nothin New Haven’s Greatest (Architectural) Hits | New Haven Independent

New Haven’s Greatest (Architectural) Hits

Wikimedia Commons

The Temple Street parking garage.

I was recently asked what my favorite New Haven buildings are for a magazine piece. Here are a few of my responses.

The Yale Whale: Ingalls Rink. Why? Eero Saarinen’s sculpture-cum-tent is, in my opinion, one of the best shape-space-use fits ever, anywhere.

Grove Street Cemetery. The Henry Austin masterwork uses Egyptian motifs and the universality of death for an unforgettable image; the gate to eternity. It’s threshold promise, THE DEAD SHALL BE RAISED,” gives living visitors something to think about.

Sterling Library at Yale. This cathedral of knowledge is one of the most uniquely perfect adaptations between two worlds: intellectual elite and religious devotion. It’s James Gamble Rogers at his best – with a near perfect restoration last year adding to the building’s overall wow factor.

Louis Kahn’s British Art Center: a Modernist icon of the highest order, taught as a text book of architecture identities and systems. 

Paul Rudolph’s Temple Street parking garage. There is no better demonstration of a single material’s strength, adaptability and building technology. Fun fact? It’s mostly unappreciated in architect-land because its sculptural qualities are more crafty that fine arts.

Hillhouse Avenue. While not technically a building, its architectural wonder is due to its phenomenal preservation as a series of 19th-century villas along a tree-metered avenue. There are other places like it, but none has gone completely from one — single family houses — to a completely different one — academic and institutional buildings, housing university departments — with virtually zero change in over 1850 years.

There are many others: Kevin Roche and John Dinkeloo’s Knights of Columbus Tower, Rogers’ Harkness Tower, and more. To hear why I included those, click on or download the audio aboveto hear the full WNHH Design Czar” segment.

Sign up for our morning newsletter

Don't want to miss a single Independent article? Sign up for our daily email newsletter! Click here for more info.


Post a Comment

Commenting has closed for this entry

Comments

Avatar for Kevin McCarthy

Avatar for Renewhavener

Avatar for Renewhavener

Avatar for Walt