Comments on the Art and Architecture Building by Paul Rudolph at Yale University, New Haven - October 04, 1963

INTRODUCTION

The below text is a letter written by Sibyl Moholy-Nagy dated October 04, 1963. The Building was dedicated a month later on November 09, 1963.

[Note: in transcribing this text, we have retained most of the grammar, spelling, capitalization, and construction.]

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Comments on the Art and Architecture Building by Paul Rudolph at Yale University, New Haven

It is a rare delight to experience architecture as art and architecture as function in harmony with each other. The sculptural quality of Paul Rudolph's new building enhances the cityscape with light and shadow articulation on a multi-surfaced exterior, with a skyline as distinct as the profile of a strong personality, and with kaleidoscopic vistas from interior levels, establishing contact between the street and the school.

Functionally, this is a new place of learning, far removed from the academic boxcar. Architecture education is conceived as a continuous process In which each stage participates in the difficulties and accomplishments of all others. The open balconies, surrounding the central drafting and exhibition space on the ground floor, will be as noisely alive as a building site, with concepts and solutions hoisted like structural parts from level to level. If architecture first of all is a cooperative, interacting profession, then Rudolph's school provides a thoughtfully designed initiation.

Sibyl Moholy-Nagy
Professor of Architecture

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