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“We must search for the innate possibilities of a given site or climate and the regional characteristics of vernacular building. Every city has its own unique scale, proportions and materials. Traditional methods of building quite often are still the most economical; one doesn’t always have to put up a curtain wall.

“Hong Kong is an entirely different project. It is interesting in that it's being built on somebody else's foundations, and, therefore, the planning of Hong Kong is determined by foundations already poured in place. The owners changed because of the relationship with Red China and everybody got scared. They are totally commercial office buildings, unlike Jakarta, and therefore the ground rules are very different. Also there are multiplicities of owners, unlike Dharmala, which is a corporate headquarters. It is like home to them, and, therefore, they take great interest in it.

A recent article by Nicolai Ouroussoff in the New York Times highly praises the recent renovation of the Art And Architecture Building at Yale University, Paul Rudolph's signature work. The article is less impressed with the recently completed addition to the building. The article notes that the A & A will be rededicated as Paul Rudolph Hall in November. Thanks to Christopher Larkosh of the UMass Dartmouth Faculty for the alert.

“We must develop some kind of consistent theory for relating one building to another and to the environment. The Ecole des Beaux Arts did have such a theory. I’m not proposing that we bring it back, but in the nineteenth century when the Ecole des Beaux Arts was in full swing, they did have a comprehensible theory in regard to the relationship of one building to another—as did earlier periods of architecture.

Philip Langdon, writing in the Hartford Courant on September 14, 2008 presented a withering review of Charles Gwathmey's Jeffrey Loria Center for the History of Art. This building is attached to Paul Rudolph's Art and Architecture Building which is soon to be rededicated as Paul Rudolph Hall. See article below.

"Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling" is now available. This large format, hardcover catalog of the exhibit at MoMA has been received here at the Claire T. Carney Library, UMass Dartmouth. Paul Rudolph's Oriental Masonic Gardens project in New Haven, CT is included in the book as well as the exhibition. The exhibit continues through October 20, 2008.

As noted in previous blogs, Yale University has planned a major event to rededicate Paul Rudolph's A & A in his honor. The festivities begin on Friday, November 7, 2008.
Click on the url below for details.

http://www.architecture.yale.edu/drupal/index.php?q=lectures/Fall2008

Tim Rohan will be giving the keynote address on Friday Evening, November 7.