 design drawings as an artistic accomplishment in addition to the purpose of creating a building. Rudolph has been categorized by historians as a Late Modernist because he refined his Harvard training under Walter Gropius. He was initially influenced by Le Corbusier’s sculptural approach to architecture as indeed was Richard Meyer, who shares some similar design ideals. Rudolph’s visual eye for good proportions and high-quality detailing considered that Le Corbusier’s building could be more refined and did not always sit well on the site. He was more impressed by Frank Lloyd Wright whom he considered handled the important interior space, use of materials and transition between the building and the ground so much better.
Rudolph was an independent-minded Modernist convinced of his design priorities; an architect who throughout his career saw no reason to revise his fundamental philosophy but did pragmatically broaden his ideas to respond to the realities and opportunities created by his major commissions. He considered that the rules governing small buildings were inherently different from those governing large.
He recognized the importance of two design ingredients he found in architecture and which he grew to revere. These were the internal control of light and space in a memorable manner and the external influence of the surrounding context on a design. Both these aspects were, he appreciated, derived from historic links and were in essence the art of architecture which had developed through the ages, but he also found these features in fine modem buildings as well. In addition to evolving spatial features in his projects, he also developed a better understanding of contextualism. This he preferred to call urbanism, because his major projects were usually in large urban areas and not isolated, unlike many of his earlier houses in Florida. These schemes needed to be related to their surroundings. It was not sufficient, therefore, only to reflect the solids and voids, to express the structural system and articulate the functional activities. Unifying the interior of these buildings with major and minor interactive spaces and adapting the exterior character of the building to fit in with its surroundings were both refinements on Rudolph’s original functional training in the International Style. From then on he recognized the need when designing these large projects to respond to the existing urban environment, to understand the contribution his buildings played in the enhancement of the wider public realm and to establish the hierarchies in civic design. It was necessary to fit in with the historical character of the surrounding and adjacent buildings. He acknowledged that a building is not an ‘island’, and that however self-important a new project is, it still plays its part in the architectural drama of the townscape. Although his buildings were always designed from the inside function, from now on they were also molded by their surroundings.
His first large commission which developed this contextual theme was the Mary Cooper Jewett Arts Center for Wellesley College, Massachusetts, a commission that coincided with Rudolph’s appointment as Dean of Architecture at Yale University. The project required him to design a modern building in character with the neo-Gothic campus and tower and was a scheme that needed to relate to these predetermined historic surroundings. His design solution was neither a pastiche nor a replica, but created instead a modern design using the height, scale and proportions of the structure and particularly the rhythm of the sunscreens and roof lights to echo the neo-Gothic features of the existing college.
This project was an important advance in Rudolph’s work because it acknowledged the role that this new building played in the composition of the campus. It had to be a background building that completed a wing of the open courtyard and helped to enhance the focal element in the complex. The focus of attraction was not the new center itself but obviously remained the tall neo-Gothic tower which ha