Interior stairwell
Paul Rudolph Hall, (formerly Art & Architecture Building), 1963
Paul Rudolph, architect
Yale School of Architecture,
180 York Street
There can be something of grace to imperfection, as in the deliberately flawed work of certain Japanese potters. This is the way to resist the arrogance of the eternal. Natural objects serve as cautionary tales, fragile as they are, their beauty an imposition of our vocabulary. This spiraling Nautilus shell set in concrete like the hoax of a fossil, is a comic meditation on ideal form, paired with a plaster Gothic king. There are chunks of amethyst similarly set on the landing above this one, as unexpected as rhinestones on a queen’s throat. The walls are pocked with hammer blows that mimic the disdain of gunfire. Paul Rudolph made sure that every surface of this building was marred by hand. During its recent restoration, one small section of the cast exterior was found untouched, and left that way. Now that perfect is become a mistake.
Object Lesson #36
Object Lesson #35
Object Lesson #34
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Object Lessons #26 & #27
Object Lesson #25
Stephen,
This reminds me of the old student graffiti that was exposed on the backside of the circular stair tower in the Yale Art Museum a couple of years ago. When they were renovating. It was cool enough that the architects decided to leave it. there was a telephone on the back of the stair tower and the students used to scribble on the walls as they were talking on the phone. I think it was the old architecture studio up there before Rudolph was built.