 and his outstanding reputation suddenly declined. After a decade of prolific activity producing numerous and outstandingly important projects for eminent clients and of being one of America’s brightest young architects, it was difficult to understand why such a dramatic deterioration should have taken place. Rudolph himself jested that he was at one stage an up-and-coming architect with great potential and then quickly found himself as a supposed has-been who was out of fashion, and that he never therefore enjoyed the pleasure of actually having arrived.
There were probably three main reasons for Rudolph’s fall from favor. There was a sea change in the 1970s which saw the focus of architectural design switch to a new trend of Postmodernism which was radically different from Rudolph’s minimalist philosophy. This movement produced a whole new breed of designers who applied classical principles, ornamentation and symbolism to their projects. This was fundamentally abhorrent to Rudolph whose design instincts prevented him from accepting such a superficial approach to architecture and who therefore ignored and rejected this new style of design.
At the same time there was a universal and adverse reaction to the use of natural concrete as a finish to buildings both externally and internally. Not only was it an expensive surface to construct correctly without unsightly blemishes but it was also considered to be impersonal and unfriendly as an internal surface treatment. It quickly became drab and aesthetically unattractive. Even though Rudolph went to he would naturally prefer to use. This application was intellectually justified because it was a modern considerable lengths to develop specially textured finishes to deal with weathering and to cast interesting details in it, it was still considered to be too stridently robust even for public buildings and therefore quite unsuitable for use in housing schemes. Rudolph was of course identified as a leading exponent in the use of this type of material. The alienation of concrete was therefore an implicit rejection of Rudolph. The dramatic fire in the Art and Architecture Building at Yale in 1969 was never linked to arson; the fire officer’s report denies that to have been the cause. Nevertheless rumors persist that it might have been the ultimate act of criticism by architectural students. Folklore continues and the impressive building was damned by association.
The third serious difficulty that Rudolph encountered was the inherent technical problems associated with the use of concrete and flat roofs, of water penetration, of concrete decay, of cold bridging and heat loss through the external skin. The whole building industry has experienced these construction difficulties as a result of using concrete, but again Rudolph was known for designing his projects exclusively in this material. High-rise, heavy- density housing were dogged by these technical defects, and so Rudolph’s residential tower blocks were particularly vulnerable to such problems. Crawford Manor in New Haven is now almost entirely coated with black bitumen in a drastic attempt to alleviate the problems of water penetration through the fabric of the apartment buildings.
This accumulation of difficulties and criticisms irreparably damaged Rudolph’s reputation and his morale and left him isolated from the mainstream of American designers; it took over a decade before the quality of his projects and consistent Late-Modernist work was properly recognized. During this period of estrangement he did flirt with glass curtain-wall design and produced two twin towers, first at Fort Worth, Texas and then in the Bond Centre, Hong Kong. In both of these schemes he lacked his normal design confidence and had difficulty in reconciling his strongly asserted convictions. He was unable to express his spatial ideals or his contextual principles, but most notable was the absence of the normal sculptural qualities found in his facades. surprisingly, found that his design work was still in demand. Several contractor developers commissione