Paul Rudolph
was one of the leading architects in America in the 1950s and 60s.
Read more about Paul Rudolph.
What in your opinion, are three of some of the greatest works of modern architecture and why?
"I feel the Le Corbusier's Villa Savoie [Poissy, France, 1929] demonstrated the sense of continuity of space, the unfolding space,...
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What is an architect?
"An architect is a man concerned with building meaningfully. As opposed to someone who is interested in building efficiently, or...
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Rudolph on his encounters with Frank Lloyd Wright
"I was a visiting critic at Princeton and for reasons that I don't remember, maybe I never knew, he was...
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On the Potential of Pre-Cast Concrete
"If one were to make a prognostication, again, one would say that the aesthetics of pre-cast reinforced concrete will lead...
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Sir Norman Foster on Paul Rudolph
"Many of these drawings, especially the perspective sections, would encapsulate in a single image the range of Rudolph's concerns as...
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On color in architecture
"Well, I can't say that I'm interested in a particular palette. For me, color is one of the most complex...
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On skyscrapers from an interview primarily about the City Center Towers in Fort Worth, TX.
"I have been influenced by the fact that people perceive the first six stories (or 120 feet) of a high-rise...
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On the Tuskegee Chapel
"When working on the Tuskegee Chapel, I suggested a continuous slot of glass around the perimeter just below the roof,...
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On his firing from SMTI / UMass Dartmouth in 1966
"Yes, I was fired. But in a sense, my influence and efforts did not change that drastically -- not at...
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What is scale?
"The usual definition of scale is the relationship of the human dimension to the environment. We talk about a building...
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On the Oriental Masonic Gardens, New Haven, CT
"In New Haven, in the 60s, I designed some housing using trailers. I had the acquiescence of Mayor Lee, a...
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On Civic Architecture
"And so we come to civic architecture, the grand omission for half a century. In its most simple terms civic...
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Definition of Urbanism
In many of his public comments on architecture, Paul Rudolph referred to "urbanism" as one of the guiding principles in...
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On Dharmala Sakti Building, Jakarta, Indonesia, 1982-1988
"I always see the site. Of course I went there. I did an interesting thing, at their suggestion, as a...
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On the Student Architect
"Architectural educations' first concern is to perpetuate a climate where the student is acutely and perceptively and incessantly aware of...
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On Regionalism in Architecture
"We must search for the innate possibilities of a given site or climate and the regional characteristics of vernacular building....
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On the Bond Centre (now Lippo Centre), Hong Kong
"Hong Kong is an entirely different project. It is interesting in that it's being built on somebody else's foundations, and,...
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More on Urbanism
"We must develop some kind of consistent theory for relating one building to another and to the environment. The Ecole...
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On the Revere Development, Sarasota, Florida
"Much worthy effort has been spent in finding better relationships between residential areas of all varieties and the town as...
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Charles Gwathmey on his renovation and addition to the Art and Architecture Building, Yale University
"It was very complimentary for me to have been asked to do this because I loved Paul and because of...
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The Life of the Buildings
"My buildings are like children. And when the Art and Architecture Building at Yale was burned, I felt that somebody...
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On why he maintained a small practice
"Architecture is a personal effort, and the fewer people coming between you and your work the better. This keeps some...
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On Acquiring Commissions
"I've never known any project that didn't come about circuitously, whether foreign or domestic." Rudolph, Paul Marvin, 1918-1997. "Interview with...
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From the new book, “Writings on Architecture” speech accepting the Brunner Prize in 1958.
"As an architect, most of my efforts are absorbed in being an administrator, committee man, business man, and consultant—and, by...
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On the Psychology of Space
"People, if they think about architecture at all, usually think in terms of the materials. While that's important, it's not...
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On SMTI / UMass Dartmouth
"SMU is a new commuter campus on a very large piece of land well removed from other structures. Its design...
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On the Wallace Residence, Athens, AL
"Years ago I designed a house in Alabama based on Greek Revival architecture of the South. I was brought up...
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On the Government Service Center, Boston, MA
The generating ideas of most traditional cities are pedestrian and vehicular circulation, streets, squares, terminuses, with their space clearly defined...
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On the Theater in the Creative Arts Center, Colgate University
"The Colgate Theater has some of the features of an Elizabethan theater: four side stages (two levels on each side)...
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On one of his earliest memories of architecture
"Paul Rudolph was about six. Like Frank Lloyd Wright's, his father was a preacher- Southern Methodist, and forever on the...
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“What, then, are the criteria that you would use in teaching?”
"You go back to age-old principles. I think there are definite and definable theories on how to relate volume to...
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Philip Johnson on Paul Rudolph
"Rudolph and I never could keep up the same quality of conversation because Rudolph is an artist. That really, I...
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Architecture of the Possible
"Mies was wonderful when he was asked how he went about designing the Seagram Building [1957-1958]. He said he read...
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How Drawings Work
"I try to find a graphic means of indicating what's happening to the space. Space can move quickly or slowly....
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They said it
"Less is more." Mies van der Rohe; "Much ado about next to nothing" Frank Lloyd Wright; "Almost nothing is too...
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Bangladesh (Formerly East Pakistan) Agricultural University
"It was during that time [mid 1960s] that Rudolph was offered a job doing the East Pakistan Agricultural University in...
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SMTI / UMass Dartmouth
"From my viewpoint the idea of the campus is that the spines are there and that they might be fleshed...
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Theory of Architectural Space
"We need desperately to relearn the art of disposing of buildings to create different kinds of space: the quiet, enclosed,...
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The Architect must be uniquely prejudiced.
"The Architect must be uniquely prejudiced. If his work is to ring with conviction, he will be completely committed to...
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On Gropius as a teacher
"Gropius's greatest contribution was to introduce you to the International Style of the 1920s and 1930s and then to release...
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On the Blue Cross Building
"We've made an effort to make the mechanical system into something more meaningful than just keeping you hot or keeping...
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On New York City, 1959
"We need sequences of space which arouse one's curiosity, give a sense of anticipation, which beckon and impel us to...
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The Means to an End
"One becomes conscious that there are many ways to organize a building; that structure is not an end, nor a...
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“It’s Christmas Eve”
"I remember one Christmas Eve and he was going to visit his sister in Atlanta. We're still there. It's Christmas...
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On the Stafford Harbor, Virginia Resort Project
"You very seldom work on an entire town, and this is the first time I've ever done it. The magnitude...
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Sarasota School of Architecture
"Paul was the catalyst. Where else could a young guy like me have lunch with people like Philip Johnson, Henry-Russell...
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On the Hook Guest House, Siesta Key, Sarasota, FL
"The first use, as far as I know, of bent plywood to span architectural space. The engineering involved was accomplished...
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On Tracey Towers, Bronx, NY
"In Tracey Towers, the exterior walls are not curved for structural reasons at all, but because the site plan and...
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On his early career
"When I first started, I made guest houses because no one would trust me with the main house." Cook, John...
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On Sarasota High School
"The second Sarasota High School was a move from clear form, from clear structure, from lineal structural elements defining space,...
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On SMTI / UMass Dartmouth
"The central organization of this campus is purposely a moving, or dynamic, one. That's the very nature of what is...
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The Cart Before the Horse
"Everybody, in my view, puts the cart before the horse. It is identifying the problem first which is the job...
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On the Burroughs Wellcome Building
"This complex climbs up and down a beautiful ridge in the green hills of North Carolina and is architecturally an...
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Keeping a Clear Head
"I realize that infatuation is the most dangerous thing in the world. That sometimes you fixate on something and you...
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Government Service Center, Boston, MA
"I wanted to hollow out a concavity at the bottom of Beacon Hill, a spiraling space like a conch in...
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What is most satisfying
"On the other hand, you asked me what is most satisfying, for me personally, of my work. I have to...
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On the Deane Residence, Great Neck, NY
"a series of unfolding modules" "The steps broaden as you go down, like widening ripples on the water's surface." The...
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On teaching architecture
"There are certain things that are teachable, and there are many things that are not teachable. For instance, you could...
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Reaction to Architecture
"Everyone in his own way is affected by his environment. The chords that are struck in people are not necessarily...
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Reflecting on the Art and Architecture Building, Yale University.
"I've never worked on a building that affected me as much as that one does. I'd like to think that,...
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From “Paul Rudolph: Lower Manhattan Expressway”
"One characteristic of the twentieth century is that nothing is ever completed, nothing is ever fixed. We don't think of...
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