t their own convictions and qualities to the course, have subsequently made significant contributions to modern architecture in their own ensuing careers.
PRACTICE, GROWTH AND COMMERCIALISM
Having consolidated his design ideals and established his international reputation as a Late-Modernist architect, Rudolph then spent the next decade in practice busily implementing numerous important projects. Major commissions came in thick and fast. There was little time or need to review his refined ideas or re-examine the appropriate selection of materials. An impressive list of schemes for large corporate clients and authorities gave him the opportunity to apply the design philosophies which he had developed over the years by designing and then constructing these significant buildings.
These important corporate projects included the Endo Laboratories, the research facilities for IBM, the huge Boston Government Service Center, the Orange County Court Center, the Southeastern Massachusetts Institute of Technology and especially the futuristic Burroughs Wellcome Headquarters as well as high-density apartments at Tracey Towers and the new departure to design the Daiei offices in Nagoya, Japan. All reflected Rudolph’s distinctive and sculptural use of in-situ and precast concrete and, where appropriate, his preference for elegantly proportioned public spaces and repetitive components representing the varying design systems developed aesthetically for each building.
He was also commissioned by the Ford Foundation to produce exploratory proposals to investigate the potential for building a megatropolis with structures over the Lower Manhattan Expressway, having previously prepared similar-sized sketch schemes for the Graphic Arts Center. These were both grandiose concepts for high-rise high density ‘cities in the sky’. Further there was also a steady flow of clients requiring large houses to be designed personally for them. The Green Residence, Bass house and earlier Milam Residence all showed Rudolph’s confident handling of flowing interior spaces and graceful lines, which had matured his work sufficiently for him to be recognized as a natural successor to Frank Lloyd Wright in terms of housing design.
However, within his commercial success and the impressive portfolio of commissions were the seeds of his inherent weakness and ultimate professional demise. All these corporate schemes, including the high-rise apartments at Tracey Towers and the earlier Crawford Manor Housing, were designed and constructed using various forms of concrete, usually in-situ, sometimes precast or blocks. Rudolph, during this period in busy practice used concrete almost automatically for all his major projects, and became universally linked with concrete as it was the material material and gave infinite flexibility to create the dynamic sculptural forms, which were easily translated from Rudolph’s immaculate graphic presentations. When technical problems started to appear in his buildings and they started to suffer from concrete decay and water penetration, as occurred in so much other flat-roofed modern architecture built in concrete around the world, his direct association with this material became prejudicial to his reputation. The aesthetic character of this material was inherently cold and usually inhuman, even if it was disguised by the use of textured finishes and vibrant colors, which Rudolph often so cleverly employed. The use of natural concrete was of course unfriendly in housing and particularly in the high-density apartments, which especially needed to convey and accommodate social understanding and human characteristics. The elegant sculptural features of these residential towers could not address the public aversion to exposed concrete or the technical difficulties associated with its use. These factors all contributed to his demise and his work became unfashionable, over-taken by a wave of Postmodernism especially in America.
DECLINE AND REJUVENATION
The number of Paul Rudolph’s major commissions in America diminished rapidly during the 1970s,