 accepted that each building should fit in with the existing urban pattern, and that before starting to design it was important to understand the civic contribution a site made to the established city environment. He considered that a town was an evolving and mixed collection of buildings each with its own function and purpose, linked by pedestrian and vehicular routes that had already created their own meaningful spaces and human experiences, and he believed that these could not be significantly altered. An understanding, therefore, of the existing hierarchies, already predetermined by the existing buildings, by the character and scale of the varying public spaces and by the role each site and building played within the townscape, were to him the essence of civic design: ‘All these complementary activities make up the whole city, which is therefore greater than simply the sum of its parts.’ (9)
Here was an important extension of his design ideas, that the character of a modern building should take its neighborhood into consideration; it should be sympathetic to or purposely contrast with its surroundings. It should not ignore its environment. Clearly it is possible to achieve harmony with its adjacent buildings, even those of a different style, if there is a similarity of scale, proportion, materials and particularly of heights and aesthetic characteristics.
These were the contextual principles which Rudolph adopted in his design for the Mary Cooper Jewett Arts Center at Wellesley College. A building that soared above its neighbors for no good architectural reason would of course dominate them and could destroy the continuity of the campus or, in another context, damage the established character of the streetscape. There is therefore little aesthetic advantage in disrupting these important urban relationships unless it is to give emphasis to a focal building. The unity of a project set properly in its context was recognized as being an important design factor in these major projects.
Paul Rudolph achieved a sense of unity in his work by several important design means. A major, all-pervasive design idea invariably permeated the buildings in his schemes. In addition, he usually developed a design system that was the visual language exclusive to each scheme, in which he used as few materials as possible.
Sometimes the main concept or grand idea around which the scheme was designed was a central internal space to which all other spaces related; in other solutions a courtyard, a footpath or throughway was the guiding principle; sometimes a tower or a cluster of interrelated buildings provided the overriding concept. More modest ideas were support players to the main theme. Rudolph was amused when approached by a large corporate client who wanted to create an impressive image for the company and who said his sole requirement was for Rudolph to produce a masterpiece! With such an objective in mind the design response was often to produce a heroic interpretation of modern architecture on a grand scale, of which the Burroughs Wellcome Headquarters, North Carolina, was an impressive example.
It was important that this main concept was lucid and clearly expressed in the architecture of the project. The Guggenheim Museum in New York by Frank Lloyd Wright was cited as a good illustration of this principle, grand but simple in conception with its spiral ramp around the large central space.
The unity of a scheme was also achieved by using a repetitive system designed exclusively for each project. This system consisted of repetitive shapes, constantly using the same structural details or external fenestration and the persistent employment of similar elements throughout the scheme with identical components. These features were then repeated, rather like the similar traits and physical characteristics which are visible in different members of one family and unify that family in the eyes of others. There were subtle variations on these themes, but this visual system was created as the language of the design. It was not, however, a new ide