en completed, it was then photographically reduced in size and scale and mounted on to card. This produced a pristine drawing free of these original blemishes as well as, of course, creating the impression of a small meticulous drawing with impeccable details. It was important to know at the outset that the drawing would be reduced, and its resultant sizes, because the graphics had to take the ultimate effect into account. The cross-hatching had to be carefully controlled, for instance, and kept spaced out to prevent it closing up and forming a dense black mass as the lines gravitated together at the focal eye point at the very position where it should be thin and light to convey distance. These graphical systems were refined and improved to illustrate the building in the most appropriate manner. The single-point perspective through the main entrance atrium of the futuristic Burroughs Wellcome Headquarters, North Carolina, elegantly expresses this dynamic technique which was then replicated in its actual construction to create these same characteristics in the building itself.
Rudolph had a love of drawing. His industrious output of manual drawings was prodigious – he produced for instance at least eight different fully rendered isometrics of the Art and Architecture Building at Yale, each a work of art in itself. By producing such a detailed study of each scheme he was able at the same time to examine the virtues and weaknesses of each alternative design in a patient search for the most meaningful design solution for a particular project on its particular site. His evolution of the presentational techniques, which enabled him to illustrate and investigate the realities of his buildings, their spaces, texture and character, was developed in parallel with the evolution of his designs. He demonstrates in his art and his architecture the indisputable link between artistic dexterity and creative architectural design talent.
Rudolph refers in the publication of his architectural drawings to the psychological impact of presentation drawings, explaining that it is difficult to represent properly the atmosphere of a building in different climatic conditions, wet and rainy or fine and sunny. He conceded that to draw reality as the human mind sees the building before it is constructed and in use is impossible. ‘I searched for a technique of drawing which would allow my personal vision to be illustrated and arrived at the systems I have used. The renderings are merely a formulation to indicate the general scope of the project, but only the imagination finally determines the character of any building. One can only imagine unbuilt buildings. They can never be truly drawn and so no model or drawing can ever show their ultimate nature.’ (15)
In spite of his reservations about the limitations of two-dimensional drawings or that any form of presentation can ever convey the ultimate nature of a building, Rudolph still achieved a far greater standard of graphic communication through his presentation techniques than any other modern architect. His ability to illustrate immaculately and to evolve his dynamic designs in parallel enabled him to study properly the sculptural reality of his schemes, the technical details and the spaces created in his architecture which have all combined to make him both an outstanding modern architect and a graphic artist of unique distinction.
RE-EVALUATION AND CONCLUSION
There is a renewed recognition and interest in the architectural importance of Paul Rudolph’s work as a Late-Modernist. As he progressed his convictions matured into a belief that architecture was functional, spatial sculpture. He never moved far from his original conviction that the internal function generated the internal and external appearance, but he also believed that the artistic talents of the individual designer created an elegant envelope for these activities with shapes, spaces and structures which were visually satisfying, exciting and indeed dynamic. In this respect he was at one with Frank Lloyd Wright who believed ‘It is not the