Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Paul Rud LPH
Paul Rud LPH
Acknowledgments Program
13ll
' \ This booklet and the exhibi- Chicago architectural com- Exhibition Front cover:
tion it accompanies are the munity to learn more about May 6-28, 1987, in the second- Overall perspective of a
corporate office building for
fourth in The Art Institute of his work through this exhibi- floor gallery of the Graham
Wisma Dharmala Sakti .
Chicago's Architecture in tion and his lecture at the Foundation for Advanced Jakarta , Indonesia, 1982
Context series, which is in- Graham Foundation. Studies in the Fine Arts, [no. 29).
tended to highlight aspects We wish to thank Robert 4 West Burton Place, Chicago.
of architecture that Bruegmann, Associate Pro- Graham Foundation hours : Back cover:
Atrium perspective of a
have not received sufficient fessor of Architecture and Monday through Thursday,
corporate office building for
critical attention. The current Art History at University of 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p .m . Wisma Dharmala Sakti ,
exhibition broadens that Illinois at Chicago, for his Jakarta , Indonesia , 1982
focus by concentrating on insightful essay and for work- Lecture [no. 32) .
the current work of New York ing with Paul Rudolph to Paul Rudolph, "The Archi-
© 1987 Graham Foundation
architect Paul Rudolph, who, select the drawings for inclu- tectural Space of Wright,
for Advanced Studies in the
admittedly, has been pro- sion in the exhibition. We Mies, and Le Corbusier," May Fine Arts and The Art Institute
foundly influenced by Chica- also wish to thank Ronald 6, 1987, the Graham Founda- of Chicago. All rights reserved.
go architects Frank Lloyd Chin, for coordinating the tion Auditorium , 8:00 p .m. Printed in the United States
Wright and Ludwig Mies van organization of the exhibition of America.
der Rohe and their French and publication in Rudolph's Previous Architecture in
Designed by
counterpart, Le Corbusier. office; Robert Sharp, Context booklets are availa- Susan Johnson Design ,
Although Rudolph is well- Associate Editor at the Art ble in the Art Institute's Chicago , Ulinois.
known for his important Institute , for editing and Museum Shop:
modernist buildings of the coordinating publication of
Architecture in Context:
1960s and 19.70s, his current this booklet; and Susan
360 North Michigan Avenue
work is comparatively un- Johnson for her design of
known . The purpose of this this publication. Architecture in Context:
exhibition is to redress that The exhibition, booklet, The Avant-Garde in
oversight by presenting a and accompanying lecture Chicago's Suburbs, Paul
selection of drawings, more by Mr. Rudolph were jointly Schweikher and William
than half of which represent sponsored by the Graham Ferguson Deknatel
four of Rudolph 's recent pro- Foundation for Advanced
Architecture in Context:
jects - a mixed-use complex Studies in the Fine Arts and
The Postwar American
and an apartment building, the Architecture Society Fel-
Dream
both in Singapore, a pair of lows and the Department of
office towers in Hong Kong, Architecture at The Art Insti-
and a corporate headquarters tute of Chicago . We wish
in Jakarta. We are extremely especially to acknowledge
grateful to Paul Rudolph for Carter H. Manny, Jr., Director
his enthusiasm and coopera- of the Graham Foundation,
tion in organizing this exhibi- for his continued support of
tion and for enabling the the Architecture in Context
exhibition series and for his
advice and support of the
Rudolph exhibition.
Pauline Saliga
Assistant Curator of
Architecture
The Art Institute of Chicago
Robert Bruegmann
I. Introduction
Paul Marvin Rudolph was born in 1918 in Elkton, Kentucky , the according to a local method using native limestone as a perma-
son of a Methodist minister. After attending a succession of nent formwork for the reinforced concrete.
schools across the South, Rudolph studied architecture between During his early years in practice, Rudolph was in demand as
1935 and 1940 at the Alabama Polytechnique Institute in Auburn, a guest teacher at schools of architecture across the country. This,
Alabama , and then entered the Harvard Graduate School of in turn, led to the most conspicuous event in his early career, his
Design in 1941 to work under Walter Gropius . After a stint in the appointment in 1958 as chairman of the School of Architecture
Navy between 1943 and 1946, he returned to Harvard to finish at Yale University . During his brilliant but controversial chair-
his master's in architecture in 1947. Moving to Sarasota, Florida, manship (1958-65), he brought to the school a flood of new ideas
he practiced in partnership with Ralph Twitchell for four years and many famous designers from around the world . At the same
before starting his own practice in 1951. His early commissions time he produced a series of important commissions. The most
were primarily for houses and guest houses in the southern states prominent single building was the Art and Architecture Building
(fig. 1). While heavily influenced by the International Style at Yale (fig. 2). In that structure Rudolph provided one of the most
architecture he was exposed to at Harvard , Rudolph's houses spectacular monuments of the movement in architecture in the
were marked by a lightness and airiness made possible by his 1960s away from the smooth minimalism that characterized
adventurous use of structure, new building techniques, and a much of the work of the day. Like his colleagues Eero Saarinen
responsiveness to site achieved through the careful organization and Louis Kahn, Rudolph attempted to take the tenets of moder-
of plan and the use of overhangs , sun screens, and louvers. nism and push them further in an attempt to regain richness and
In the mid-1950s Rudolph received three prominent commis- monumentality. In the A & A Building the large number of very
sions for works outside the South. One, for a United States particular and complex spaces was in part a response to elements
Embassy in Amman, Jordan , was not built , but two others - an in the program. In part they also represented an attempt to fuse
office building for Blue Cross-Blue Shield in Boston and the spatial and structural elements derived from Le Corbusier and
Jewett Arts Center for Wellesley College - were constructed. In Frank Lloyd Wright, his favorite architects. The result was a com-
all three cases Rudolph turned to a more complex, heavier, and plex and aggressively monumental , if somewhat forbiddingly
more monumental manner. Like Eero Saarinen, Rudolph was complicated, building that more than held its own on its promi-
among the first American modernist designers who attempted to nent corner site. For many it was the prime symbol of the rejuve-
give their buildings something of the character of the older struc- nation of modern architecture , but for others it represented all of
tures in their immediate context. At Wellesley, for example, the its arrogance and insensitivity.
siting of the building, intended to suggest a quadrangle , and the While he continued to work on single buildings during his
elaboration of vertical elements in the structure and sun screens, years as chairman, Rudolph turned more and more to questions
as well as the spiky silhouettes created by high skylights, were of urbanism . His urban designs were marked by the same strenu-
obviously intended to give the building a feeling akin to the older ous effort to create spatial complexity and visual incident by
Gothic buildings around it. At Amman, his first encounter with elaborating structure and program. For Boston, for example, he
a non-Western site, the building's vaulted canopy was related to designed, for a site across from City Hall, a governmental com-
the Arab tradition of double tents and was to be constructed plex (fig. 3) in which a ring of building extending out to the
sidewalk surrounded an elaborate interior plaza that swirled like
a pinwheel around a highrise tower (still unbuilt) that formed the
center of the composition. No longer a discrete element in the
cityscape, the building became a whole precinct. The furthest
extension of this urban thinking came with two schemes for
Lower Manhattan. In these projects, Rudolph tried to grapple
with the challenge posed by large-scale building pre-fabrication
and the mobile home , an element that , while it loomed larger and
larger on the American landscape, was largely rejected out of
hand by other serious designers as aesthetically unacceptable.
Instead of turning his back on the challenge of the idea of the
mobile home, Rudolph accepted it as a new vernacular incor-
porating all necessary elements of structure and services . He
call ed it the "twentieth-century urban brick." In his Graphic Arts
Center project (fig. 4) on the west side of Manhattan he explored
the idea of hanging individual pre-fabricated units in giant fixed
frames . In his Lower Manhattan Expressways project he
envisioned an even larger megastructure that accommodated
transportation and utilities and allowed for considerable growth
and change.
When the heady years of the 1960s came to an end in the eco-
nomic woes and retrenchments of the 1970s, Rudolph's earnest
manner and aggressive style came to look anachronistic, and the
magazines turned to the ironic, anti-heroic manner of Robert
Venturi and Charles Moore . Rudolph, however, continued to
uphold the modernist commitment to rational problem-solving
and reacted strongly against the move to recapture public mean-
ing by reusing literally the forms of historic architecture. Aban-
doning the fireworks of the megastructures , he continued to pro-
duce a steady stream of complex, weighty buildings in the United
States and abroad . Received indifferently for the most part in the
architectural press, projects like the Daiei Building in Nagoya ,
Japan , the William R. Canon Chapel at Emory University, and his
own apartment in New York City gave evidence of a doggedly
persistent quest for an architecture whose richness came not from
applied ornament but from the spatial complexities developed
from structure and the three-dime.nsional elaboration of the
program . .
Fig. 1
Guest house fo r Dr. and Mrs. W. W.
Walker, Sanibel Island , Florida , 1952.
Fig. 2
Secti on perspective of the Art and
Architecture Building, Yale Univer-
sity, New Haven, Connecticut , 1958.
Fig. 3
Isometric perspecti ve of the Boston
Governm ent Service Center, Boston,
Massachusetts, 1962 [no. 12).
Fig. 4
Secti on of th e Graphic Arts Center.
New York . 1967 [no. 15).
III. Four Recent Projects in Southeast Asia
8
Fig. 9 Fig. 11
Perspective of alternative design of an Overall perspective of a corporate
office building. Hong Kong, 1984. office building, Jakarta , 1982 [no. 29).
Fig. 10
Overall perspective of an office build-
ing. Hong Kong, 1984 [no. 36).
11
..;
-
- ,.
10
Fig. 12
Elevation of a corporate office build-
ing, Jakarta, 1982 .
Fig. 13
of a corporate office building,
Jakarta , 1982.
Fig. 14
Ground level floor plan of a corporate
office bui ldi ng, Jakarta, 1982.
Fig. 15
Atrium perspective of a corporate
office building, Jakarta, 1982 (no. 32).
12 13
I .
\
' ..
.
-
14
15
IV. Rudolph and Southeast Asia
How do these four projects deal with their sites and the cultural ous thing on it. .. . Architects and others talk till it comes out
environment of Southeast Asia? At first glance they seem to have of their ears about a national identity from an architectural
little that is specifically Asian in imagery and a great deal that is viewpoint. They see in this building a step in that direction .
recognizably like Rudolph's earlier work in the United States .
But then Rudolph characteristically throws in an immediate
The most immediately conspicuous feature of all of them is the
disclaimer:
complex three-dimensional rotation and interpenetration of ele-
I don 't see it that way; I see it purely as a response to a climate
ments molded out of concrete, a feature that has characterized
and the feeling of an accommodating environment.t
much of Rudolph's work since the 1960s. The Grange Road pro-
ject recalls the stacked units of the Graphic Arts Center, for exam- While he was willing to use the Indonesian examples as a point
ple, while the configuration of the Beach Road project harks back of departure for his own imaginative use of the forms, Rudolph
to the forms of the Boston Government Service Center. obviously rejects the notion that he is obliged to use these or any
It is, however, undeniable that the local conditions played a other elements from this tradition to make them meaningful to
major role. All four projects incorporate substantial areas of local inhabitants. It is in fact apparent that however much the
unenclosed outdoor plaza space, terraces, and balconies - wel- Jakarta building yields to site and to local economic and cultural
come features in warm climates. Three of the four use heavy pro- restraints , it remains in the end very much a personal statement
jecting elements to shade other parts of the complex. Certainly of its designer, a personal exploration of certain ideas about struc-
Rudolph was also constrained by important local economic and ture , space, and light that have obsessed Rudolph from his first
political realities . In an area like Southeast Asia, where manufac- commissions. The Jakarta building, like much of Rudolph's
tured materials are relatively expensive and labor relatively inex- recent work, will probably be criticized by proponents of "con-
pensive, it makes sense to use inexpensive concrete and then to textualism" as just another isolated tower, related neither to its
have workmen shape it into elaborate configurations. The current context, a street lined with slick glass towers, nor to trad-
remarkably strict Singapore building by-laws are another kind of itional architecture. But the Jakarta building will probably be
restraint. Because they are based in part on American laws pro- criticized equally from the opposite standpoint. Rudolph also
mulgated during the heyday of postwar modernism, the Singa- refuses to justify his form from the modernist functional-techni-
pore laws incorporate a number of features that are fast being cal viewpoint. He is not at all interested in anonymous teamwork
abandoned in the United States: for example, the setback require- producing the most efficient and least expensive building possi-
ments that make it all but necessary to create freestanding towers, ble nor in breaking new ground in technology the way Norman
a solution Rudolph considers antithetical to successful Foster's enormously influential Bank of Hong Kong and Shan-
urbanism. Even outside Singapore where the laws are not as ghai does. The Jakarta building is not up-to-the-minute in plan,
stringent, the tradition of modern Western architecture has led structure, or equipment. It uses fairly standard parts and a rela-
Rudolph to design isolated towers along the street. The result, tively low-tech , labor-intensive structure.
regretted by the architect, is that each of these projects is largely In the end, it is this obstinate estrangement from both these cur-
inward looking and self-sufficient, with the tower near the mid- rently ascendant movements that is so compelling. In no build-
dle of the site and making little gesture toward its immediate ings being produced today does the insistence on the preroga-
neighbors . tives of the individual creator play such a major role. Rudolph ,
Although he has, in all four projects, clearly responded to the virtually alone among major American architects , still functions
physical realities of the sites, it is primarily in the Jakarta build- like Ayn Rand's character Howard Roark in Th e Fountainhead:
ing that Rudolph appears to try to engage in any kind of dialogue solitary, seemingly unmindful of public acclaim or condemna-
with the vernacular tradition of the place. At first glance the tion , harkening to the voice within. Whether judged successful
approach seems almost contradictory. Although Rudolph incor- or not, these four projects in Southeast Asia undoubtedly con-
porates forms derived from Indonesian village architecture, it stitute one of the boldest attempts seen anywhere in the world
could well be argued that , reinterpreted in concrete and used on today to maintain the spirit of modernism without sacrificing the
an air-conditioned highrise, these forms have little to do with possibility for the untrammeled personal expression of architec-
their prototypes. Furthermore, although Rudolph did see some tural art.
local village architecture, he would be the first to admit that he
had neither the time nor the interest to make a thorough study of
the subject. tlnterview conducted by the author with Paul Rudolph in 1986; transcription ava il-
What was the intention? When he speaks of the Jakarta build- able in the Ryerson and Burnham Libraries of The Art Institute of Chicago.
ing, Rudolph obviously relishes the response it has gotten:
This building in Jakarta is being received extremely well
because people instinctively understand that it has to do with
their climate, etc. I don 't mean just architects and engineers.
Their equivalent of Time magazine, for instance , ran a marvel-
Checklist of the Exhibition
All dimensions are in centi- 12. Isometric perspective (with 22. Section perspective of 33. Night perspective of The
meters , width preceding height. tower removed) of the Health, a residential-office-shopping Bond Centre, an office building
All drawings are lent by Paul Education, and Welfare Building complex for Hong Fok Centre, in Hong Kong, 1984.
Rudolph , Architect. for the Boston Government Singapore, 1979. Prismacolor on print, 137 x 76 cm.
Service Center (final scheme), Ink on vellum, 106.5 x 127 cm.
1. Interior perspective of a guest 34. Interior perspective of the
Boston, Massachusetts, 1962.
house for Mr. and Mrs . Healy, 23. Section of a residential- lobby of The Bond Centre, Hong
Ink on vellum, 152.5 x 172.5 cm.
Siesta Key, Florida , 1948. office-shopping complex for Kong, 1984.
Ink on vellum, 56 x 43 cm. 13. Aerial perspective of a new Hong Fok Centre, Singapore, Ink on vellum, 106.5 x 132 cm.
campus for Southeastern Mas- 1979.
2. Exterior perspective of a resi- 35. South entry perspective at
sachusetts Technological Insti- Ink on vellum, 124.5 x 106.5 cm.
dence for Mr. and Mrs. Eugene grade of The Bond Centre, Hong
tute, North Dartmouth, 1963.
Knott , Yankeetown, Florida, 1952. 24 . Elevation perspective of a Kong, 1984.
Ink on vellum, 139.5 x 91 .5 cm.
Mylar print, 140 x 79 cm. proposed office at Beach Road/ Ink on vellum , 106.5 x 173 cm.
14. Perspective of a design for a Nicoll Highway, Singapore, 1980.
3. Exterior perspective of a resi- 36. Overall perspective of The
New City Hall, Syracuse, New Ink on vellum, 165 x 106.5 cm.
dence for Mr. and Mrs. David Bond Centre, Hong Kong, 1984.
York, 1964.
Cohen, Siesta Key, Florida, 1952. 25. Frontal perspective of The Prismacolor on print, 157.5 x
Ink on vellum, 152.5 x 89 cm.
Ink on vellum, 76 x 46 cm. Colonnade, Grange Road Con- 84cm.
15 . Section of the Graphic Arts dominium, Singapore, 1980.
4 . Exterior perspective of a guest
Center plus apartment units Ink on vellum, 91.5 x 132 cm .
cottage for Mi. and Mrs. Ingram
utilizing mobile house tech-
Hook, Siesta Key, Florida , 1954. 26. Overall perspective of The
niques , New York, 1967.
Ink on vellum, 76 x 48 cm. Colonnade, Grange Road Con-
Ink on vellum, 162.5 x 89 cm.
dominium, Singapore, 1980.
5. Front elevation of the Art
16. Section perspective for Ford Ink on vellum, 61 x 94 cm.
and Architecture Building,
Foundation Grant to study the
Yale University, New Haven, 27. Section perspective of The
Lower Manhattan expressway in
Connecticut, 1958. Colonnade , Grange Road Con-
the project "New Forms of the
Mylar print, 76 x 94 cm. dominium, Singapore, 1980.
Evolving City," 1967.
Ink on vellum, 91.5 x 165 cm.
6. Perspective of upper stud ios Mylar print , 122 x 96 .5 cm.
in the Art and Architecture 28 . Elevation of a corporate
17. Section perspective of cor-
Building, Yale University, New office building for Wisma
porate headquarters , research
Haven, Connecticut, 1958. Dharmala Sakti , Jakarta, Indo-
and other related facilities for
Mylar print, 91.5 x 68 .5 cm. nesia, 1982.
Burroughs Wellcome & Co.
Print on paper, 86.5 x 127 cm.
7. Aerial perspective of the (U.S.A.), Inc., Research Triangle
Art and Architecture Building, Park, North Carolina, 1969. 29. Overall perspective of a
Yale University, New Haven, Ink on vellum, 183 x 91.5 cm. corporate office building for
Connecticut, 1958. Wisma Dharmala Sakti, Jakarta,
18. Perspective of the cafeteria
Ink on vellum, 61 x 76 cm. Indonesia, 1982.
for the South Building expan-
Print on paper, 89 x 107 cm.
8. Exterior perspective of a park- sion, Burroughs Wellcome & Co.
ing garage for 1500 automobiles (U.S.A.) , Inc., Research Triangle 30. Entry perspective of a
for the City of New Haven, Park, North Carolina , 1982. corporate office building for
Connecticut, 1959. Mylar print, 134.5 x 73.5 cm. Wisma Dharmala Sakti , Jakarta,
Ink on vellum, 152.5 x 73 .5 cm. Indonesia, 1982.
19. Aerial perspective of a resi-
Ink on vellum, 89 x 68 .5 cm .
9. Interior perspective of the dential-office-shopping complex
Interdenominational Chapel, including a plaza for Hong Fok 31. Courtyard perspective of
Tuskegee Institute, Alabama, 1960. Centre, Singapore, 1979. a corporate office building for
Print on paper, 127 x 160 cm. Ink on vellum, 132 x 104 cm. Wisma Dharmala Sakti , Jakarta,
Indonesia, 1982 .
10. Exterior perspective ofa resi- 20. Atrium perspective #1 of
Ink on vellum, 79 x 61 cm.
dence for Mr. and Mrs. Arthur a residential-office-shopping
Milam, Jacksonville, Florida, 1960. complex for Hong Fok Centre , 32 . Atrium perspective of a
Mylar print, 61 x 71 cm. Singapore, 1979. corporate office building for
Ink on vellum , 81x104 cm. Wisma Dharmala Sakti , Jakarta,
11 . Section perspective of the
Indonesia, 1982.
Christian Science Organization 21. Atrium perspective #2 of
Ink on vellum, 132 x 99 cm.
Building, University of Illinois, a residential -office-shopping
Urbana, 1962. complex for Hong Fok Centre,
Ink on vellum, 137 x 71 cm. Singapore, 1979.
Ink on vellum, 91.5 x 101.5 cm.