Burroughs Wellcome: Site of Historic Protest

An historic protest took place at the Burroughs Wellcome building in 1989, over the issue of the cost of the vital AIDS drug, AZT. The protestors barricaded themselves in the building and, after being evicted, the chained protestors were led away by local police. This was posted by one of the ACT UP activists who helped plan and participate the demonstration: Peter Staley (seen at right).

WHY WE cARE ABOUT—AND PRESERVE—BUILDINGS

We can celebrate a work of architecture for many reasons: the place it has in a community’s heart, the quality of its design, the splendid fitness of a building in relation to its setting, the way it exemplifies a designer’s finest work, and the key place it stands in an architect’s oeuvre.

All the above would apply to Paul Rudolph’s Burroughs Wellcome building. Indeed the building has received many accolades from users and architectural critics, and architectural historians—including this assessment from A Field Guide to Landmarks of Modern Architecture in the United States by Miriam F. Stimpson:

“The building is one of its kind in the nation.”

BUILDINGS AND HISTORY

The above image of the arrested protestors shows, in the background, a portion of the Burroughs Wellcome building from which they had just emerged. Here’s the same elevation, as shot by the distinguished architectural photographer G. E. Kidder Smith. Image courtesy of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

But another reason—one that looms large, when deciding for the preservation of a building—is its importance as a site of historic events. Here, Burroughs Wellcome’s research and corporate headquarters building, in North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park, has at least two solidly strong points in its favor:

• Burroughs Wellcome was the site of Nobel Prize-winning work by Gertrude Elion and Walter Hutchings—research that led to the introduction of numerous life-saving medicines—including AZT, the first effective medication for the treatment of HIV.

• In the midst of the AIDS crisis, it was the site of a key protest about AZT. This was not only important for the immediate issue involved (pricing and availablity, and the related accusation of price-gouging monopoly). It was also historic for the way it showed that a giant corporation (a significant player in “Big Pharma”) could get ‘push-back’—and have their policies affected in positive ways.

1989: A DECISIVE MOMENT FOR (AND AT) BURROUGHS WELLCOME

“Silence = Death” poster, designed by the Silence = Death Project, a six-person NYC-based collective. Starting in the late 1980’s, this image was used by (and often identified with) ACT UP, in their fight against AIDS. Image courtesy of Wellcome Images, a website operated by Wellcome Trust, a global charitable foundation based in the United Kingdom

THE PROTAGONISTS: ACT UP

ACT UP (the "AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power”) was first formed in 1987. It is a grassroots political group, organized as local chapters, that has been working to address the AIDS crisis. The group works through direct action, medical research, treatment and advocacy, and working to change legislation and public policies—and their their current official statement asserts:

OUR MISSION:

ACT UP — the AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power — is a diverse, non-partisan group of individuals, united in anger and committed to direct action to end the AIDS crisis. We meet with government officials, we distribute the latest medical information, we protest and demonstrate. We are not silent.

ACT UP was formed in response to social neglect, government negligence and the complacency of the medical establishment during the 1980s. Soon it found itself needing to fight corporate greed, lack of solidarity and various forms of stigma and discrimination at home and abroad.

While ACT UP has an incredible history, HIV/AIDS is not history. HIV/AIDS is very much with us. And we call on you to join our fight to end AIDS.

ACT UP FIGHTS FOR:

Sustained investment in research for new medicines and treatments for HIV/AIDS and related co-infections;

Equitable access to prevention and care for HIV/AIDS and healthcare, in general;

Tackling the structural drivers of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, such as stigma, discrimination and poverty.

ACT UP became famous for their “actions” —well-planned demonstrations and provocative protests, at key locations, which would get the most attention on the issues for which they campaigned. Early in ACT UP’s history, Burroughs Wellcome would become an entity upon which they strongly focused.

The Nobel Prize medal. Awarded to Elion and Hitchings—including for work they did while at the Paul Rudolph-designed Burroughs Wellcome building in North Carolina. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

THE PROTAGONSTS: BURROUGHS WELLCOME

A giant (and innovator) in the pharmaceutical industry, it was founded in London in 1880 by Sir Henry Wellcome (1853-1936) with his colleague Silas Burroughs (1846-1895). Some important aspects of their history include:

• Wellcome set up several research laboratories, and employed some of the most outstanding scientists of the day. 

• They spread the use and selling of medicine in tablet form—previously, medicines had been sold mostly as powders or liquids.

• In the 1920s Burroughs Wellcome established research and manufacturing facilities in Tuckahoe, New York—which served as the US headquarters until the company moved to Research Triangle Park in North Carolina in 1971.

• Nobel Prize-winning scientists Elion and Hitchings worked there and invented drugs still used many years later, including treatments for leukemia, gout, viral infections, and organ transplant rejection.

• In 1984, Burroughs Wellcome scientist Marty St. Clair was at the forefront of developing the first treatment for HIV - AZT, which was approved in 1987 - utilizing the methods pioneered by Elion and Hitchings.

• Burroughs Wellcome introduced a new treatment for cold and flu symptoms, Sudafed, followed by Actifed, both of which became popular consumer brands.

• Glaxo and Wellcome merged in 1995, to form Glaxo Wellcome. Burroughs Wellcome was one of the four large entities that eventually merged to form GlaxoSmithKline.

AZT was the first medication shown to be effective against HIV. Image courtesy of Wikimedia commons

THE ISSUE: AZT PRICING AND AVAILABLITY

We’ll let one of ACT UP’s most well-known activists, Peter Staley, tell what was at issue. In an interview with TIME reporter Maia Szalavitz, she asked him:

Q: You’ve had a complicated relationship with the pharmaceutical industry, and you never shied away from working with them or attacking them. How did you manage not avoid becoming shills who took their money or outsiders who never got heard?
A: The quick answer is Burroughs Wellcome [the company that made AZT, the first AIDS drug]. AZT and Act-Up were born in same month. When they announced the $10,000 [annual] price for the drug, [it] shocked not only us but the New York Times. At the time, it was the highest price of any drug in history.

THE DEMONSTRATION AT BURROUGHS WELLCOME

Screen capture of the web page with the Time article which has an interview with Peter Staley. The image shows Staley being arrested at another ACT UP protest.

Peter Staley continues:

That quickly became one of the planks in Act-Up’s first demonstration. It was a persistent fight against [the company] to lower the price. In 1989, Mark Harrington [a fellow Act-Up member] and I decided to up the pressure on that campaign because [AZT] was in wider and wider use. So we requested a meeting, they granted it, and we met with the father of AZT, Dr. David Barry. He was head of research at Burroughs Wellcome and he was one those guys who is too brilliant for his own good and looked down on everybody. Mark and I went to their headquarters and laid out our case why the price was unjustified and he pushed back very hard.

The whole time I was scoping out their headquarters and figuring out how we can get in. It was down in Research Triangle Park in North Carolina. They ignored us, so we did an invasion of their headquarters a few months later. It was a shot across the bow of their corporate culture. I was very aware of how corporations try to make employees happy to work there; I had been part of the team at JP Morgan. It’s very important to corporations. So I wanted to make everyone at Burroughs Wellcome feel guilty about working there. I think we accomplished it that day.

In an oral history interview, Staley gives further details:

Blaine Mosley, James McGrath, there were about 7 of us, and we even had our own media spokesperson who didn’t go inside, who had a coat and tie on, and we got past security and used high – we were called the power drill team because we had those battery-operated power drills and we sealed ourselves in with screws into this office after convincing a woman to evacuate. And, all over the local news down there, and very sympathetic news coverage. It was a story where the whole country was on our side from the beginning. Everybody was offended by the $10,000 a year.

Or as ACT UP’s chronology described it:

On April 25, 1989, Staley and three other activists barricaded themselves in an office at Burroughs Wellcome in Research Triangle Park, NC, to protest the price of AZT (at the time priced at $8,000-$10,000 per year). The four protesters used power tools to bolt metal plates to the door of an unoccupied office and had planned to drop a banner that would be visible from the nearby highway, Interstate 40, before authorities cut their way through a wall. The protestors then chained themselves together, and were cut apart and charged with trespassing and property damage.

MEDIA COVERAGE AT BURROUGHS WELLCOME

The demonstration was covered, both in-print and videoed—and a key point was offered by a spokesperson for ACT UP:

“We’re not denying that they deserve a profit, but we say it should be a reasonable profit on a drug that people need to stay alive.” —Dan Baker, ACT UP

A film., “The Plague: (History of AIDS)” is an Emmy-nominated documentary by Jenny Barraclough. It includes vintage footage taken at several ACT UP events—and in it (at about 33:53) you can see the four Burroughs Wellcome protestors. They have been arrested and are being led away—with the Burroughs Wellcome building in the background. They are allowed to stop for Peter Staley to make a statement to a reporter.

Coverage of the protest at Burroughs Wellcome included this article in the Dispatch newspaper of Lexington, North Carolina. The four protestors are shown after their arrest, giving a press conference.

THE FOLLOW-UP DEMONSTRATION AT THE NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE

Staley tells what came next:

We started getting inside intelligence from employees telling us [what was going on] — because gays are everywhere — and we said, ‘This is only Round One. Lower the price or we’ll escalate.’ The whole industry was watching and were horrified. It wasn’t until a major study came out showing that AZT not only helped the sickest but those [who were not yet that ill] and the government recommended that more people be put on it and the stock price shot up, that we said, O.K., let’s do a stock exchange action.

And the New York Times editorialized against [Burroughs Wellcome], and there were Congressional hearings. Forty-eight hours after [the demonstration], they buckled and lowered the price by 20%. From then on, the industry said it’s probably smarter to try to talk to [activists] and placate them as much as we can.

In an oral history interview, Staley gives full (and exciting) details of the careful planning of the demonstration—and what actually happened:

Included in ACT UP’s tactics were publicity—as in the form of the above poster—urging boycotting of Burroughs Wellcome products.

It was a story where the whole country was on our side from the beginning. Everybody was offended by the $10,000 a year.

So, it, but it really, and again they ignored us. But it really got full steam going in August of ’88 when the government released new data on AZT showing that it helped people with, not only with full-blown AIDS, but it also looked helpful with people with AIDS-related complex. And, everybody said okay, well the market’s going to expand for this drug. T&D [ACT UP’s Treatment & Data committee] started working in coalition with mainstream AIDS organizations.

In a series of conference calls, and this was with GMHC and Lambda Legal Defense and AIDS Action Council in Washington, and AmFar. And we were all trying to work on multi-pronged ways to pressure them. AIDS Action Council was looking at pushing for congressional hearings with Kennedy, etcetera, and Waxman. In fact there were congressional hearings to bring in the executives of Burroughs Wellcome to explain the $10,000 price. And there was media being generated with New York Times editorials and so it was actually great coalition work. ACT UP was almost took all the credit for the price decrease, but it was actually wonderful diverse coalition work that ACT UP didn’t do a lot of it that time, but that happened, and that was happening. It was actually very cool.

So the company was feeling it from all sides and it was just snowballing. And the Stock Exchange action itself was just kind of the last push. They were under just tremendous public pressure by the time the Stock Exchange action happened. So it was kind of the last push that just pushed them over the edge.

And ACT UP, we actually met with them in coalition with all these groups at a hotel outside their headquarters, ’cause they wouldn’t let me near their headquarters in Raleigh-Durham about two weeks beforehand. And we told their PR people that the Stock Exchange action was going to happen. Not the one inside, but the one outside and that if they wanted us to cancel the action they had between now and then to lower the price and just constant trying to make this happen. And again that meeting was a complete stonewalling - just like the David Berry meeting earlier in the year.

And we had a member of ACT UP who actually worked as a trader on the New York Stock Exchange who was able to tell us how lax the security actually was. And there was this door that you could use to get into the Stock Exchange, one of the, there are various doors you could go through. But one of them is right under the columns that you see of the famous picture of the Stock Exchange. So, it faces Broad Street, where the columns are and right behind those columns is that big floor you see on the news. So, that door is literally, you go into it and then there’s three steps to your left, a little landing and another three steps up and you’re on that floor. It’s that close to the street. And there’s no traffic on that street anymore ’cause a bomb would really do a job on the New York Stock Exchange just from the street. So, and there was just one security guard there with no metal detectors. That’s all there was for the entire Stock Exchange.

So he told us about that door and I started quietly putting together a crew. Many had done the [Burroughs Wellcome] action earlier down in North Carolina. I had Gregg Bordowitz and, I’m trying to remember. We had James McGrath again, much of the same crew that I had before and there were seven of us. Robert Hilferty was one of the photographers, ’cause we needed to record the action without telling the press in advance. So we had to take our own pictures. And, what we did is, we needed to get those white trading badges. So, a couple of weeks beforehand we acted like tourists and we had video cameras. And we stood outside the Stock Exchange, acting like tourists during lunch when many of the traders are standing outside smoking and what have you. And we would zoom down and actually zoomed in on one of these trading badges. And then drew one up based on that design and took it to this kind of pawn shop in Greenwich Village that makes badges and things. And we told, we gave the guy a whole story that we were doing a skit for a holiday party or something like that, and we needed these badges for the skit we were doing. And they’re just these white plastic tags that had those big num-, the traders’ numbers on them with the name of the firm underneath and a black line through the middle – thick plastic rectangular things. They all had photo IDs, but our contact on the floor told us that nobody, everybody kept those in their wallets. Nobody had to show them to get in. It was just kind of a visual look. If you had the white badge, that’s all you needed. So, we had these badges made, very cheaply.

They looked great and we had to do a test run to make sure it worked. So, me and two others from the group – Robert Hilferty and one other, the Tuesday before the action, which was on a Thursday, we went in with the opening bell, the rush before the opening bell. It opens at 9:30 and there are a bunch of traders that stand outside that door smoking their last cigarette. So, at 9:25 we stood around with them in trader drag, with a tie and shirts and our badges, pretending to be traders, and we walked in with them in the rush, to see if that would work. And, the security guard didn’t bat an eye and all of a sudden we were on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

And, I wanted to figure out where we would do the demonstration. So we’re walking around, the bell is ringing, trading is starting, everybody is busy, we actually pull out little pads of paper because that’s what people seem to carry around. (laughs) So, we’re looking like traders, and we discovered this old VIP balcony that wasn’t used anymore, that had a steep little staircase, an old wooden balcony. And it was perfect because it had a big NYSE banner hanging over it, which would be a great backdrop for the photo. And, there was no gate in front of it. It was unused so we didn’t have to push anybody aside, or have anybody wrestle with us once we got up there and I said – this is great, and you guys’ll just stand on the floor we’ll give you, we’ll have two cameras – in case one of the shots doesn’t work, two photographers – high ASA film so that flashes don’t go off, or anything like that. And we’ll chain ourselves up there and do our routine. But then I got stopped on the trading floor. This guy comes up to me, this old guy and says, “hey – you’re new!” And, I’m like, “ah, yeah!” I start to sweat. And, he says, “Bear Stearns.” I said, “yeah, yeah.” ’Cause all of our badges said “Bear Stearns.” We just picked a firm out of a hat. And he said, “that’s weird – 3,865” – my number was 3,000-something. He said, “the highest number on the floor is 1600, there are only 1600 traders here.” (laughs) And I said, “I don’t know. This is the one they gave me.” (laughing) And I’m starting to sweat more and he goes, “well, I guess so, I guess they’re trying a new system, well, welcome.” And he shook my hand and that was it, he walked away, and I was like – holy shit! So we went back to the pawnshop and said – you got to make all new badges. We had like 48 hours before the demo was happening, so.

And we all met at a McDonald’s beforehand that morning on Nassau Street, nervous as all hell. And seven of us, five that would go up to the balcony, two photographers, and, the photographers were supposed to take our picture and get out right away, outside, and hand the cameras over to the runners that would take them up to Associated Press. And, we had, each of us had stuff under our t-shirts. One person had a huge banner that was all folded up. He looked a little fat. I had a gigantic chain wrapped in a fanny belt that we’d chain ourselves to the banister at the top of this thing, so it would take them a while for, to pull us off the balcony. We all had handcuffs in our pockets. We all had little marine foghorns that were ear-piercing and that’s how we would announce our presence. And then we had these, in honor of Abbie Hoffman who was the first and only person to ever organize an action on the Stock Exchange at what was then the visitor’s gallery, which is now walled off because of Abbie Hoffman, with glass. He threw down fake, he threw down dollar bills onto the floor of the Stock Exchange, real dollar bills as a rant against how capitalism was funding the [Vietnam] war. We did something in honor of him, we had fake $100 bills made up that had, on the back of them. . . .

So, we all piled in at 9:25, walking right past security and the five of us walked up the stairs of the balcony and pulled everything, knelt down and pulled everything out from under our shirts and we waited for the bell and chained our, put the chain around the banister all handcuffed ourselves to it, got the whole banner unrolled which said “Sell Wellcome”. And, at 9:29 and 50 seconds we jumped up and put the banner over and all let off the foghorns, you couldn’t hear the opening bell, and it was extraordinary. The place just, for a second, just went dead quiet except for the foghorns as everybody tried to figure out what was happening. And they then started going into a rage as they realized what was happening. And the photographers took their pictures quietly and got out, handed the cameras off, but they saw that the crowd had started getting really, they were beginning to throw wads of paper at us and getting very angry and they were concerned, so they foolishly went back in and they quickly got nabbed. The traders were looking around for conspirators and they got real roughed up, shirt collars were ripped and stuff like that. And these guys were just raging at us, and I used to work with that testosterone and it was, ah, it was really one of the most gratifying moments of my life, ’cause I realized it was done. It was, we had succeeded, we got through security, it was done. The picture was taken, this was a gigantic news story. And they could scream all they wanted but we were going to be on the front page of the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal the next day.

Question: Did their [Burroughs Wellcome’s] share price go down?

A little bit, a little bit. That wasn’t the goal. It was just to really keep this as a major story. And it was, the next day. And three days later they lowered the price by 20 percent. Which was the first, and unfortunately the last time an HIV drug has had its price lowered in the US. But, fortunately we’ve seen very dramatic price declines in the developing world.

But, it became a real, it became a real kind of “don’t cross this line” type thing, so the savings were way beyond just AZT.

And the ACT UP chronology records it this way:

On September 14, 1989, Staley and six other activists staged another demonstration to protest the rising cost of AZT, this time in the New York Stock Exchange. Dressed in suits and carrying fake credentials, they chained themselves to a balcony above the trading floor before unfurling a banner that read "Sell Wellcome", drowned out the opening bell with airhorns, and dropped fake $100 bills. . . . We die while you play business." on the traders below. Within days, Burroughs Wellcome lowered the price of AZT by 20%.

MEDIA COVERAGE AT THE NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE

Shutting down the NYSE is NEWS—and this demonstration was even more widely covered, both in the mainstream and community media.

ACT UP activists, arrested and being led out after a protest at the New York Stock Exchange.

Outweek, published from 1989-to-1991, was a prominent news magazine for the LGBT community. This site makes available a full archive of their entire run of issues—and includes articles on ACT UP protests, like the one at the New York Stock exchange, shown below.

OUTWEEK, a NYC-based newsmagazine serving the LGBT community, gave continuous coverage to all issues relating to the AIDS crisis. That included AIDS-related medical developments, political tumult, effects on behavior and culture—and the the numerous activities and protests (“actions”) by ACT UP, like the one at the New York Stock Exchange. Their article (below) includes photos of the protest, from both inside and outside the NYSE building. The lower-left image shows the banner which the ACT UP protestors secretly brought into the building and unfurled within. Their actions shocked of all the traders, and shut down the exchange.

EFFECTS OF THE BURROUGHS WELLCOME DEMONSTRATIONS

Victor Zonana, in a July 1, 1992 article in the Los Angeles Times, describes additional follow-up effects of these Burroughs Wellcome demonstrations:

In a symbolic rapprochement between AIDS activists and the pharmaceutical industry, Burroughs Wellcome Co. kicked off a fund-raising drive for AIDS research Tuesday by donating $1 million to a campaign originated by the activist organization ACT UP.

The donation, the largest cash gift by a pharmaceutical company to an AIDS research organization, will be administered by the community-based clinical trials program of the American Foundation for AIDS Research. It will result in a nearly 50% increase in AmFAR’s grants for community-based drug research.

The Burroughs gift is the first step in an ACT UP campaign to tap the industry for $5 million in annual contributions to community-based research. . . .

While $1 million may not be a huge sum for Burroughs--the company sold $1.6 billion worth of products, including $182 million of AZT, in the first six months of its current fiscal year--AmFAR officials said the contribution is significant for the hard-pressed AIDS research effort, which is facing cutbacks at the federal level.

AmFAR, which will administer the funds to be generated by the ACT UP initiative, made $2.2 million in grants to its network of community-based trial centers last year, said Paul Corser, the program’s director.

Staley, a former Wall Street bond trader who is on disability leave because of his own HIV infection, was the driving force in bringing ACT UP and Burroughs together. He is a member of AmFAR’s board of directors and called community-based research “an important alternative to our government’s clinical research program.”

“With their donations,” Staley added, “the industry will help build an invaluable network of research sites through which promising AIDS treatments can be tested.”.

ACT UP has contacted 50 companies and asked them to contribute a total of $5 million to the new program by Sept. 1. “We approached Burroughs Wellcome and asked them to respond early to kick off the campaign in a public way,” Staley said.

Although a small faction within ACT UP was against the joint press conference, arguing that Burroughs was using the gift to garner a public relations bonanza, Staley said he had no reservations.

“The federal research effort is not working,” he said. “We’ll take help wherever we can get it. This is a desperate situation.”

But other pharmaceutical companies shouldn’t draw comfort from ACT UP’s truce with Burroughs, he said.

“The activist community continues to have issues with the pharmaceutical industry, and when push comes to shove, we will continue to raise them as we have in the past,” Staley said, adding that the Burroughs gift vindicates activists “who believe we should use many different tools and approaches to achieve our ends.”\

KEEPING HISTORY ALIVE bY SAVING ARCHIVES, DOING RESEARCH—aND PRESEVING HISTORIC BUILDINGS

The protest at the Burroughs Wellcome building was a moment of historic import—for it showed that one of the pharmaceutical world’s most powerful companies could be challenged—and that their actions could be affected.

Burroughs Wellcome, AZT, drug pricing, and the controversy surrounding them, has even been the subject of academic research, as in this paper from Harvard.

How does one keep the memory of such important events alive—and ongoingly accessible for study (and inspiration!) That’s a question which occupies the thoughts of activists, historians, and the stewards of each community’s identity and history. Some of the answers include:

The Burroughs Wellcome building, designed by Paul Rudolph—and site of the historic 1989 protest over the pricing of the AIDS drug, AZT. Image courtesy of Joseph W. Molitor architectural photographs. Located in Columbia University, Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Department of Drawings & Archives

ARCHIVES: From nearly its beginning, some members of ACT UP realized that they were engaged in events (and a life-or-death struggle) of historic importance—and so, from early on, efforts were made to record and archive its actions and development. Collections were made from the tidal wave of paper (leaflets, posters, reports, minutes, newsletters…) that were generated, and much of this material made it into the prime ACT UP archive (now held within the archives division of the New York Public Library.) Later, an extensive program of oral history interviews were conducted.

RESEARCH: The movement has been the subject of much academic research and publishing—even including a focused examination of the actions directed at Burroughs Wellcome—as at least one paper from the Harvard Business School shows.

FILM AND VIDEO: Filmmakers and videographers of all kinds have recorded and synthesized this era. A superb example is David France’s documentary, How To Survive A Plague—which was nominated for an Academy Award.

BUILDING PRESERVATION: Yes, archives, academia, and moving pictures are important—but there’s nothing as real, as vital, as vividly authentic as the actual sites where history happened. Preservation of the actual buildings and landscapes where history was made should be a priority for all those who care about heritage and culture. Burroughs Wellcome is not only distinguished as one of America’s finest examples of Modern architecture, but it is also an historic site where a key moment took place in the life-and-death struggle of AIDS activism. It must be preserved.

And when Peter Staley himself commented on Burroughs Wellcome’s headquarters, he said:

“Loved This Building.”

David France, the film’s director and co-writer, also came out with a book version, which goes into the issues and history of the first decade-and-a-half of the AIDS crisis—and does so in profound depth.

The evolution of ACT UP—as an organization and community fighting AIDS—is shown in the Academy Award-nominated documentary, “How To Survive A Plague.” Directed by author-journalist-filmmaker, David France, the film uses archival footage, news reports, and interviews to capture the struggle to create effective responses to the AIDS crisis—and their interaction with the development and marketing of drugs such as AZT.

YOU CAN HELP SAVE BURROUGHS WELLCOME !

The Burroughs Wellcome building is threated with imminent demolition.

It’s loss would be a disaster—a titanic waste of our nation’s cultural heritage.

When a great building is destroyed, there are no second chances.

NOW— THERE ARE TWO THINGS YOU CAN DO:

• Sign the petition to save Burroughs Wellcome. You can sign it here.

• We’ll send you bulletins about the latest developments. To get them, please join our foundation’s mailing list: you’ll get all the updates, (as well as other Rudolphian news.)—you can sign up at the bottom of this page.

The famous Paul Rudolph-designed lobby of the Burroughs Wellcome building, in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. The protestors would have been through this central space. Image courtesy of Joseph W. Molitor architectural photographs. Located in Columbia University, Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Department of Drawings & Archives

The Burroughs Wellcome Building: Incubator of Nobel Prize-Winning Research— and Cures

The Nobel Prize—the world’s most distinguished form of recognition. Show here is the Nobel medal, awarded to each recipient. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

ULTIMATE ACHIEVEMENT

Can buildings make a difference for the people who live and work in them? The power of design is an article of faith for architects, but the ultimate verification comes from the evidence presented by the users—individuals who actually inhabit their designs. Here’s testimony from one who worked at at Paul Rudolph’s Burroughs Wellcome building:

I spent 32 years with [Burroughs Wellcome]. . . .and helped work on the layout of the labs to fit the 22.5 degree sloping walls of bright orange and blue. At that time, if any space was conceived to bring out the creative, inspirational, thoughts—this was it, in my opinion. I loved working there. We invented and developed more pharmaceutical products in those years. . . .We were “family” but more to the point we were colleagues who were allowed to trust the expertise of each other.

Even more convincing evidence of the positive environment of the building is the work which emerged from Burroughs Wellcome: the scientific research, and the products which were the practical application of that research. When that research saves, ultimately, many millions of lives, there could be no finer acknowledgement of great human and scientific accomplishment—but when the creators of that work is then recognized by the world’s most distinguished judges, one has risen to a level few ever achieve.

That is what happened with the work of Gertrude Elion and George Hitchings. It was for their work over decades (and particularly the work done while they were at the Burroughs Wellcome building in North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park) that they became Nobel Prize laureates in Medicine in 1988.

“Wellcome News” was the journal of the Burroughs Wellcome company. This is the cover of their “Special Nobel Prize Issue” from 1988, showing the prize-winning scientists, Elion and Hitchings (who had done much of their research within the Rudolph-designed building in Research Triangle Park.) A close viewing of the photo will reveal Burroughs Wellcome’s famous unicorn logo on Dr. Elion’s lab coat. Image courtesy of: Wellcome Collection (CC BY 4.0)

THE NOBEL PRIZE

Here are excerpts from the official announcement of Elion’s and Hitchings’ prize:

The Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute has today decided to award the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for 1988 jointly to Sir James W. Black, Gertrude B. Elion and George H. Hitchings.

The discoveries awarded with this year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine concern important principles in drug treatment, principles that have resulted in the development of a series of new drugs.. . .

The discoveries awarded with this year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine concern the development of new drugs which have become essential in the treatment of a number of different disorders, mainly myocardial ischemia (angina pectoris), hypertension, gastroduodenal ulcer, leukemia, gout and infectious diseases. However, the research work carried out by Black, Elion and Hitchings has had a more fundamental significance. While drug development had earlier mainly been built on chemical modification of natural products they introduced a more rational approach based on the understanding of basic biochemical and physiological processes.

. . . .An even more recent application of these ideas is the development of azidothymidine (AZT) which was described in 1985 by other scientists from the same institute, and which is the hitherto best documented drug in the treatment of AIDS. It can be added that trimethoprim-sulfa is used in the treatment of Pneumocystis carinii, a relatively common complication to AIDS.

The official Nobel Prize website features an article on Gertrude Elion, citing her as an example of Women Who Changed Science. It includes numerous images from her life, including her time working at Burroughs Wellcome. This scan from the web page shows Elion and Hitchings, together in front of a 1976 addition to the building,, also designed by Paul Rudolph

Nobel Prize winners, Dr. Gertrude Elion (left) and Dr. George Hitchings (right) worked together for several decades, before being awarded the Nobel Prize in 1988 for their research. Here, they are photographed working in their laboratory, circa 1948. Photograph courtesy of GlaxoSmithKline plc., GSK Heritage Archives, via Wikimedia

The Burroughs Wellcome building was renamed the Elion-Hitchings Building in 1988, honoring Gertrude Elion and George Hitchings. It’s worth speaking of their careers and research—including the era when they were working at the Burroughs Wellcome building in Research Triangle Park.

Nobel Prize winner Dr. Gertrude Elion, photographed in 1983. Image courtesy of GlaxoSmithKline plc., GSK Heritage Archives, via Wikimedia

GERTRUDE ELION

(1918-1999) From 1967 to 1983, Elion was the Head of the Department of Experimental Therapy for Burroughs Wellcome. She officially retired in 1983—but even after her retirement from Burroughs Wellcome, she continued almost full-time work at the lab. She played a significant role in the development of AZT, one of the first drugs used to treat HIV and AIDS.

Rather than relying on trial-and-error, Elion and Hitchings discovered new drugs using rational drug design, which used the differences in biochemistry and metabolism between normal human cells and  pathogens (disease-causing agents such as cancer cells, protozoa, bacteria, and viruses) to design drugs that could kill or inhibit the reproduction of particular pathogens without harming human cells. The drugs they developed are used to treat a variety of maladies, such as leukemia, malaria, lupus, hepatitis, arthritis, gout, and organ transplant rejection.

Elion was Adjunct Professor of Pharmacology and of Experimental Medicine from 1971 to 1983, and Research Professor at Duke University from 1983 to 1999. She was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1990, a member of the Institute of Medicine in 1991, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences also in 1991.

Nobel Prize winner Dr. George Hitchings. Image courtesy of Wellcome Images, a website operated by Wellcome Trust, a global charitable foundation based in the United Kingdom., via Wikimedia

gEORGE HITCHINGS

(1905-1998) In 1942, Hitchings went to work for Wellcome Research Laboratories at in their Tuckahoe laboratory (their US research center, before it was moved to North Carolina). There, he began working with Gertrude Elion in 1944. Drugs Hitchings' team worked on included 2,6-diaminopurine (a compound to treat leukemia) and p-chlorophenoxy-2,4-diaminopyrimidine (a folic acid antagonist). According to his Nobel Prize autobiography,

The line of inquiry we had begun in the 1940s [also] yielded new drug therapies for malaria (pyrimethamine), leukemia (6-mercaptopurine and thioguanine), gout (allopurinol), organ transplantation (azathioprine) and bacterial infections (co-trimoxazole (trimethoprim A)). The new knowledge contributed by our studies pointed the way for investigations that led to major antiviral drugs. . [including for] AIDS (zidovudine).

In 1967 Hitchings became Vice President in Charge of Research of Burroughs-Wellcome. He became Scientist Emeritus in 1976. He also served as Adjunct Professor of Pharmacology and of Experimental Medicine from 1970 to 1985 at Duke University.

The ground breaking ceremony for the Burroughs Wellcome building. Both the architect—Paul Rudolph, at far right)—and one of the firm’s most distinguished scientists—Dr. Hitchings, standing next to him—are participants at the occasion. Credit: Wellcome News, Summer/Fall 1969 Issue. Credit: Wellcome Collection. Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Dr. Hitchings (left) and Dr. Elion (right), 1988, the year they received the Nobel Prize. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia.

YOU CAN HELP SAVE BURROUGHS WELLCOME !

The Burroughs Wellcome building is threated with imminent demolition.

It’s loss would be a disaster—a titanic waste of our nation’s cultural heritage.

When a great building is destroyed, there are no second chances.

NOW— THERE ARE TWO THINGS YOU CAN DO:

• Sign the petition to save Burroughs Wellcome. You can sign it here.

• We’ll send you bulletins about the latest developments. To get them, please join our foundation’s mailing list: you’ll get all the updates, (as well as other Rudolphian news.)—you can sign up at the bottom of this page.

The Burroughs Wellcome building, designed by Paul Rudolph—the site of Nobel Prize-winning, and life-saving research. Image courtesy of Joseph W. Molitor architectural photographs. Located in Columbia University, Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Department of Drawings & Archives

New BOOK On Burroughs Wellcome's Home: Research Triangle Park

An aerial view of the Burroughs Wellcome building, within North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park. Image courtesy of Google Maps.

Brain Magnet is an historical study of Research Triangle Park—of which Burroughs Wellcome is its most architecturally distinguished resident.

North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park (RTP) is one of the most prominent research developments in the country. Founded in 1959, it is the largest research park in the US, with numerous distinguished firms and organizations locating their headquarters and research centers there. It includes facilities for: IBM, Cree, BASF, GlaxoSmithKline, Cisco, Lenovo, Wells Fargo, the National Humanities Center, the EPA, and Underwriters Laboratories

Within Research Triangle Park, some organizations have attempted to construct facilities of architectural merit—and of all of them, it is Paul Rudolph’s BURROUGHS WELLCOME building which stands out.

Newly published, by Columbia University Press, is: Brain Magnet: Research Triangle Park and the Idea of the Idea Economy. It is a fascinating study of the park’s context, origins, development, and flourishing (including the arrival of the Burroughs Wellcome headquarters)—and the area’s evolution and prospects.

The author is Alex Sayf Cummings, an associate professor and director of graduate studies in the History Department at Georgia State University. A prolific scholar and author, she has conducted research into a great variety of areas—as shown in her numerous publications and commentaries. She describes herself as “. . . .an historian of law, technology, labor, public policy, and American cities.”

We first encountered Dr. Cummings’ work in a post she wrote for Tropics of Meta—a history blog (where she is senior editor) that “aims to offer a fresh perspective on history, current events, popular culture, and issues in the academic world.” In that post, she reported on a tour 2016 tour of the Burroughs Wellcome building, commenting on its design and condition, and showing photos from the visit (you can see the full article here.) From that post, “Into the Spaceship: A Visit to the Old Burroughs Wellcome Building,” we learned that she was conducting in-depth research on Research Triangle Park—work which has happily resulted in her new book.

Dr. Cummings describes some of her intentions in writing Brain Magnet:

Brain Magnet: Research Triangle Park and the Idea of the Idea Economy is about the way Americans came to think and speak differently about the economy in the late twentieth century. It uses North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park (RTP)—an ambitious development project launched in 1959 that rapidly became the largest research park in the United States—to consider how the very concept of an economy dedicated to the production of ideas and information emerged since the 1950s. Local boosters talked incessantly of creativity and creative workers, of cultivating a “stimulating” intellectual climate around the universities of Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill, in a bid to convince high-tech corporations and the scientists and engineers they hoped to employ to relocate to the so-called “Research Triangle.” As Durham banker John Stewart put it in 1967, “Progress goes where there are brains and water”—and North Carolinians aggressively sought to attract as many “brains” as possible by courting companies such as IBM (1965) and Burroughs-Wellcome (1969), as well as nonprofit institutions like the National Humanities Center (1978).

For North Carolinians, of course, theory hardly mattered. Without using exactly the same terminology, they set out to build, beginning in the 1950s, an economy that privileged the skills and knowledge of highly educated workers, the scientists and engineers who created software, pharmaceutical patents, and other new technologies. Brain Magnet tells the story of this new form of “cognitive capitalism”. . . .and how it evolved on the ground.

THE BURROUGHS WELLCOME BUILDING: “A SPACESHIP LANDS IN THE SUNBELT”

Brain Magnet has a section which focuses on the Burroughs Wellcome building, with the vivid title: A Spaceship Lands In The Sunbelt. Illustrated with two views of the building (which shows its bucolic setting and landscaping), it describes the context and motivations of the decision, by Burroughs Wellcome’s leadership, to relocate to this part of North Carolina—and what qualities were possessed by the building which resulted from their choice of Paul Rudolph to design their US headquarters and research center.

As Dr. Cummings writes,

The most striking thing about Burroughs Wellcome’s move to RTP was undoubtedly its building, which was featured in countless stories about the park and the company to underline its radically futuristic veneer. The building, designed by celebrity architect Paul Rudolph, has been compared with everything from a honeycomb to spaceship. It features “soaring inner spaces and a dramatic interior . . . a symbol not only of the company’s futuristic vision but also of the high-technology park,” as local preservationists later put it. (The structure was later named the Elion-Hitchings building, after two Nobel Prize-winning scientists who worked at the pharmaceutical giant and did pioneering work on the early HIV drug AZT.)

This section also examines the building’s spatial organization, and the design’s practicality (noting both pros and cons)—and allows us to hear the warm memories of several people who worked there.

Alex Sayf Cummings’ highly articulate Brain Magnet is indispensable for comprehending the historical-cultural-economic reasons for the creation of Research Triangle Park—and the multiple forms it took and the energies it released.

BOOK INFORMATION AND AVAILABILITY

• TITLE: Brain Magnet: Research Triangle Park and the Idea of the Idea Economy

• AUTHOR: Alex Sayf Cummings

• PUBLISHER: Columbia University Press

• FORMATS: Paperback, Hardcover, or E-book

• BOOK WEB PAGE: here

• AMAZON PAGE: here

• BARNES & NOBLE PAGE: here

In addition to Brain Magnet, Alex Sayf Cummings has written, edited, or contributed to numerous books, including: Democracy Of Sound; East Of East; The Bohemian South; City By City, and Sound In The Age Of Mechanical Reproduction.

YOU CAN HELP SAVE BURROUGHS WELLCOME !

The Burroughs Wellcome building is threated with imminent demolition.

It’s loss would be a disaster—a titanic waste of our nation’s cultural heritage.

When a great building is destroyed, there are no second chances.

NOW— THERE ARE TWO THINGS YOU CAN DO:

• Sign the petition to save Burroughs Wellcome. You can sign it here.

• We’ll send you bulletins about the latest developments. To get them, please join our foundation’s mailing list: you’ll get all the updates, (as well as other Rudolphian news.)—you can sign up at the bottom of this page.

Burroughs Wellcome: Let the CRITICS & USERS speak!

Entry court of the Burroughs Wellcome building. Image courtesy of Joseph W. Molitor architectural photographs. Located in Columbia University, Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Department of Drawings & Archives

NOW IT’S THE CRITICS’ & USERS’ TURN TO SPEAK…

In a recent post, we shared the various views, assessments, and judgements, made by several architectural historians, of the Burroughs Wellcome building. Historians have several roles, and one of the main thrusts of their work is to take “the long view”—striving to show how any one building can be understood within broader context of the architect’s overall career (and the architectural culture of the time). But there are other viewpoints which call for our attention:

• Critics have a different role. Yes, architectural journalists/critics/bloggers also seek to share deeper understandings of a work of architecture. But their writings are usually more of-the-moment—a result of their immediate interaction with building (and of news about it.)

• Users are the ultimate critics. The actual occupants of the building (those who lived or worked there, day-after-day—but also including visitors) have an intimacy with the architecture which cannot be exceeded. Their voices must be heard.

Here, we present the examples of architectural criticism/journalism from the era when the Burroughs Wellcome’s design was first presented (and the building finished), as well as more recent thoughts by members of the architectural-critical community. The last example, below, includes copious comments from people who worked for Burroughs Wellcome—those who had an ongoing experience of the building, and warm memories of being there.

PAUL RUDOLPH: WORK IN PROGRESS

Architectural Record, November, 1970

This article, by Architectural Record’s distinguished editor-writer Mildred Schmertz, showcased three new projects by Rudolph: a large central library, to be built in Niagara Falls (and the article leads off with his tour de force isometric drawing of the building, shown at right); a housing development which was partially built in Buffalo (“Shoreline”); and the Burroughs Wellcome building. The article begins with an articulate assessment of Rudolph’s design concerns & commitments—and then it provides text about each project. Below are excerpts from both sections.

It has been said before that Rudolph's superb drawings so enchant the eye that one is diverted from the designs themselves into contemplation of the wonders of his draftsmanship. To counteract this tendency, it may be useful to set forth those attributes of his work which form its essential design content and which Rudolph himself considers most characteristic.

For him the site is a key consideration. His design is a response to the site and its environment. Where a strong environmental ambiance exists, he reinforces it. Where it does not, he creates it.

His concern with the environmental aspects of design leads him to freshly restate the design problem each time, and causes him to utilize a great variety of forms, scales and materials. His buildings are designed to be read from varying distances and from the air. Buildings are often dramatically articulated from story to story. Clearly expressed and essentially simple structural systems are juxtaposed to specific elements such as stairs, elevators and mechanical and toilet shafts which have been elaborated as forms. ln general, fixed elements are juxtaposed to more flexible generalized uses. The fixed elements often play a dual role acting as "hinges" and "joints" as his buildings sinuously move to follow a street pattern, turn a corner or form a plaza. Frequently these elements are used to lead the eye around the building. Such elements are essential means by which Rudolph manipulates scale. They take many shapes, thus a small conference room might be circular, elliptical, square, a rectangle or a triangle. Often the choice of shape becomes a highly personal one and leads to qualities which Rudolph realizes are easily misinterpreted as arbitrary.

Rudolph designs buildings which simultaneously defer to the past, yet accommodate the future. He creates definable exterior spaces which relate to existing buildings which are to remain, but he indicates the future by open-ended concepts, infinitely expansible in every direction. His buildings always embody broader design concerns than those represented by the building itself. They are conceived as interventions in behalf of tomorrow—the walls, gates, landmark towers and bridges of a higher urban order to come. Rudolph's interiors are characterized by the flow of space-horizontally, vertically and diagonally. Again his primary principle is one of juxtaposition—agitated space is opposed to quiet, contented space, tight coves of space flow into multistoried central space, diagonal space passes through vertical space. The control of natural light within the interior is a major concern of Rudolph's. ln most cases it is indirect, admitted by almost invisible skylights and reflected from broad sloping planes.

A final characteristic by which Rudolph's work may be readily recognized is his use of space modules as integral elements forming the building complex. . . . Those projects by Rudolph in which space modules are clearly articulated, although not totally prefabricated, can be considered prototypes being developed to hasten the arrival of this technological advance.

Burroughs Wellcome

This building may be considered a summation of the characteristics by which Rudolph's architecture may be identified. The site has been a key consideration and the building is essentially topographical, single stories are clearly articulated to define scale, specific elements are elaborated within a clear and regular structural system, the plan is infinitely expansible in each of its three major blocks, and great attention has been paid to the flow of interior space as well as to the handling of reflected light. The building, although it doesn't actually consist of totally prefabricated space modules inserted within a structural frame, almost looks as though it does, and thus it prefigures and helps lay the groundwork for future technological development.

SCULPTURAL FORMS FOR PHARMECEUTICAL RESEARCH

Architectural Record, June, 1972

This cover story was the major presentation of the finished building in US architectural journals. Below are excerpts from the unsigned article: these were chosen because they focused on the critic’s/journalist’s assessment of the design.

Springing in inclined forms from the summit of a long ridge in North Carolina's Research Triangle Park, the laboratory and corporate headquarters of the Burroughs Wellcome Co. is marked by the sculptural invention that has long made Paul Rudolph's work so arresting. It is also filled with the characteristic complexities that make his work, in some quarters, controversial.

The client wanted a building that was shaped to his needs but remained architecturally distinctive-a building that would leave a forceful after-image in the minds of all who see it. Rudolph wanted the building to be a man-made extension of the ridge. He also wanted an opportunity to explore the variety of spatial relationships that diagonal framing could produce.

With only minor reservations, both owner and architect are well pleased with the final product.

Flexibility was a primary programmatic goal. Each major area in Rudolph's plan-laboratories, administration and support services-can be expanded by simple, linear addition. To prepare for this eventuality, the architect left the expansible ends of the building expressed in a somewhat random pattern of flattened hexagons. Any of the elements can be extended horizontally without disturbing the building's visual order. This device, combined with an elaborate articulation of parts, complicates the elevations considerably but gives the building an agreeable scale and plunges it squarely into the realm of dynamic architectural sculpture. The complications of the exterior assert themselves inside with no less force. The three-story lobby space closes dramatically overhead in a turbulent and visually compelling spatial composition. The administrative offices are shaped at the exterior wall to receive skylights that admit daylight from an unseen and unexpected source. The board room, over the cafeteria, opens out through a canted window wall to one of the fairest scenes in North Carolina: a timbered Piedmont plain with the spires of Chapel Hill in the distance.

The spaces are particularized and personal; as much the opposite of universal space as Rudolph could make them. A simple and consistent vocabulary of finishes gives the administrative areas an easy continuity and flow.

The Burroughs Wellcome building is not for those who are disturbed by departures from the norm. The sharp-eyed visitor may find details that are not completely resolved. But if there is bravura here, it is more than balanced by solid accomplishment. The building is functional—probably no more and no less so than similar facilities of more routine design. What is best about Burroughs Wellcome is the sense of exhilaration and spatial excitement it awakens. That it achieves so much of each is a tribute to both architect and owner.

PAUL RUDOLPH’S BURROUGHS WELLCOME HEADQUARTERS BUILDING IN NORTH CAROLINA THREATENED WITH DEMOLITION

Architect’s Newspaper, September 11, 2020

Matt Hickman, associate editor of The Architect’s Newspaper, wrote one of the first major articles about the current threat to the Burroughs Wellcome building. In it, he quotes from Liz Waytkus of Docomomo US.

“Burroughs Wellcome is a significant design of architecture that rises to the level of exceptional. There is absolutely nothing else like it and it would be devastating to Paul Rudolph’s canon of built works to lose it,” said Liz Waytkus, executive director of Docomomo US, when reached for comment. “While Rudolph’s homes continue to be highly valued, many of his civic and commercial designs have been severely compromised, threatened and destroyed. Docomomo US has advocated for years if not decades for the preservation of many of his major projects and we are frustrated as to what it will take for this country to recognize this true American Master of modernism.”

INTO THE SPACESHIP: A VISIT TO THE OLD BURROUGHS WELLCOME BUILDING

Tropics of Meta, June 13, 2016

Alex Sayf Cummings is an associate professor and director of graduate studies in the History Department at Georgia State University. Dr. Cummings, who is senior editor of the history blog, Tropics of Meta, recently published a study of Research Triangle Park (in which the Burroughs Wellcome building resides): Brain Magnet: Research Triangle Park and the Idea of the Idea Economy. In June, 2016, she was part of a tour of the Burroughs Wellcome building—which is currently unoccupied—and below are excerpts from her post, reporting on the visit. Her post elicited numerous responses: many from people who, having worked Burroughs Wellcome, knew the building well and had warm memories of being there—and we also include a selection of those comments.

No longer supplied with power, the building becomes a dark warren of workspaces and hallways, occasionally illumined by natural light from outside. Undoubtedly [the building] felt different when it was electrified and occupied, with the presence of people and the trappings of business, work, and research. . . . tour participant Cynthia de Miranda—an architectural historian whose father was a scientist at Burroughs Wellcome—averred that the building always struck her as warm and pleasant during her visits as a child.

As scholars and lovers of architecture, we look forward to the day when the building’s remainder is restored to its former greatness, an emblem of the wild aesthetic ambitions of modernism in its late heyday and the information economy at the moment of its emergence. Love it or hate it, Rudolph’s design remains an impressively audacious creative gesture and an important part of the history of both architecture and Research Triangle Park.

COMMENTS:

Simply amazing, I worked in this building for many years, very fond memories of it.

I never found it claustrophobic during my 25 years. The building was alive with interesting people.

I will never forget the first time I drove up and saw this “out of this world spaceship!” I spent many good years there, and was fortunate to be employed in such an incredible building, with incredible people. I still feel honored to have been part of the Burroughs Wellcome family.

. . . .all of us who recall the vibrancy of this building . . . .I count myself very fortunate to have worked there. It was an amazing structure. We were young, and life was full of hope and promise. We were all witnesses, if not direct contributors, to amazing scientific discoveries and their promotion, during an exciting time for medical research.

I spent 32 years with [Burroughs Wellcome]. . . .and helped work on the layout of the labs to fit the 22.5 degree sloping walls of bright orange and blue. At that time, if any space was conceived to bring out the creative, inspirational, thoughts—this was it, in my opinion. I loved working there. We invented and developed more pharmaceutical products in those years. . . .We were “family” but more to the point we were colleagues who were allowed to trust the expertise of each other.

I have such special memories of my time at Burroughs-Wellcome. . . .Every Christmas there was a huge Christmas Tree in the lobby that almost reached the ceiling and the bottom was covered with several rows of the most beautiful poinsettia plants. With only about 400-500 employees in the entire building, it felt like a large family. The colors in the building were bold and bright, mostly dark blue and orange. As you entered the research area the carpet was orange and the administration side of the building had blue carpet. On the top floor of the administration wing the custom seats that ran around the walls were covered in a dark tan suede leather. The conference table in the boardroom was huge. The bottom was thick plexiglass and the top was covered in tan leather strips that were woven together. . . . it was a fabulous experience to work at Burroughs-Wellcome and one that I will never forget. The people I worked with changed my life and I have nothing but fond memories.

This is fascinating! When I was 9, my parents took me to the opening of the building, and for many years I wanted to be an architect because of it.

According to the Historic American Building Survey’s report the building (from which this image comes): “Archival records reveal that a softball field was positioned behind the Burroughs Wellcome building for leisure activities.”

YOU CAN HELP SAVE BURROUGHS WELLCOME !

Burroughs Wellcome’s loss would be a disaster—a titanic waste of our nation’s cultural heritage.

When a great building is destroyed, there are no second chances.

NOW, THERE ARE TWO THINGS YOU CAN DO:

• Sign the petition to save Burroughs Wellcome. You can sign it here.

• We’ll send you bulletins about the latest developments. To get them, please join our foundation’s mailing list: you’ll get all the updates, (as well as other Rudolphian news.)—you can sign up at the bottom of this page.

The Burroughs Wellcome building presents multiple impressive facets. Image courtesy of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, photograph by G. E. Kidder Smith

Burroughs Wellcome: Let the Historians Speak!

Photograph courtesy of © PJ McDonnell, The Paul Rudolph Heritage Foundation Archives

GREAT BUILDINGS: FROM BIOGRAPHY -TO- HISTORY

In our first earlier posts about the Burroughs Wellcome Building, we’ve looked at it from multiple viewpoints: its most significant features, its overall history, its use in Film and Television, and as an example of the creative process in architecture (from concept-to-details).

Buildings have biographies—just like people—and those articles could be said to be primarily “biographical”. But, just like any a person’s life story, a building is also subject to assessment—the judgement of discerning historians, as well as it’s occupants, visitors, critics, and journalists. This process starts from the time the design is unveiled, and continues through the years of its existence and memory.

Here, we’ll let several architectural historians speak: offering their insights into the building’s design, physical presence, spatial-sensual qualities, and its relation to the users’ needs and experiences.

THE ART AND ARCHITECTURE OF PAUL RUDOLPH

By Tony Monk

“Stretching expansively across a wooded hillside ridge in North Carolina, this large corporate headquarters and laboratory complex for the intranational Burroughs Wellcome company typified Paul Rudolph’s dramatically sculptural style. In response the the client’s need for a distinctive image to represent the company’s performance, Rudolph designed a building which was intended to be a forceful extension of the hillside itself. Inside he created a spatial and structural solution that was uniquely original and possessed ultra-modern space-age characteristics.”

“The most dramatic feature of this design was the all-pervading characteristics that were created by the sharply angular slopes to the walls and columns. Surprisingly these were built at 22-1/2 degrees to the vertical, a device which Rudolph said echoed step inclines of the hills around the site. These interesting geometric forms were repeated extensively around the building—in windows angled downward, in the sloping seats and solid balustrades. Even the cupboards and service doors in the corridors . . . . were all built at this very steep angle.”

“A decade after this development was completed (in 1972), Paul Rudolph as asked to extend the premises to incorporate medical offices and a large dining room for the staff. He continued the theme of the angled supports, but this time used V-shaped twin columns, which created a crystalline rhythm throughout the extension. The sizeable restaurant was generally single-storey around the perimeter but then rose up dramatically to five storeys in the middle to provide roof lighting at the center with various mezzanine levels skirting this interesting space.”

“Together, the soaring internal areas, punctuated by the balconied walkways, and multi-level offices, pierced with unexpected floods of light, all contribute to make this one of Paul Rudolph’s best works.”

“The headquarters is both a credit to and a reward for the enlightened client who commissioned and then recommissioned Paul Rudolph to design this amazingly original modern building. . . .” — excerpted from: The Art and Architecture of Paul Rudolph, by Tony Monk, West Sussex, Wiley-Academy, 1999

PAUL RUDOLPH: THE LATE WORK

by Roberto de Alba

The “new wing” of the Burroughs Wellcome building (with V-shaped frames), referred to by historian Roberto de Alba. Image © the estate of Paul Rudolph, The Paul Rudolph Heritage Foundation

“…Rudolph devised an elongated hexagonal module that gives the building a strong horizontal reading on the long elevations. The module reveals its hexagonal geometry in the short elevations., pulling out of the building in interesting ways to express its ability to expand.”

“The interior spaces are a direct by-product of the diagonal structural geometry and are simply stunning. The entry lobby is a thing of the future. The space soars, exposing three levels of balconies, which maintain the diagonal lines of the A-frame. The lab spaces are unusual in their high ceilings and natural illumination (by skylights). It is not surprising that the futuristic interiors of the building were the setting for the movie Brainstorm.”

“The new wing adopts some of the themes of the original building, transforming them in interesting ways. The hexagonal module reappears in the long elevation, reinforcing the linearity of the wing. The A-frame of the original turns into a V that is exposed and repeated in parallel along the length of the wing.” — excerpts from: Paul Rudolph: The Late Work, by Roberto de Alba, New York, Princeton Architectural Press, 2003

The “ziggurat” character of the building, mentioned by Stimpson, is captured in this photograph. Image courtesy of Joseph W. Molitor architectural photographs. Located in Columbia University, Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Department of Drawings & Archives

A FIELD GUDE TO LANDMARKS OF MODERN ARCHITECTURE IN THE UNITED STATES

by Miriam f. Stimpson

“A dynamic and expressive design was created for this administrative headquarters. Rhythm and space are achieved through the use of strong external forms arranged in a contemporary “ziggurat fashion.” Lighting within the interior spaces effectively adds to the building’s design. The interaction of bold forms with the rolling hillside is intriguing as well as harmonious. The building is one of its kind in the nation.” — adapted from: A Field Guide to Landmarks of Modern Architecture in the United States, by Miriam F. Stimpson, Englewood Cliffs, Prentice Hall, 1985

HABS: THE HISTORIC AMERCAN BUILDINGS SURVEY

The Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), founded in 1933, is part of the Historic Documentation Programs administered under the National Parks Service. HABS is charged with documenting America's architectural heritage. Their report on Burroughs Wellcome (Report No. NC-418), written by architectural historian Vyta Baselice, is currently the most comprehensive survey and assessment of of the complex.

The full report can be accessed here. It is well worth quoting extensively—and it is our pleasure to present a selection of excerpts from it:

“The Burroughs Wellcome Corporation Headquarters in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina was designed by Paul Rudolph starting in 1969 and completed by the Daniels Construction Company in 1972. Planned as an “M.I.T. of North Carolina” this area between Raleigh and Durham was developed starting in the 1950s as a center for high-tech corporate research to attract and keep a highly educated, white-collar population in a Jim Crow state. Research Triangle’s ability to lure the pharmaceuticals giant Burroughs Wellcome, a company with roots in nineteenth century England, away from their suburban New York headquarters solidified the area’s status as a significant economic center no longer merely on the regional, but now also on the national scale. The design and construction of the new Wellcome Headquarters building was a significant affair and was meant to make a statement regarding the company’s new modern image and illustrate the advanced state of laboratory research and pharmaceutical work in the Research Triangle. Paul Rudolph worked with the corporation to design facilities that would accommodate a wide range of functions. . . .”

“The building is notable for its futuristic design, frequently described as Brutalist, marked by an exposed concrete and aggregate exterior and slanted steel columns that intersect in V-shapes and give the structure its distinctive appearance.”

“The structural system employed in the building also showcases the architect’s interest in industrial construction methods and the use of prefabricated panels for exterior and interior partitions. Rudolph likewise experimented with the integration of novel materials and exterior treatments. . . .”

“In terms of interior design, the building offers expansive multi-story gathering spaces with spot lighting exposing the irregular structural system. Bright carpets that blended red, orange, and pink colors were installed in communal areas to add to the drama of the headquarters. Other spaces that received extensive attention include research laboratories with state of the art equipment and custom-fitted cabinetry. . . .”

“. . . . raised in the South, the architect had the ideal background to design a world-class building in North Carolina that was global and radical in its approach yet sensitive to local work and life patterns. In addition to his professional expertise and reputation, Rudolph brought excellent customer service. Burroughs Wellcome leadership noted the architect’s “bedside manner of a sympathetic physician” and his ability to “cushion us against the shock-waves of certain mundane realities that have a habit of looming larger and larger.”

“Despite the challenging construction process, Burroughs Wellcome was nonetheless completed in 1972 and applauded instantly for its bold appearance. The structure’s distinctive architectural character is most clearly visible at the entrance to the building. The façade is a playful arrangement of angular forms that appear to grow out of the core structure. While visually provocative, the façade fails to reveal its organizational logic. It instead suggests that the sculptural complex must serve an intrinsically futuristic and forward-thinking function whose true nature cannot be fully comprehended from the exterior. One therefore must enter the structure and learn about its activities in order to understand the architectural arrangement. In this way, Rudolph’s design contradicts the famous “form follows function” rule, first suggested by Louis Sullivan in the nineteenth century. The exterior’s formal gymnastics are accomplished through a careful arrangement of exposed structural members. Indeed, the bold white columns that sit at a 22.5-degree angle are particularly important in breaking up the building’s forceful horizontality. Other design elements, like the white window beams, repetition of the concrete panels, and even the flag pole, echo the slanted verticality of the structural columns and add to the productive tension of the design.”

“In addition to the structure, Rudolph’s careful selection of construction materials, which were limited primarily to metal, glass, and concrete, add to the building’s distinctive appearance. As discussed above, the metal superstructure, comprised of A-frames that are painted white, breaks up the building’s horizontality. Rudolph did not treat the building’s windows in a conventional manner – instead, they appear as entire surfaces that follow and accentuate the building’s shape. At times, they wrap around the structure, much like Le Corbusier’s ribbon windows at Villa le Lac. The glass is also tinted and the scale and positioning of the windows follows a rhythm established by the concrete panels. Finally, the precast concrete panels with a carefully selected medium-size grey tint gravel contribute most significantly to the design’s distinctive character. And the concrete mix is employed not only on the façade, but all throughout the building’s interior as well as some of the sidewalks that are immediately adjacent to the structure. Most notably the aggregate was also used for the reception desk.”

“Although the building is visually compelling, Rudolph’s interest in curating the visitor’s experience by playing with scale and volume is significant and typically understated, especially in photographic representations. However, this is an important aspect of the overall architectural experience, particularly the entrance, and reflects the influence that Frank Lloyd Wright had upon Rudolph’s work. Upon climbing up a set of concrete stairs up to the level of the structure (or by exiting one of the two executive carports), the visitor will encounter the large structural columns. The first columns and space encountered are distinctly smaller and compressed. As the visitor proceeds to the entrance, both the volumes and columns progressively increase in scale until the first major gathering space opens up to reveal the grand scale of the building. The third-floor balcony, which hovers over this front plaza, adds to the drama and spectacle of the design. Archival photographs reveal that the main plaza was used as an events space with seating arranged facing the glazed wall. The door to the building is notably missing from this grand space and instead is situated to the side out of sight, underneath a sizeable horizontal plane. “

“Upon entering the building, the visitor’s movement and experience are once again carefully curated in a familiar arrangement of volumes that progressively increase in size, finally revealing an impressive lobby whose height extends three levels. While undoubtedly striking, the lobby appears to be taller than it actually is due to Rudolph’s design of openings that employ the 22.5-degree angle and decrease progressively thus heightening the visitor’s sense of verticality. The lobby is an architecturally distinctive space, notably different in character from the exterior forms, that creates a cave-like environment. The laboratory wing of the structure contains a similarly open multi-level communal space.”

“Modernist architects often hoped that unusual architecture that challenged common work and living practices would encourage greater creativity and efficiency. Paul Rudolph and Burroughs Wellcome were not an exception. The design integrated some novel solutions for creating multi-purpose spaces. For example, the large auditorium located off the lobby had a mechanism that would have brought about partitions to bifurcate the large space into two for smaller viewing audiences. While actual creative output is difficult to measure, the company’s attitudes were clearly displayed in photographs of workers and their daily activities. For example, company photographs commonly featured the building as a framing device, which in one case took up more of the portrait than the workers themselves. Similarly, when advertising one of the company’s products, employees were shown interacting with the building in a creative way, climbing atop the different layered roofs and hanging out with their colleagues. Even when engaging in other types of work-unrelated leisurely activities, like participating in company-sponsored health programs or playing softball, workers could not avoid the presence of the distinctive structure. The building’s design therefore served as a tool to maintain company presence throughout the workers’ daily experiences.”

Pages from the HABS report on Burroughs Wellcome, like the one shown above, have intriguing illustrative material, generally not found outside of archives.

This page from the report includes a drawing produced by Rudolph’s office: a sketch showing how offices would be arranged along the building’s angled window walls.

AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE: IDEAS AND IDEOLOGIES IN THE LATE TWENTIETH CENTURY

By Paul Heyer

“The dynamics of diagnonal, tapered space are further explored in the more complex program for the corporate headquarters of Burroughs Wellcome. Here, within the diagonal movement of interior space, Rudolph says that “growth and change is implicit in the concept. It is the idea of a building never finished where one can pull out parts.” Architecturally it is a delineated and tightly resolved attitude that, in spirit at least, somewhat parallels that of [John] Johansen’s more “as built,” loosely conceived and less seemingly-manipulated and open-ended approach. The building’s diagonal volume is an upward extension of the crest of a ridge on which it is built. The set back floors allow for a continuous system of skylights at each floor to pull light deep into interior spaces while enabling ceiling heights to be raised to fifteen feet at the building’s exterior edges, increasing the sense of space in movement with the interiors. As the linear planes of the building are bunched in an end expression of solid, shifting, tubelike elements, they visually evoke the idea of modular elements, although in fact they are the product of conventional steel frame construction. The groping and combining of modular elements as and expression of a technological capability, a sound idea if one not so economically possible in reality, is a notion that continues to preoccupy Rudolph and in many ways give impetus to the shifting planes that impinge upon rather than elementally define space.” — excepted from: American Architecture: Ideas and Ideologies in the Late Twentieth Century, by Paul Heyer, New York, Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1993

NORMAN FOSTER

Finally, since Rudolph’s drawings for the Burroughs Wellcome building are so compelling, here is a quote from Norman Foster. He has the advantage of a long perspective on Paul Rudolph—an historical viewpoint—going all-the-way back to the time when he had been a student and employee of Rudolph’s, while studying at Yale.

“Many of the these drawings, especially the perspective sections, would encapsulate in a single image the range of Rudolph’s concerns as an architect. There was his quest to define and model space with light and planar surfaces; his interest in climate and the relationship between structure and services; his exploration into modularity and the potential of prefabrication—a later interest in high density urban mega-structures.” — Norman Foster, from the foreword to: The Art and Architecture of Paul Rudolph, by Tony Monk, West Sussex, Wiley-Academy, 1999

Rudolph’s perspective-section drawing through the body of the building (with its famous entry lobby), indicating the dynamic spaces within. Image © the estate of Paul Rudolph, The Paul Rudolph Heritage Foundation

YOU CAN HELP SAVE BURROUGHS WELLCOME !

Burroughs Wellcome’s loss would be a disaster—a titanic waste of our nation’s cultural heritage.

When a great building is destroyed, there are no second chances.

NOW, THERE ARE TWO THINGS YOU CAN DO:

• Sign the petition to save Burroughs Wellcome. You can sign it here.

• We’ll send you bulletins about the latest developments. To get them, please join our foundation’s mailing list: you’ll get all the updates, (as well as other Rudolphian news.)—you can sign up at the bottom of this page.

A good example of the powerful drawings, in which Rudolph explored and conveyed his vision—as spoken of in Norman Foster’s quote above. This is his perspective rendering of the dining area (about which historian Tony Monk wrote)—a dynamic space which was constructed as part of the 1976 extension. That addition has been demolished, and now the main part of the building is under threat too. Image © the estate of Paul Rudolph, The Paul Rudolph Heritage Foundation

Rudolph at Burroughs Wellcome: Concept, Development, and the Caring Details

The Burroughs Wellcome was designed for growth—and this is a section drawing study by Paul Rudolph, for an extension to the building. Such a colorful drawing might look exuberantly and boldly “arty” (as though the architect had only a nebulous relation to practicalities)—but a close inspection shows that, while Rudolph was developing the overall concept, he was simultaneously paying close attention to dimensions, adjacencies, floor heights, and the locations of different functions. This kind of drawing—seemingly florid, but layered with distilled, practical information—is typical of the kind of study drawings which Paul Rudolph did at the beginning of his design process. © The Estate of Paul Rudolph, The Paul Rudolph Heritage Foundation.

"We Must Understand That After All The Building Committees, The Conflicting Interests, The Budget Considerations, And The Limitations Of His Fellow Man Have Been Taken Into Consideration, The Architect’s Responsibility Has Just Begun. He Must Understand That Exhilarating, Awesome Moment.

When He Takes Pencil In Hand, And Holds It Poised Above A White Sheet Of Paper, He Has Suspended There All That Has Gone Before And All That Will Ever Be." 

—Paul Rudolph

ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN: THE MYSTERY

In looking at Burroughs Wellcome—one of Paul Rudolph’s best (and best loved) creations—one naturally wonders: How did such a design come to be? With a prolific architect like Rudolph, whose creativity took him along so many different paths, that’s a compelling inquiry.

“How does the magic happen?” That’s one way of putting one of the most fascinating questions about the creation of architecture—for it’s indeed a wonder how one gets all-the-way from a client’s request to a tangible, solid, building that’s ready-for-occupancy.

The least mysterious phase happens at the end of the process: once a “construction set” of drawings (sometimes called “working drawings” or the “contract set”) has been drawn-up by he architect and issued to the general contractor, the process of construction is fairly well understood. [Although, as anyone who’s ever been involved in building project can tell you, it is also fraught with possible pitfalls, detours, and surprises.]

But perhaps it would be useful to return to the beginning of the process….

ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN: THE PROGRAM

Initially, the architect receives requests and information from the client: the “program”. Sometimes this is nebulously articulated—or conversely, sometimes the client’s needs are enumerated in intimidatingly calibrated detail. Rudolph wrote urgently about the need to get, early on, as much info as possible:

“Always, always, always, everything, everything, everything at the beginning. I'm a great believer in the big bang. You cannot isolate parts, ever. That's the reason why it's so important to know as much detail as possible at the very beginning.”

“I'm just saying that for me it's a matter of getting your fingers on what you can and cannot do from a legal viewpoint . . . . You have to know what's possible. Architecture is not a question of the purely theoretical if you're interested in building buildings. It's the art of what is possible.”

A sketch by Paul Rudolph, in which he’s working out the design of a hallway within Burroughs Wellcome. This sort of drawing shows another aspect of the architect’s working method: the section is sketched adjacent to the plan, and at the same scale (so that both can be well coordinated). At top right one can clearly see part of the plan layout, including rooms and what appear to be laboratory benches. © The Estate of Paul Rudolph, The Paul Rudolph Heritage Foundation.

At Burroughs Wellcome—which functioned as not only a corporate headquarters, but as also an active pharmaceutical research center with extensive laboratories and testing facilitates (where Nobel Prize winning work was conducted!)—Rudolph would have received a careful listing of the functions that the 300,000 square foot building had to accommodate, including the approximate sq. ft. area needed for each. Sometimes programs also indicate significant “adjacencies” (what specific spaces need to be nearby each other).

Just as important (as the above “material” needs) are the intangible ones: what the project means to the client, and what it will communicate. Significance and symbolism: they’re as much part of the program as the list of required rooms. It’s not always easy to determine this, and clients are generally not used to articulating such matters. As Rudolph states, it’s important to find out..

“…what it is the owner truly wants to do— but he doesn't necessarily tell you, you have to read between the lines— and what should be done ideally.”

ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN: THE GRAND SYNTHESIS

It is at this point that the mystery truly begins. The architect creates an overall concept for the building’s organization: the “parti”—and with it will be the architect’s most central decisions about the building’s placement on the site, the organization of the plan, and the shaping of spaces and volumes—along with concepts about which structural system and what materials are to be used.

Looking over the architect’s shoulder—in the process of creation? Here Paul Rudolph is photographed working at his drawing board in his New Haven office, with members of his staff in the background.

How this happens—the very process of creation—is one of the great human questions, whether it be examined in the context of painting, music, literature, or architecture. Some architects refuse even to talk about it, claiming it’s a very intimate matter (and likely, one they don’t even quite understand themselves.) Some are prolix in their explanations, offering either theoretical, meat-and-potatoes, or poetic rationales for what they do. At the other end of the spectrum are “functionalist” architects like Hannes Meyer (who, for several years, was director of the Bauhaus): he claimed that arriving at design solutions was like solving an a mathematical problem, and he offered a stark equation: Function x Economy = Architecture. Rudolph repudiated such such an extreme position, saying:

All I'm really saying is that the most rational architect in the world is not to be trusted at all because there is no such thing as true rationalism when you are speaking of architecture.

Rudolph himself acknowledged the mystery of the phenomena of creation:

“In terms of how one goes about designing anything, you don't really know, or at least I don't know, until after the fact. There are so many elements that come into play that if you wait to figure out what it is you truly want to do once you have a project to work on there won't be enough time. You have to, as I see it, have a reservoir of things that you feel should be done and then you draw on that reservoir and hopefully apply elements from that reservoir in an intelligent fashion. . . . . You can have one hundred reasons why you do things after the fact.”

“I can say that in spite of all the rationalizations that architects go through, including myself, you can pay no attention to what architects say, you can only pay attention to what they do.”

Because architecture must deal with very practical issues—from space needs -to- the structural capacity of steel—the truth about the nature of architectural creation would necessarily be a merging of the functional and the artistic ways of solving problems. Beyond that, the essential nature of the “synthetic leap” is conjectural (though the topic of design creativity has been an area of ongoing serious research.)

ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN: DEVELOPMENT

Burroughs Wellcome allows us to see another aspect of architectural creation: “design development.”

Architects use “development” in a different sense than is used in the real estate field. Architecturally, it means taking the designer’s original conception of the building and working out the particulars.

A section sketch drawing, by Paul Rudolph, showing him in the process of designing the canopy for the main entrance to the Burroughs Wellcome building. A good example of design development, the drawing shows how Rudolph was working out his idea about the shaping of the space and volumes—yet simultaneously thinking through the structure (steel beams and possibly steel joists are shown), scale (his placement of figures), choice of materials, and key dimensions. His use of color, to indicate different materials and planes, is part of the language of architectural drawing which extends back to the 18th century. © The Estate of Paul Rudolph, The Paul Rudolph Heritage Foundation.

For example: it’s not enough that the architect might have started out by envisioning a lobby with cantilevered balconies, supported by a steel structure. In the design development phase, the exact heights, projection, angles, and materials of those balconies would begin to be thought through (including their relationship to the building’s structure.)

Below is Rudolph’s perspective- section rendering through the Burroughs Wellcome building and site:

Paul Rudolph’s perspective-section rendering through Burroughs Wellcome, cutting though the main entry lobby, and showing the building’s relation to the site. © The Estate of Paul Rudolph, The Paul Rudolph Heritage Foundation.

In the middle of it, he shows one of the building’s most famous features— it’s entry lobby:

Enlargement of a portion of Paul Rudolph’s perspective-section through the Burroughs Wellcome building, focusing in on the main entry lobby. © The Estate of Paul Rudolph, The Paul Rudolph Heritage Foundation.

Clearly, he already—even at this stage—has a thorough conception the layout and features of this lobby. In this rendering one can see important features, including: the stepped volumes at the right side of of the second floor’s balcony, the steps and platforms in the foreground and in the distance, the beam crossing from one side of the third floor’s balcony to the other, and the angled columns.

And in the actual, built space—

Burroughs Wellcome’s main entry lobby. Image courtesy of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, photograph by G. E. Kidder Smith

—these aspects of the design were almost exactly carried out.

Enlarging a portion of that section-perspective rendering reveals that Rudolph was already thinking about the structural aspects of the building—and not just the diagonal columns. Below you can see that the section cuts through steel beams—and, allowing for perspective, that steel-work would have framed directly into the diagonal vertical structure.

Close-up of Paul Rudolph’s perspective-section through the Burroughs Wellcome building, here focusing in on the main lobby’s third floor balconies. © The Estate of Paul Rudolph, The Paul Rudolph Heritage Foundation

One might imagine that, for an architect of Rudolph’s vast experience, inclusion of such structural elements in a rendering (and placing them in the right locations) would be almost intuitive. Perhaps—so for a clearer example of development, let’s look at what happens when the Burroughs Wellcome building section needs to move in the direction of constructable drawings.

Close-up of Paul Rudolph’s perspective-section rendering of Burroughs Wellcome, focusing on the main body of the building and its entry lobby. © The Estate of Paul Rudolph, The Paul Rudolph Heritage Foundation

Above is an enlargement of the main body of the building’s section-perspective. It’s beautiful to look at, and Rudolph’s legendary skill as a perspectivist pulls us in, fascinated by the forms he’s chosen and the rich ways he’s depicted them.

But this is where design development begins: those forms and spaces need to be exactly defined and dimensioned, materials need to be specified, and the relationship of all the parts needs to be coordinated with precision (including with the structural system). Below is the a drawing, from Rudolph’s office, which does this: it’s filled with notes, dimensions, and shows the relationship of the section to adjacent parts of the building which are beyond. This development will then lead to more drawings—which contain even more construction information (including final details)

Section drawing, through main entrance, of the Burroughs Wellcome building. © The Estate of Paul Rudolph, The Paul Rudolph Heritage Foundation.

ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN: CARE IN THE DETAILS

When someone refers to “details,” they are usually peaking of the smallest (or least important) aspects of a project or situation—and the use of the term is often dismissive. But in architecture, the opposite is true: the “details” are intensely important. When architects say “details,” they mean the particular ways that the parts (and assemblies of parts) and materials of a building are selected, shaped, located, and connected together.

Rudolph’s attention to the detail was comprehensive, and even extended to the drainage channels (which he used to form striking angled lines on the building’s exterior), aligning them with the window divisions (“muntins”) and designing a ground-level concrete element (“splash block”) that further carried out the linear theme. Photograph © PJ McDonnell, The Paul Rudolph Heritage Foundation Archives

This can extend to from things that occupants would hardly ever notice (like how waterproofing materials are positioned), to things they directly see and engage with daily (like the design of railings, elevator buttons, and even the choice of typeface for the building address numbers.) These visual elements may, in themselves, be small—-but cumulatively they convey a sense that the building was designed with thoroughness and unflagging attention. It shows that the architect cared, and that each decision (whether it be about the shape of a stair nosing or the tint of the windows) is consistent with an overall vision for the building. [And if such care is not exercised, even a new building can convey a sense of disheartening sloppiness.]

Rudolph cared.

He learned this not only from his teachers, like Gropius (the drawings for whose projects are detailed with surprising care), but also from the beginning of his practice, when he had to become inventive with inexpensive materials in order to work within modest construction budgets. And of course, Mies van der Rohe—one of the titans of Modernism—had a famous saying that all architects knew well: “God is in the details.”

A building’s construction set, which includes drawings of all the details, occupies a large part of an architect’s (and their staff’s) attention. This can mean generating dozens (and for some very complex buildings: hundreds) of drawings. It’s a challenge to maintain the architect’s original “vision” of the building, so that it does not get distorted or diluted in the course of creating the construction documents from which it will be built.

A CASE STUDY: DETAILS AT BURROUGHS WELLCOME

At Burroughs Welcome, we can follow an example of the care which Rudolph and his team brought to the details.

Below-left is reproduced the right side of Rudolph’s perspective-section through Burroughs Wellcome. In it we can see that the edges of the floors typically terminate in a set of continuous architectural elements: a band of angled windows, a band of angled skylights, and a band of angled portions of the exterior wall.

Below-right is an enlargement of the uppermost example of that floor-window-wall-skylight assembly. The architect, in doing the construction drawings, will be concerned about each juncture:

• Where the top of the skylight meets the building (in this case: there’s a small upright, at the end of the floor, at the top of the skylight—possibly forming a rainwater drainage channel.)

• The bottom of the skylight, where it meets the top of the angled wall.

• The bottom of the angled wall, where it meets the top of the angled window.

• The bottom of the window, where it meets the angled skylight of the next floor down.

Left: a portion of Rudolph’s section-perspective, showing the the right side of the building. Above: an enlargement of one of the assemblies at the edge of the uppermost floor. It includes the angled skylight, angled exterior wall, and angled window. Both drawings © The Estate of Paul Rudolph, The Paul Rudolph Heritage Foundation.

Exactly how each one of these adjacencies (architects’ term for them is: “conditions”) is to be detailed is one of the great challenges of an architect’s practice—especially if they care that the details are consistent with (and supportive of) their original vision for the building.

In working out the details, an architect will not only be conscious of their general concept for the building, but they will simultaneously be focused on a large number of practical questions, such as:

• Can these conditions be made waterproof?

• Is there sufficient thermal insulation?

• Are the proposed materials available?

• Will building this assembly fit within the construction budget?

• Can the proposed arrangement be built by available construction methods?

• Does the proposed design allow for regular maintenance to be performed?

• If something needs replacement(like a window pane), can it be easily repaired?

• Will the materials age well?

And—-

• If any of the above presents a problem, what alternatives can be devised (which will not violate the architect’s overall conception for the building)?

Below is one sheet from the extensive set of construction drawings that Rudolph and his office prepared for the Burroughs Wellcome building—and it shows the very assembly we’ve been considering!

Detail of inclined window and skylight section and construction details, from the set of construction drawings prepared by Paul Rudolph and his office for the Burroughs Wellcome building. © The Estate of Paul Rudolph, The Paul Rudolph Heritage Foundation

Below is an enlargement of the right side of that drawing. It goes into great detail about all of the adjacencies (from top-to-bottom: roof to skylight; skylight to wall; wall to window, and window to skylight.) Materials, dimensions, connections, required features, and relationships to other parts of the building are noted with thoroughness.

But even that is not sufficient. To get the building built—in the way the architect envisioned it—even more information needs to be provided to the contractor.

An enlargement of a portion of the above drawing, focusing on the inclined window and skylight. The circled area indicates the areas of the assembly where the glazing meets the building’s walls—and those adjacencies are worked-out in great detail below, in a sheet from the same set set of construction drawings.© The Estate of Paul Rudolph, The Paul Rudolph Heritage Foundation

The great English architect, Sir Edwin Lutyens, said construction drawings were like “a writing letter to the builder” telling him what to do. For Burroughs Wellcome, even more detail had to be put into Rudolph’s “letter” to the contractor—and within the the area we’ve circled (above) are three conditions that needed to be magnified further, in order to really show how they’re to be built.

Below is the drawing which resulted—another sheet in the construction set. These details are drawn-full size, and show precisely the shapes, configurations, materials, and dimensions of every component—metalwork, structure, glass, waterproofing, drainage channel, glazing gaskets, connectors, and even an anchor for the window washer—needed to make the assembly buildable, and practical for ongoing life of he building.

Inclined window and skylight construction details, from the set of constuction drawings prepared by Paul Rudolph and his office for the Burroughs Wellcome building. © The Estate of Paul Rudolph, The Paul Rudolph Heritage Foundation.

Rudolph himself recognized the challenge of doing thorough construction drawings (including the detailing)—and the consequences if the challenge is not met and the vision is lost:

“Architecture is a personal effort, and the fewer people coming between you and your work the better. … This is a very real problem, and you can only stretch one man so far. The heart can fall right out of a building during the production of working drawings, and sometimes you would not even recognize your own building unless you followed it through.”

All that work, all that thinking, all that time—just to get the details right.

Easy? No. Important? Supremely! Did Rudolph do it? Absolutely!

SAVE BURROUGHS WELLCOME !

Losing Burroughs Wellcome would be a cultural disaster—a titanic loss to our country’s cultural heritage.

When a great building is destroyed, there are no second chances.

FOR NOW, THERE ARE TWO THINGS YOU CAN DO:

• Sign the petition to save Burroughs Wellcome. You can sign it here.

• We’ll send you bulletins about the latest developments. To get them, please join our foundation’s mailing list: you’ll get all the updates, (as well as other Rudolphian news.)—you can sign up at the bottom of this page.

Models were also part of Rudolph’s design process. This would be a “presentation model”—shown to the client for their final approval, as well as for the corporate leadership to use to communicate about the project to stakeholders and the public. But “alumni”—former staff members of his office—have also told us that Rudolph also used models to develop his designs. © The Estate of Paul Rudolph, The Paul Rudolph Heritage Foundation.

Burroughs Wellcome was a pharmaceutical company, whose corporate symbol was a unicorn. In Rudolph’s model of the building (at left), he proposed a large unicorn sculpture as part of the main entrance plaza. It did not work out to include that sculpture—so Rudolph developed and distilled the idea. What he came up with (and got built) is a prominent flagpole, angled and pointed to evoke a unicorn’s horn—a brilliant feature and detail.

Burroughs Wellcome is a STAR ! — in film and television.

Paul Rudolph’s Burroughs Wellcome building, in North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park, was the prime location for the 1983 film, Brainstorm. Scenes were shot inside, outside, and on the grounds of the building. This candid snapshot, made between “takes”, shows a warning sign temporarily placed within the set of the villain’s office.

FROM STARCHITECTS -TO- STARRING BUILDINGS

Some architects’ work has “that something extra”—that star quality which gets their buildings to be selected as sets for films and television series. Set designers, like the legendary Ken Adam (famous for his work on Dr. Strangelove and the James Bond films) can create miracles—but directors and designers also welcome using actual, existing buildings & interiors as sets, and actively seek out interesting venues.

Buildings by Frank Lloyd Wright and John Lautner, are “a natural” for this, as their richly sculpted & textured works provide backgrounds that are already saturated with visual interest. Wright’s Ennis House (1924) may solidly sit in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles—but that hasn’t stopped directors from using it (or creating sets inspired by it) for many productions—including: Blade Runner, Game of Thrones, Star Trek, Day of the Locust, Twin Peaks, and even South Park.

If you search for “Ennis House” and film in Google Images, one will get numerous hits. This example—an screen shot of part of a results page—shows that stills from Game of Thrones (upper left) and Blade Runner (lower left) readily come up. Both of them are said to have been inspired by the Ennis house. The other views show the Wright designed interior and exterior of the actual house.

Ken Adam chose John Lautner’s Elrod House as a set for the James Bond film, Diamonds Are Forever—and several other Lautner houses have been used in major films, including in The Big Lebowski and Iron Man.

RUDOLPH ON tHE BIG SCREEN

Paul Rudolph’s work fits well with this, offering intriguing designs which would attract a director’s and production designer’s eye. His work has been used in a variety of films, from the frenetic fire drill scene in 2001’s The Royal Tenenbaums -to- 2019’s Motherless Brooklyn (a film in which one of Rudolph’s visionary renderings forms part of the set).

In Motherless Brooklyn, one of Paul Rudolph’s renderings for the LOMEX project can be seen in the background, during a scene set in Moses Randolph’s office. Below is a full view of Rudolph’s actual rendering for this urban design. Drawing © The Estate of Paul Rudolph, The Paul Rudolph Heritage Foundation.

A Google Images search for the terms “Royal Tenenbaums” and “fire drill” gives results like shown in the above screen shot: an interior of Rudolph’s own penthouse residence in Manhattan (top left); and Rudolph’s penthouse’s used as a set in the film, with Ben Stiller conducting a home fire drill (lower left).

BURROUGHS WELLCOME GOES TO THE MOVIES

The Burroughs Wellcome building comes up in at least two major film productions:

At top: a rendering of a set for The Towering Inferno.

At bottom: a still from the film, for the same scene. Paul Newman (his back is foreground left), in the role of the architect, is shown entering his office.

Are we seeing a set design that was inspired by Paul Rudolph’s work at Burroughs Wellcome?

THE TOWERING INFERNO

Although Burroughs Wellcome’s most famous “starring role” is in 1983’s Brainstorm (see below), it at least seems to have inspired a set in a film made nearly a decade earlier: 1974’s The Towering Inferno.

A lushly cast production, it included the talents of mega-stars Paul Newman, Steve McQueen, Faye Dunaway, William Holden, and Fred Astaire—as well as numerous other performers.. One of the main characters (played by Newman) is an architect—the designer of the tower which (no fault of his!) goes up in flames. His entrance scenes are the embodiment of a late-60s/early 70’s architect’s fantasy.

At top right is a set designer’s rendering of the architect’s office, and below is a view of the finished set. The forceful use of angled planes (at walls, windows, built-in furniture, and ceilings), emphatic volumes, stairs, and the bold use of color resonate with Paul Rudolph’s work at Burroughs Wellcome. Might Rudolph’s design have inspired the filmmakers?

BRAINSTORM

Brainstorm (1983) is a science fiction film with a stellar cast: Christopher Walken, Natalie Wood, Louise Fletcher, and Cliff Robertson. It had a distinguished director, Douglas Trumbull (who had made contributions to the visual and photographic effects of 2001: A Space Odyssey, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Blade Runner, and Close Encounters of the Third Kind.)

The film focuses on a research team's efforts to perfect a device that can record the sensory experiences and emotional feelings of a subject (and can then replay them, so that another person can access that experience too). Part of the drama is that it includes a scheme, by the company's management, to apply the results of their research to military uses that may be criminal or of questionable ethics.

A director of Trumbull’s sensibilities—having worked on numerous futuristic-science oriented films—would naturally be drawn to the building and interior environments of Burroughs Wellcome.

The typical doorway arch of the Krell, an advanced alien civilization, as designed for the 1956 film, Forbidden Planet. Such angular geometries are a frequent motif in the work of science fiction film set designers.

One of the most striking aspects of the building—both of its exterior and interiors—is its comprehensive use of angles: walls, windows, structural elements, and even the flagpole are angled to follow the overall theme that Rudolph applied across the complex. This creates exciting settings, with striking views and unexpected forms.

Reliance on such geometries has a distinguished lineage in film design, as in this scene (shown at right) from the classic science fiction film, Forbidden Planet (1956). Here, a doorway built by an alien civilization is emphatically angular (and similar forms show up in Brainscan.)

Below are some some screen shots of the building, inside and out, as used in Brainscan:

Nighttime, the building is a formidable presence…

… as it is during the day.

The building’s famous entry lobby didn’t have to be extensively modified for the movie—it was already impressive.

Strong diagonals pervade the sets, both inside …

… and on the outside.

Even in the laboratory—where key scenes occur—the angled structural geometry is prominent..

Diagonal design extends to the executive suite …

… and even into the bathrooms.

And shows up as an angular fantasy within the film. Was this too inspired by Rudolph’s design for Burroughs Wellcome (as exemplified in one of the building’s hallways. at right)? Photo by Henry L. Kamphoefner

BURROUGHS WELLCOME ON TV

REVOLUTION

Revolution (2012-2014) was a science fiction TV series that, across 2 seasons and 42 episodes, took the viewer into a future where a massive blackout—at that point, lasting 15 years—has terminated the use of electrical power all across the planet. The series traces a search for for the blackout’s mysterious cause (and its possible cure), set against a complex scenario of conflicting personal relationships and political machinations.

The last two episodes of season 1 are set in and around a powerful tower—a place which may be key to understanding the blackout (and solving it). Much of the first season of the series was shot in the Carolinas, and Burroughs Wellcome—with its characteristic diagonals—was used used as the set for some of the tower’s interiors.

Below are several scenes, shot in Burroughs Wellcome, from the show:

Burroughs Wellcome’s entry lobby—one of the building’s most powerful features—is tapped by the director and designer for a dynamic interior set.

The bunker office of the US Vice President may well be the very same location as used for the evil executive’s office in the film Brainscan.

These views (from the show) are of special note because they allow one to see the aggregate finish which Paul Rudolph developed for the building—and …

… which he used not only for Burroughs Wellcome’s exteriors, but also for some of the building’s interiors (including lobbies and offices).

SAVE THIS GREAT ARCHITECTURAL “STAR”

Losing Burroughs Wellcome would be a disaster—a titanic loss to our country’s cultural heritage.

When a great building is destroyed, there are no second chances.

FOR NOW, THERE ARE TWO THINGS YOU CAN DO:

• Sign the petition to save Burroughs Wellcome. You can sign it here.

• We’ll send you bulletins about the latest developments. To get them, please join our foundation’s mailing list: you’ll get all the updates, (as well as other Rudolphian news.)—and you can sign up at the bottom of this page.

Rudolph was visionary—and it certainly makes sense that some of his built “visions”—like Burroughs Wellcome—would attract the eyes of directors, production designers, and location scouts. It can evoke a variety of impressions—from bright to somber—depending on lighting, point-of-view, time-of-day, weather, and season. While most people coming to Burroughs Wellcome recall it as a pleasant place to work or visit, Joseph Molitor was able to create an image of “Moody Futurism” in this photograph—an atmosphere sure to be of interest to the makers of films and television.

It would be great if Burroughs Wellcome was used for more film and television productions—and for that: it has to be saved.

Image courtesy of Joseph W. Molitor architectural photographs. Located in Columbia University, Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Department of Drawings & Archives

Paul Rudolph's spectacular Burroughs Wellcome Headquarters — a History

Paul Rudolph’s Burroughs Wellcome headquarters & research center in Durham, N.C. Image courtesy of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, photograph by G. E. Kidder Smith

Out of a half-century career of creative and prolific work, Rudolph’s Burroughs Wellcome headquarters & research center stands out as one of his finest works. We’re now fighting to save this magnificent example of the convergence of corporate & scientific vision and architectural talent—and we thought it would be useful to share an outline of it’s history, purpose, and features.

A SITE FOR GROWTH: THE RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK

The Burroughs Wellcome building (shown circled here), at 3030 East Cornwallis Road, in Durham, N.C.’s Research Triangle Park. Only a portion of this celebrated research development is shown here, but even in this partial view, one can see some of Burroughs Wellcome’s distinguished neighbors—among them: IBM, Cree, Toshiba, RTI, the North Carolina Biotechnology Center, and the National Humanities Center. Image courtesy of Google Maps.

A closer aerial view of the Burroughs Wellcome complex. Shown here is its current state, after a Rudolph-designed addition to the building (that had been located to the lower-left) had been demolished by the current owner. Landscape features, designed by Rudolph, have also been removed from the site. Image courtesy of Google Maps.

Founded in 1959, Durham, North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park is one of the most prominent research developments in the US. This is where hundreds of distinguished firms and organizations located their headquarters and research centers—and it is here that Burroughs Wellcome placed their US headquarters and laboratories.

They chose Paul Rudolph as their architect, and the project commenced design work in his office in 1969, and was completed and dedicated in 1972.

Burroughs Wellcome was designed for growth: the initial, main body of the building, was followed by several additions—in 1976, 1978, and 1982—all designed by Rudolph. His work in 1982 also included a master plan for the overall site.

The story of Durham’s Research Triangle Park is comprehensively told in Brain Magnet: Research Triangle Park and the Idea of the Idea Economy by Alex Cummings, PhD—and this fascinating study includes coverage of the Burroughs Wellcome building.

THE BUILDING: ITS PURPOSE, HISTORY, AND FEATURES

• In February 1969, pharmaceutical company Burroughs Wellcome purchases a little over 66 acres of rolling woodland in Durahm, North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park. The company is a subsidiary of The Wellcome Foundation Ltd., based in the UK.

• The client requests of Paul Rudolph a design that will be shaped to its needs, yet remain architecturally distinctive.

Burroughs Wellcome’s symbol is a unicorn—and Rudolph wanted to have a statue of a unicorn at the building’’s entry (it’s even shown on his architectural model for the building). When it did not work out to do include the statue, Rudolph came up with a creative alternative: a flagpole that would evoke the Burroughs Wellcome symbol, by being angled to match the unicorn’s horn.

• Flexibility is a primary goal: each major area in Rudolph’s plan—laboratories, administration, and support services—are capable of being expanded by linear addition. To allow for this, Rudolph leaves the expansible ends of the building expressed as a pattern of flattened hexagons, so that the elements can be extended horizontally without disturbing the building’s visual order.

• The building program includes 312,303 square feet of research laboratory and administrative space, including: 140 labs, a library, auditorium, cafeteria, and support activity spaces for 400 workers.

• In plan, the building forms a giant “S”, with opposing arms that form a main entry court and a large service yard. Reception, cafeteria, library, auditorium, and administrative offices flank the entry court. Laboratories, research offices, and testing facilities surround the service yard.

• The building exterior (and parts of the interior) is finished with a limestone aggregate which is sprayed-in-place, into to a plastic binder. [Rudolph used the same textured finish in several subsequent projects.] This exposed aggregate finish was used on 140,000 square feet of exterior walls and 90,000 square feet of interior walls. Rudolph estimated the finish required 20,000,000 stones to complete!

• The building’s structure is an eccentrically loaded trapezoidal steel frame, with columns inclined at 22.5 degrees. Rudolph’s original slant of the design was changed at the request of the building’s structural system. This is the sort of practical accommodation that an architect who’d been long in practice, like Rudolph, would be used to receiving and accommodating.

• The building is dedicated on Friday, April 7th 1972.

• A collectors medallion is issued to celebrate the dedication which features a rendering of the building on one side, and a unicorn (the company’s logo) on the other side.

The ground-breaking ceremony marking the commencement of construction of the Burroughs Wellcome building in Durham’s Research Triangle Park. Paul Rudolph is at the right.

At completion, a commemorative medal was issued for the 1972 dedication.

• As part of the dedication ceremony, Rudolph gives a walking tour of the building. He writes a description of the building saying, “the building is conceived as a man-made extension of the ridge upon which it is built. The building is terraced, each floor being smaller that the one below it. Its placement allows people to enter from below walking through a courtyard and porch into the lobby.”

• The building interior and exterior are used as part of the set for the 1983 science fiction film Brainstorm starring Christopher Walken and Natalie Wood. 

• The building is originally known as the Burroughs-Wellcome Company Headquarters (and later the GlaxoSmithKline Building.)

• The original building has several additions, all designed by Paul Rudolph, including: a Main Building addition in 1976, a Toxicology/Experimental Pathology Building addition in 1978 and a South Building Expansion in 1982. Rudolph also was asked to create a new Masterplan for the site in 1982.

• The building is closed to the public for decades for security reasons, while pharmaceutical companies Glaxo, Glaxo Wellcome, and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) actively use it as offices and research laboratories. Employees are not permitted to take cameras into the facility, due to the sensitivity of the research being conducted.

• The building is renamed the Elion-Hitchings Building in 1988, honoring Gertrude Elion and George Hitchings - research chemists with Burroughs Wellcome who shared the 1988 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Sir James Black. Their prize-winning research was done while they were working at the building.

• On April 21, 1989 four ACT UP activists barricade themselves inside an office in the building: they demand a cut in the price of AZT (at that time the most expensive medicine in history.)

• In 1995, Burroughs Wellcome and Glaxo merge to become Glaxo Wellcome, and a merger between that company and SmithKline Beecham establishes the company as GlaxoSmithKline. The company’s operations are then relocated another facility.

• In February 2010 the building is listed for sale.

• On June 30 2012, Glaxo sells its iconic Elion-Hitchings Building, two interconnected office building, ,and 140 acres of land for $17.5 million to United Therapeutics.

• On October 20 2012, the building is opened for a public tour, arranged by Triangle Modernist Houses (now USModernist) with United Therapeutics. A video of the event can be watched here.

• United Therapeutics demolishes part of the structure in 2014.

• On September 4, 2020 United Therapeutics is issued a demolition permit for the building from the City of Durham. Clear Site Industrial, LLC is listed as the demolition contractor.

SAVE THIS GREAT ARCHITECTURE

Losing Burroughs Wellcome would be a cultural disaster—a titanic loss to our country’s cultural heritage.

When a great building is destroyed, there are no second chances.

FOR NOW, THERE ARE TWO THINGS YOU CAN DO:

• Sign the petition to save Burroughs Wellcome. You can sign it here.

• We’ll send you bulletins about the latest developments. To get them, please join our foundation’s mailing list: you’ll get all the updates, (as well as other Rudolphian news.)—you can sign up at the bottom of this page.

While Modern architecture has often been accused of being color-phobic (and primarily relying on a limited of primarily whites, grays, and beige), that was never true of Rudolph’s work. He could skillfully incorporate even the boldest colors—as shown here in a Burroughs Wellcome interior—which he used to enliven a building’s spaces. Photograph by Henry L. Kamphoefner

NOW UNDER THREAT: One of Paul Rudolph's most amazing designs— the Burroughs Wellcome HQ

Completed in 1972, the Burroughs Wellcome headquarters & research center shows Paul Rudolph at the height of his creative and problem-solving powers. Above, the main building is shown on the right, and the later extension (also by Rudolph) is on the left. Photo by Joseph W. Molitor. Image courtesy of Joseph W. Molitor architectural photographs collection, located in Columbia University, Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Department of Drawings & Archives.

RESEARCH, ARCHITECTURE—AND THE THREAT TO A GREAT BUILDING

Durham, North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park is one of the most prominent research developments in the US. It’s here that distinguished firms and organizations have chosen to place their headquarters and research centers—and it has facilities for hundreds of organizatons, including: IBM, Cree, BASF, Cisco, Lenovo, Underwriters Laboratories, and the EPA.

Some have attempted to construct not only efficient buildings, but ones of architectural merit.—and of all of them, it is Paul Rudolph’s BURROUGHS WELLCOME HEADQUARTERS which stands out.

But now, that building is threatened with destruction. A controversial demolition permit has been issued, and the future of the this architectural masterpiece is in immediate jeopardy. We’ll be giving you updates about this—including how you can help save it. But to start, we thought it would be well worth it to tell you a bit about the building—especially why it’s significant.

The client said they wanted an architecturally distinctive building. They got what they asked for—and Rudolph’s ability to create memorable and forward-looking architecture extended to all the spaces of the Burroughs Wellcome building. This can be seen most vividly in the main entry lobby (which also shows Rudolph’s bold handling of color.). Image courtesy of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, photograph by G. E. Kidder Smith

A BUILDING dYNAMIC IN ITS TIME—AND FOR THE FUTURE

In a half-century career filled with architectural landmarks, gems, and masterworks, Burroughs Wellcome is on many people’s “top ten” list of Rudolph’s designs—and here are some reasons why it’s significant:

• It is one of Rudolph’s largest constructed projects: So one sees, substantively, how a brilliant designer worked out his ideas about siting, planning, spatial organization, interiors, and finishes in a comprehensive, large-scale way, and over a variety of conditions and spaces.

• A design for growth: Rudolph was concerned for the future—of cities, homes, education, and of individual buildings. He knew that, in very tangible ways, buildings are never finished, and must be flexible to accommodate the future. Rudolph designed Burroughs Wellcome with change and expansion in mind: its striking geometries and planning were designed for growth. In fact, this was not just one building, but a growing complex: the main building being designed in 1969; and with extensions added in 1976, 1978, and 1982—that latter date including work on a master plan for the site. [In architecture, as in other fields, there’s no greater compliment than “repeat business.”—and that Rudolph was repeatedly called back by the Burroughs Wellcome leadership shows that his work was practical and beneficial.]

• New paths in creating space: Even though he profoundly respected Mies and Gropius (and acknowledged their importance to him) Rudolph rejected their “universal space” concept—an approach to architectural planning which led to undifferentiated, bland, grid-like spaces: the kind found so often found in the office and educational building designs of his contemporaries. Like Wright, Rudolph sought to create spaces of variety and richness, ones which would allow for varying uses and inspiring experiences. Moreover, he saw that overlapping spaces had the potential to increase communication among a building’s users—a significant advantage in a building for research, corporate coordination, or education. Rudolph had previously, in his Yale Art & Architecture Building, shown how this can be done within a sculpturally handled rectilinear geometry. At Burroughs Wellcome, his oeuvre moves forward into the dynamic realm of angled forms and spaces—ones which simultaneously offer energy and a sense of stability. [This geometry is so striking that the building has been used as the setting for film and television: it was part of the set for the 1983 science fiction film Brainstorm (starring Christopher Walken and Natalie Wood), and was in several episodes of the TV series Revolution.]

• Humanizing materials: Much architectural work, even of the Modern “masters,” is composed with hard, surgically smooth planes. Rudolph was a pioneer in bringing vivid textures back onto the palette of modern architecture. At Burroughs Wellcome, Rudolph specified an exterior finish using a limestone aggregate which was sprayed in place into a plastic binder (and he used similar finishes in subsequent projects.) Such texturing humanizes a building, moving it away from the sterility of which other architects’ buildings are often accused.

• Careful siting and massing: Here, we’ll let the architect speak for himself:

This complex climbs up and down a beautiful ridge in the green hills of North Carolina and is architecturally an extension of its site. An “A frame” allows the greatest volume to be housed on the lower floors and yet connected to the smaller mechanical system at the apex of the building. The diagonal movement of interior space opens up magnificent opportunities. Anticipation of growth and change is implicit in the concept. — Paul Rudolph, in Moholy-Nagy, Sibyl. The Architecture of Paul Rudolph, 1970

• The opposite of blandness: So many corporate facilitates are dull boxes—uninspiring, and creating no impression of pride or identity. From the beginning, Burroughs Wellome’s leadership recognized the specialness of what they’d built—as evidenced in this statement from the company’s President:

This building is an exciting and ingenious combination of forms [in which] one discovers new and different qualities of forms and spaces . . . a splendid climate for scientific scholarship and for the exchange of ideas. — Fred A. Coe Jr., President of Burroughs Wellcome

• A comprehensive work of “wholeness": Rocco Leonardis, a practicing architect and scholar who had a long association with Rudolph, characterized the essential work of architects as “creating wholes.” At Burroughs Wellcome, site placement, structural elements, exterior shapes, viewing angles, steps and paths, interiors, finishes, details—and even the closets and the placement of the flagpole—all are carefully coordinated (especially within the overall diagonal geometry), creating a “total” work of great power and charm.

Rudolph maintained good relations with the company, and was called back—several times—to do further work on the complex. This is his perspective rendering of the dining area—a dynamic space which was constructed as part of the 1976 extension. That addition has been demolished, and now the main part of the building is under threat too. Image © the estate of Paul Rudolph, The Paul Rudolph Heritage Foundation

Paul Rudolph himself greatly prized the design, as is clear from his using Burroughs Wellcome’s Headquarters building for the cover of the monograph on his celebrated drawings.

WILL THERE BE A FUTURE FOR THIS GREAT WORK?

Losing Burroughs Wellcome would be a cultural disaster—a titanic loss to this country’s cultural heritage.

We cannot let that happen—and when a building is demo’d, there are no second chances.

In upcoming posts, we’ll let you know more about the building. Even more important, we’ll keep you updated about the our efforts to save it from destruction—a fate that’s befallen too many of this great architect’s works, and which should not be allowed to happen again.

FOR NOW: THERE ARE TWO THINGS YOU CAN DO—

• Sign the petition to save Burroughs Wellcome. You can sign it here.

• We’ll send you bulletins about the latest developments. To get them, please join our foundation’s mailing list: you’ll get all updates, (as well as other Rudolphian news.)—you can sign up at the bottom of this page.

Rudolph’s full section drawing through the main headquarters building, indicating the dynamic spaces within—and the building’s relation to the site. Image © the estate of Paul Rudolph, The Paul Rudolph Heritage Foundation

Paul Rudolph's 1982 Edersheim Residence is on the market

The Edersheim Residence in Larchmont, New York in 2020. Photograph by Filip Michalowski of CT Plans, courtesy Houlihan Lawrence

Paul Rudolph’s Edersheim Residence at 862 Fenimore Road in Larchmont, New York is for sale.

The original house was constructed in 1958 and owners Maurits and Claire Edersheim hired Rudolph to design alterations to the property in 1982, following his interior renovation of their New York City Apartment on Fifth Avenue in 1970.

The Edersheim apartment in New York City in 2019. Photos by Ethan Shapiro © The Estate of Paul Rudolph, The Paul Rudolph Heritage Foundation.

The Edersheims requested Rudolph design alterations and additions to the property again in 1989 and 1991. Original Rudolph designs include a pool/guest house, main residence entry, covered porch, expansive built-ins, skylights, interior lighting and a complete renovation of the main structure.

The Covered Porch under construction. Photo by R.D. Chin from the Archives of The Paul Rudolph Heritage Foundation.

The Pool/Guest House under construction. Photo by R.D. Chin from the Archives of The Paul Rudolph Heritage Foundation.

The Pool/Guest House under construction. Photo by R.D. Chin from the Archives of The Paul Rudolph Heritage Foundation.

The Edersheims would become some of Rudolph’s most faithful clients, choosing him to design several projects including an office suite for Mr. Edersheim at the Salomon Smith Barney office in New York’s World Trade Center Complex in 1994.

The compound (renovated in 2020) includes the Main Residence, a separate Apartment/Office and a Pool/Guest House. This is a rare opportunity that is perfect for sheltering in place.

Located in Larchmont, NY - just north of New Rochelle and New York City - the home is sited on a 2.49 acre landscaped lot and is listed for $6.4 million USD.

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The property includes indoor & outdoor swimming pools, wet/dry sauna, media room, gym, and multiple work spaces. The open flow floor plan features several additions designed by Paul Rudolph. The Master Suite includes a 21 jet tub, steam shower, rain/body showers, dual water closets, towel warmers, vanity/ dressing area and attached closets.

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About 10,000 sq feet of outdoor living space includes a 1,000 sq ft screened-in outdoor covered porch with an outdoor kitchen for entertaining.

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The residence is located on a unique 2.49 acre private landscaped property in Larchmont and is an easy NYC commute with access to golf, country clubs & the water.

You can learn more about the Edersheim Residence (including more images) at the Paul Rudolph Heritage Foundation’s page for the property’s sale here.

You can also reach out to us at office@paulrudolphheritagefoundation.org for more information.

What's In A Name? When a "Rudolph" Really Isn't One

A home in Chester, NY that the owners claim was designed by Paul Rudolph. Image from a previous listing on Weichert Realtors.

When you represent the estate of an architect who has designed residential properties, you eventually receive word that they are going to be sold. At that point, in steps a real estate agent with the marketing vocabulary and poetic license to find a new owner.

As Christine Bartsch writes in her blog Writing Creative Real Estate Listing Descriptions: 3 Pro Tips (and a Warning!), “The better your listing description is, the better your chances are that buyers will come see your home in person. And the more showings you have, the higher your odds are to get multiple offers.”

It can sometimes be hard to find a new owner for a Rudolph-designed home. They can be of a certain age that they seem too small for today’s buyers (like the Cerritto Residence) or in a location that is no longer remote and in danger of being demolished for a bigger house (like the Walker Guest House) or they can be in a style that can make them hard to love (like the Micheels Residence).

In some cases the owners reach out to the Paul Rudolph Heritage Foundation and we work with them to find a new owner who will preserve the property. We list these properties on our website with instructions here.

As we state in our mission statement, one of our goals is to help provide connections between sellers of Rudolph properties with preservation-minded buyers and design-sensitive real estate professionals. In order to ensure the properties are preserved, it is important they are owned and maintained.

So its interesting that - while its already challenging to preserve original Rudolph designs - we come across properties that claim they are Rudolph designs when there is no evidence that they are.

Note: The following homes are not included in Rudolph’s project list and we have no evidence (in either drawings, photographs or written communication) that they are Rudolph designs. We are happy to update our archives if the owners contact us and can provide supporting documentation.

Let’s take a look at three of these homes:

904 Virginia Drive in Sarasota, Florida

The original house in 2007

The new house in 2020

According to the property’s listing:

This entertainer's dream home is located in the heart of Sarasota's Cultural District. This home was designed by renowned architects Ralph Twitchell and Paul Rudolph in 1940 with construction being completed in 1941. The home was remodeled and expanded in 2009, and refreshed in 2019. The design is a perfect blend of contemporary and mid-century modern.

As soon as we read the listing (sent from a Rudolph fan) we knew the Rudolph reference was mistaken because he joined Twitchell’s office in the Spring of 1941 - the same year construction was completed.

We reached out to several friends in Florida and learned the original address is indeed a Twitchell design, known as the ‘Second Lu Andrews residence’. Pictures of the home appear in John Howey’s 1997 book The Sarasota School of Architecture, 1941-1966.

We were provided a note by a previous owner in the 1990’s that explains a short history of the home. Below is an excerpt:

“There was a small piece in our paper yesterday in the real estate section about the Lu Andrew home in Tahiti Park. I was moved to give a brief history of her second home built in 1939, which my husband and I owned about six years ago. Both homes were built by her boss Ralph Twitchell.

When Pat and I started looking to buy our first home we were living on Hickory street and had both been living here and there in the IBSS neighborhood for years. It was our hope to find a house in the area, and we spent a year looking.

Walking our dogs we came upon 904 Virginia Drive, a for sale sign had just been erected and we immediately went back home to call our realtor to inquire about this charming modern house. We set up an appointment for the very next day, the price was a bit out of our range, but with the idea of negotiating we remained positive.

Meeting the realtor at 904 we knew right away that the outside of the property was a dream, and once the door opened we knew instantly that we had finally found our home. It was small, 900 square feet, perfect for two. It was important for us that the house we bought wasn't entirely bastardized.

Walking into 904 we were delighted by the original integrity, design and layout. Putting an offer in quickly, and dealing with owners that loved the house and yard, it was a given that it would all work out.

Once we occupied the Twitchell house we started to research it's previous owners and history. In the hopes of meeting it's original owner we went to see if Lu Andrews was home at her Tahiti Park address.

Arriving there, we knew from the looks of the house that it hadn't been lived in for quite some time. One of her neighbors saw us and we all started talking and she told us that Lu's son had put her into a nursing home just a few months ago. She knew a lot about the history and about Lu, and was kind enough to let us know where Lu was now living. We called the nursing home and made an appointment to meet with her.

We learned that Ralph built the home for Lu and her son, that Lu slept in the living room on built-in day beds (no longer there) that her son slept in the back bedroom and the front room was to rent out to someone so that it was affordable for Lu. Times ware tough in Sarasota in the 40's, the building boom declined rapidly and when the war broke out work was hard to get. Being a single parent with a son to raise, Lu moved to Washington DC to work as a secretary. She had lived in 904 for a short time, never to return. she moved back to Sarasota after the war and the Tahiti Park house was built for her by Ralph, but the materials used were more humble as the economy here was still tight. She was a dear lady, and her memory faded back and forth, but we were still able to extract this brief history.

Once our children arrived the house was becoming quite small, so we investigated adding on and hired the architect John Howey. We felt John would be perfect as he had just published a book on the Sarasota School of Architecture. Plans were drawn and during the process my neighbor across the street had decided to sell his home, and it was offered to us. Economically it was a wise decision, building the addition was expensive in comparison. We would be going from 900 s.f. into 2000 s.f. without the headache, but with the loss of our sweet Twitchell home.

Sometimes we make decisions with the hopes the what we decide will stay the same, unfortunately two years ago 904 was forever changed.

The beautiful 100 year old river cypress torn away from the walls - paneled throughout the ceilings and walls - piled high into dumpsters. When living at 904 while reading in bed my eyes could not help but to always delight in the beauty of the cypress grain, every bit worthy, of it's title, River Tide, as the grain looks like the water moving along the shore. As if the cypress tree is so ingrained into the life of the water from which it is born.

Twitchell often left a whimsical signature in the homes he built, stars cut out from the cypress, and the cut out itself, neatly imposed near entryways. As the demolition continued at 904, Pat was able to salvage the star paneling and many paneling boards.

On the back of some of the boards was a stamp from the lumber mill from which the cypress originated. In 1922 Cummer Sons Cypress Company was built on 100 acres in Pasco County, in the town of Lacoochee, Florida. The town of Lacoochee thrived for nearly 40 years, where Cummer Sons Cypress, a giant in the logging and lumber industry, made their last stand near the Withlacoochee river. It closed in 1959, and with its demise the town fell into hard times, as the mill was the main employer, providing jobs and housing mostly for African Americans.

I still dream about 904, mostly that I have forgotten a treasure, tucked away in the beautiful memory of a cypress tree.”

The home was modernized in the 2000’s and then later sold to a new owner who demolished 95% of the house and rebuilt it. As our source in Florida told us, “Twitchell at 904 Virginia Drive is long gone.”

On a side note - a wonderful SketchUp model of Lu Andrews’ 3rd house at Tahiti Park referenced in the note above can be found here.

1212 East Sierra Way in Palm Springs, California

A photograph of 1212 East Sierra Way from the property’s listing on Zillow.

The AirBNB listing for the 4,100 s.f. property states:

This iconic mid-century multi-level home in the prestigious Indian Canyons neighborhood was designed by renowned architect Paul Rudolph. Casa Colibri is a sprawling property with expansive rooms and an abundance of floor-to-ceiling windows that shed light on the spectacular, mid-century interior.

In this case, we were alerted by Docomomo - a non-profit organization dedicated to the documentation and conservation of buildings, sites and neighborhoods of the modern movement - asking for confirmation. The listing says the exact location will be provided after booking. A little digging and we discovered a similar listing for ‘Casa Colibri’ on Vrbo which also states, “this iconic mid-century multi-level home in the prestigious Indian Canyons neighborhood was designed by renowned architect Paul Rudolph.”

What caught our eye was the Vrbo listing headline - “3 bedroom 5 bath mid-century 4100 sq ft home featured in modernism week tours.” When members of the Paul Rudolph Heritage Foundation were in Palm Springs for Modernism Week in 2019 to see the Walker Guest House replica we had no idea we were only a 6 minute drive away. No one we spoke to mentioned a Rudolph-designed home was in town, and information about Rudolph at the replica’s installation made no reference to it.

A public records search of Palm Springs (along with a little flying around via Google Earth) and we learned that Casa Colibri is located at 1212 East Sierra Way. According to the property records, the residence was built in 1977. We also found a Zillow listing for a previous sale by Douglas Elliman in 2017 that states:

A house of pure architecture and one of Indian Canyon's most dramatic houses. The different levels recall the work of modernist architect Paul Rudolph and are part of what makes the sight lines so interesting. Extensively renovated by Solterra Construction in 2008 this home has comfortable yet contemporary style and lots of architectural drama.

Within a few years a house that ‘recalls’ Paul Rudolph has become ‘designed’ by him.

19 Greentree Lane in Chester, New York

Photo from the Property Description Report from the Orange County, NY Municipal website

The 7,202 sqft home - which sold for $285,000 in 1995 and then $238,000 in 1999 - jumped 1,034% in price to $2,700,000 in 2014. According to public property records, the home was originally built in 1986 and last modified in 2000-2001. The additions include a 240 s.f. carport, 650 s.f. attached garage and 80 s.f. covered porch. No date is available when the heliport was added on the property.

The residence was listed and delisted several times since 2013 and marketing mentions Paul Rudolph although you might miss it based on the spelling:

“The Hudson Villa is named after its historic origin. Created by the renowned architect Paul Rudolf, the estate is a masterpiece of design and craftsmanship featuring a private white-sand beach and a resort-like setting less than an hour away from New York City.” - Hudson Valley Style Magazine, 07/09/2020

On its own website, the property description states:

“Designed by the renowned American architect Paul Rudolph, the home pays homage to the lodge tradition - precise craftsmanship is evident in architectural accents including cathedral ceilings, light-flooding skylights, and warm stone elements. Security and privacy are front of mind in the design, layout, and features of the property.”

We encourage you to visit the website and judge Rudolph’s participation for yourself based upon the pictures of the home’s interior.

Or, you can check this listing from the Off The Mrkt blog in September 2018:

Reality TV personality and mentor on Scared Straight and MAURY, Dave Vitalli, is selling an aspen style safe house in Chester, New York for $3,088,000.

This safe house located at 19 Greentree Lane was originally built by Paul Rudolph, a renowned architect, in 1986. Rudolph spared no expense when it came to making sure the house would withstand the threats of the world outside. 

The safe house is built of thick slabs of concrete and reinforced steel to help maintain the structure just in case something were to happen. It also has generators, wells, and septic systems in place to allow for comfortable off the grid living. This property has also been previously used as a retreat for diplomats, celebrities, and dignitaries through the years.

The site includes a link to Rudolph’s wikipedia page, because they wouldn’t be able to find a link for the home in our project archives.

Its also interesting to note that the home’s location - Chester, NY - is located in Orange County. Orange County is best known for several Rudolph-related preservation controversies including the destruction of the John W. Chorley Elementary school in Middletown and the partial destruction and insensitive addition to the Orange County Government Center. Could the controversy and Rudolph’s name in the local paper have inspired the marketing connection?

The USModernist organization - which follows and promotes the preservation of modernist homes - says the house was “for sale 2014-2018, advertised as a Paul Rudolph design, based on a claim by the owner. We found no evidence to support that claim whatsoever, and the owner declined to produce any.”

USModernist contacted the property’s real estate agent in 2017, who could not produce any documentation but that Rudolph’s authorship is something ‘the family told them.’ The agent also said the owners commissioned Rudolph to do the renovation.  However, they bought the house in 1999 after Paul Rudolph had passed away in 1997.

After speaking with us, USModernist informed the sales agent and asked that the record be corrected. Instead, the house was delisted only to return yet again as a Rudolph in several relistings with different agents ever since.

Rudolph comes up a few times in the history of this property - either ‘sparing no expense’ in 1986 or renovating the property in 1999 from the afterlife. We note with irony that the renamed ‘Hudson Villa’ is trademarked on the listing’s current website, while taking liberty with the mention of Rudolph’s involvement in the ‘trademark’ design.

Why Now?

Several sales of Rudolph properties have been in the news lately, so we aren’t surprised that Rudolph’s name is being used as a marketing tool.

In 2019, two original Rudolph properties were sold. The 1952 Walker Guest House in Sanibel, Florida was sold at auction by Southebys-New York in December for $750,000 and, with auction house fees, the total came to $920,000. As we reported earlier this month, it is in the process of being moved to a location in California.

The other sale was Rudolph’s 1986 Triestman Residence which went through a subsequent interior modification by the new owner.

In 2020, Rudolph’s 1949 Bennett Residence was sold for $395,500 after being listed for just 3 days. We learned that the new owner purchased it sight unseen for the full asking price - even in the middle of a pandemic.

This year also saw the sale of the Walker Guest House Replica that was on display during Palm Springs Modernism Week (a short drive from the would-be Rudolph) by Heritage Auctions. Bidding began at $10,000 - the budget for the original home when it was first built.

So when we find sellers using Rudolph’s name as a way to get more attention, we take it as a sign of success in our efforts to keep Paul Rudolph’s work in the public’s consciousness.

None of this is meant to make a value judgement about the homes mentioned above, just that they are not Paul Rudolph designs. As is the case with art or architecture, its ‘buyer beware’ and in some cases definitely not ‘you get what you pay for.’

The Bennett Residence - rare Sarasota School Gem - is on the market

Photo: Louis Wery, Archive of the Estate of Paul Rudolph, The Paul Rudolph Heritage Foundation.

The Allen and Barbara Bennett Residence is now for sale. A rarely available property - and one of the few remaining original Twitchell & Rudolph homes to still exist - the restored residence is looking for a new owner who appreciates Mid-Century Modernism.

Located in Bradenton - just north of Sarasota, Florida - the home is sited on a corner lot and is listed for $395,000.

The design brings together native and modern materials – heart cypress, lime block, plate glass – into a disciplined composition reflecting the principles of the Sarasota School of Architecture.

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Sited at ground level, the floor plan works well for wheelchair access. Glass walls open to the outdoors and a private garden courtyard. The Ocala block fireplace and accent walls ground this unique design in its natural surroundings.

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The home was restored by architect and author Joseph King who wrote extensively about Rudolph, and is featured in the 2002 book Paul Rudolph: The Florida Houses.

You can learn more about the Bennett Residence (including more images and a virtual tour) at the Paul Rudolph Heritage Foundation’s page for the property’s sale here.

Celebrate National Preservation Month by Preserving Paul Rudolph’s architecture

It is always a good time to celebrate Paul Rudolph’s architecture —and we can’t think of a better way to celebrate National Preservation Month than finding a new owner who will appreciate and preserve this modernist gem.

You can reach out to us at office@paulrudolphheritagefoundation.org for more information.