Paul Rudolph: The Florida Houses

by Christopher Domin, Joseph King, Ezra Stoller (Photographer)

Paul Rudolph, one of the 20th century's most iconoclastic architects, is best know--and most maligned--for his large "brutalist" buildings, like the Yale Art and Architecture Building. So it will surprise many to learn that early in his career he developed a series of houses that represent the unrivaled possibilities of a modest American modernism.With their distinctive natural landscapes, local architectural precedents, and exploitation of innovative construction materials, the Florida houses, some eighty projects built between 1946 and 1961, brought modern architectural form into a gracious subtropical world of natural abundance. Like the locally inspired desert houses of another modern master, Albert Frey, Rudolph's Florida houses represent a distillation and reinterpretation of traditional architectural ideas developed to a high pitch of stylistic refinement. Paul Rudolph: The Florida Houses reveals all of Rudolph's early residential work. Along with Rudolph's personal essays and renderings, duotone photographs by Ezra Stoller and Joseph Molitor, and insightful text by Joseph King and Christopher Domin, this compelling new book conveys the lightness, timelessness, strength, materiality, and transcendency of Rudolph's work.

Genres: Architecture

248 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2002

Reviews

[Timmytoothless · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great collection of early projects from a giant of American 20th century design with some essays that provide insightful context to Rudolph’s personal history. The photographs and renderings are well presented, but the relative lack of planimetric drawings is the only minor drawback.

[jw468 · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is an excellent overview of Rudolph’s early career and work. Some of the works/projects do need more coverage. It’s frustrating when the authors discuss some feature of a work and then don’t provide the drawings and/or photos that show said feature. The status of each work (standing/destroyed) would have been good information to include.