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April 16, 2007
Saving Brutalism - Paul Rudolph building at Yale
Yale is renovating the Paul Rudolph Art and Architecture building (1963). Funny, but the editorial from the Boston Globe manages to ramble on about the thing and never use the words Brutalist or Brutalism. I don't know how much Rudolph embraced the term, but he was certainly part of the movement and this is a key building for illustrating the approach to - um - dealing with the user. Here's the building. Let's just say that this is not a building that inspires much alumni sentimentality - here's an article on the building from the Yale alum magazine. No pictures there. I'm really having trouble turning up any good exterior views to post.
What I found on Flickr - what you see here - is an interior view. Yes, Brutalism is the style that brought you the exposed, battered concrete wall with which we are all now so very familiar.
The Cannon Chapel at Emory (here's a page of pictures - go look, they enlarge!) is an example of how good poured concrete can get - and it's by Paul Rudolph. The ridging, especially in contrast to the interior at Yale, is sensitive - hardly brutal at all.
Posted by CrankyProfessor at April 16, 2007 6:33 AM