Welcome to the Archives of The Paul Rudolph Institute for Modern Architecture. The purpose of this online collection is to function as a tool for scholars, students, architects, preservationists, journalists and other interested parties. The archive consists of photographs, slides, articles and publications from Rudolph’s lifetime; physical drawings and models; personal photos and memorabilia; and contemporary photographs and articles.
Some of the materials are in the public domain, some are offered under Creative Commons, and some are owned by others, including the Paul Rudolph Estate. Please speak with a representative of The Paul Rudolph Institute for Modern Architecture before using any drawings or photos in the Archives. In all cases, the researcher shall determine how to appropriately publish or otherwise distribute the materials found in this collection, while maintaining appropriate protection of the applicable intellectual property rights.
In his will, Paul Rudolph gave his Architectural Archives (including drawings, plans, renderings, blueprints, models and other materials prepared in connection with his professional practice of architecture) to the Library of Congress Trust Fund following his death in 1997. A Stipulation of Settlement, signed on June 6, 2001 between the Paul Rudolph Estate and the Library of Congress Trust Fund, resulted in the transfer of those items to the Library of Congress among the Architectural Archives, that the Library of Congress determined suitable for its collections. The intellectual property rights of items transferred to the Library of Congress are in the public domain. The usage of the Paul M. Rudolph Archive at the Library of Congress and any intellectual property rights are governed by the Library of Congress Rights and Permissions.
However, the Library of Congress has not received the entirety of the Paul Rudolph architectural works, and therefore ownership and intellectual property rights of any materials that were not selected by the Library of Congress may not be in the public domain and may belong to the Paul Rudolph Estate.
LOCATION
Address: 3336 Banneker Drive NE
City: Washington
State: District of Columbia
Zip Code: 20018
Nation: United States
STATUS
Type: Housing
Status: Project
TECHNICAL DATA
Date(s): 1966-1968
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PROFESSIONAL TEAM
Client: District of Columbia Redevelopment Land Agency
Architect: Paul Rudolph
Associate Architect:
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SUPPLIERS
Contractor:
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Fort Lincoln Housing
The project is to design public housing in an area of Washington D.C. known as Fort Lincoln. Fort Lincoln was one of a series of forts surrounding Washington during the Civil War.
The site consists of 330 acres in an underused, industrial area in northeast Washington that is bounded by the District line, Bladensburg Road and South Dakota Avenue.
During the first half of the 20th Century, the site is home to a federal prison for young men, called “the National Training School for Boys.”
Early in the 1960s, the Justice Department decided that the prison will be moved to Morgantown, West Virginia. A debate begins about what to do with the site. Some want a park. Some want to build a new Government Printing Office. Some want to turn Fort Lincoln into the campus for the D.C. Community College.
An open letter to President Lyndon B. Johnson, printed in The Washington Post on Feb. 7, 1965, suggests a model "new town in town" to test the ideas of his Great Society and to show the world that the United States can overcome urban blight and integrate well-planned communities racially and economically.
Illustrated with a visionary sketch by architect Arthur Cotton Moore, the letter urges that the new town be both a showcase and a laboratory.
On Aug. 30, 1967, the president announces plans “to move at once to develop a new community within the Washington city limits.” Bigger than Georgetown and comprehensively planned for a full range of educational, recreation, shopping and other services for 25,000 people of different incomes, the development is to be "the best of communities." It is also meant to inspire similar efforts in other cities.
President Johnson, wanting to show that effective action is possible, approves of the plan because the new town at Fort Lincoln will require no special legislation and can be done under the District’s urban renewal authority. The site, already owned by the federal government, is vacant so no one will be displaced by the project. More importantly, the site is located on the highest hill in Washington and just a few blocks from Capital Hill, which provides immediate visibility.
The White House announces the project on a weekend and virtually every public agency gets involved over a three day planning meeting. The General Services Administration promises federal office buildings for employment of the residents; the Department of Health, Education & Welfare promises services; the Department of the Interior promises new parks.
The project, known as the ‘Fort Lincoln-Habitat Uniment Technology Urban Renewal Project’, is a study for low and moderate income housing being developed by the Redevelopment Land Agency in Washington, D.C.
Each section of approximately 120 dwelling units is to be designed by a different architect and built using different technologies.
In October, 1966 The Department of Housing & Urban Development brings in three of the nation’s best architects to provide preliminary studies of new housing ideas - Paul Rudolph, Moshe Safdie, and Harry Weese.
Edward J. Logue is brought in to head the urban design team and local architects Keyes, Lethbridge and Condon. Logue announces that Fort Lincoln will have to “travel first class” - meaning affluent whites would share schools and parks with lower income people of color if top quality is used throughout the design. Logue decides he will develop Fort Lincoln with a nonprofit corporation having comprehensive powers of the project. He will use this model when he later creates the Urban Development Corporation for the State of New York.
Rudolph’s proposal includes 118 prefabricated apartments of fire-resistant steel construction located on a two acre portion of the overall project site. Every apartment will have its own rooftop terrace or a private courtyard.
Safdie's proposal consists of a series of light-weight concrete hexagons, creating a 4-1/2 story high grouping with covered parking and pedestrian circulation at the center of the building. Engineering refinements, such as lightweight chemically prestressed concrete called "Chem-Stress," are introduced to substantially reduce the thickness and weight of concrete walls and slabs. Safdie concludes that, although a great cost reduction was made over Habitat '67, it was not possible to apply the system within the cost limitations of the program study.
Harry Weese proposes a more conventional kind of prefabricated building, made from factory-produced panels to be fastened together on the site.
The project is scheduled to go out for bid in Spring 1969 and expected to take 18 months to construct.
Washington’s residents take advantage of the government planner's’ commitment to “citizen participation” and a fight develops between rival citizen groups - one led by Kenneth Kennedy and the other by Jesse Jackson.
By 1970, the leading local and federal agencies, the Redevelopment Land Agency and Department of Housing & Urban Design cancel the project and let private developers develop the site.
“Extensions of the housing arch over the green street, giving it shade and animation. The streets are juxtaposed to private courts and terraces for each house, made possible by the flexibility of the ‘Twentieth Century Brick.’ Such schemes would be economically unfeasible with any other building techniques known in the United States.”
DRAWINGS - Design Drawings / Renderings
DRAWINGS - Construction Drawings
DRAWINGS - Shop Drawings
PHOTOS - Project Model
PHOTOS - During Construction
PHOTOS - Completed Project
PHOTOS - Current Conditions
LINKS FOR MORE INFORMATION
Fort Lincoln Urban Renewal Project #1 at the Moshe Safdie Archive at the Canadian Architecture Collection at McGill University
RELATED DOWNLOADS
PROJECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
“Building-Block Houses.” Life, no. 65, Oct. 1968, pp. 98–102.
“Chronological List of Works by Paul Rudolph, 1946-1974.” Architecture and Urbanism, no. 49, Jan. 1975.
Paul Rudolph. Paul Rudolph: Dessins D’Architecture. Office du Livre, 1974.
Paul Rudolph and Sybil Moholy-Nagy. The Architecture of Paul Rudolph. Praeger, 1970.
Tony Monk. The Art and Architecture of Paul Rudolph. John Wiley & Sons Ltd., 1999.
Wolf Von Eckardt. “Holding Down the Fort.” The Washington Post, 26 Jan. 1980.