center at
Colgate UniversityColgate University is a private liberal arts college in Hamilton, New York, USA. The school was founded in 1819 as a Baptist seminary and later became non-denominational. It is named for the Colgate family who greatly contributed to the university's endowment in the 19th century.Colgate has 52...
, and the Burroughs Wellcome headquarters in North Carolina.
While the Brutalist style fell out of favor in the U.S. during the 1970s, Rudolph's work evolved, and became in demand in other countries. Rudolph designed reflective glass office towers in this period, such as the
City Center TowersThe City Center Towers Complex is a complex located in Fort Worth, Texas that comprises two towers. The complex was designed by noted architect Paul Rudolph.-D. R. Horton Tower:...
in Fort Worth, which departed from his concrete works. Rudolph continued working on projects in
SingaporeSingapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
, where he designed
The ConcourseThe Concourse is a post-modern high-rise commercial and residential building on Beach Road in Kallang, Singapore.-History:The Concourse is located in Singapore's "Golden Mile", which refers to the strip of land between Nicoll Highway and Beach Road. It was planned by the Singapore Government as a...
office tower with its ribbon windows and interweaving floors, as well as projects in other
AsiaAsia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
n countries through the last years of his life. His work, the
Lippo CentreThe Lippo Centre is a pair of twin office towers in Hong Kong, previously known as the Bond Center . The buildings are located at 89 Queensway, in Admiralty on Hong Kong Island. They were taken over by the Lippo Group after the collapse of the Bond Corporation...
, completed in 1987, is a landmark in the area near
Admiralty StationAdmiralty station is an MTR station located on Hong Kong Island, in an area often referred to as Admiralty. The station's livery is dodger blue...
of
MTRMass Transit Railway is the rapid transit railway system in Hong Kong. Originally opened in 1979, the system now includes 211.6 km of rail with 155 stations, including 86 railway stations and 69 light rail stops...
in
Hong KongHong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
, and a culmination of Rudolph's ideas in reflective glass. In
IndonesiaIndonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
Rudolph pieces of art can be found in
JakartaJakarta is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Officially known as the Special Capital Territory of Jakarta, it is located on the northwest coast of Java, has an area of , and a population of 9,580,000. Jakarta is the country's economic, cultural and political centre...
, Wisma Dharmala Sakti, and in
SurabayaSurabaya is Indonesia's second-largest city with a population of over 2.7 million , and the capital of the province of East Java...
, Wisma Dharmala Sakti 2.
Paul Rudolph donated his archive , spanning his entire career, to the Library of Congress, as well as all intellectual property rights to the American people. His bequest also helped to establish the Center for Architecture, Design, and Engineering at the Library of Congress.
Death
Rudolph died in 1997 at the age of seventy-eight in
New YorkNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
from
peritoneal mesotheliomaPeritoneal mesothelioma is the name given to the cancer that attacks the lining of the abdomen. This type of cancer affects the lining that protects the contents of the abdomen and which also provides a lubricating fluid to enable the organs to move and work properly.The peritoneum is made of two...
, a cancer that almost always originates from exposure to
asbestosAsbestos is a set of six naturally occurring silicate minerals used commercially for their desirable physical properties. They all have in common their eponymous, asbestiform habit: long, thin fibrous crystals...
.
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