yale_ a building as a teacher (architecture on the campus)

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LETTERS z e

GOWUPA 4 3

A monthly review of eve nts an d ideas.

ARCHITECTURE ON CAM PUS 463

4 7321 025734607 ~aAu?Rudolph's elebrated Art & Archi-

I tecture Building after four years of

hard use-and misu se.

PRINCETON 5 4

The university ha s given up its atta ch-

ment to Gothic, with mixed results.

LBKE ERIE 62

An award-winn ing library is the lat est

embodiment of a personal design

philosophy. By Victor ChristJaner.

COLUMBIA 6 8

The "Acropolis of America" is expand-

ing, and woe unto those who live in

its path. By C. Richard Hatch.

DUQUESNE 78

Paul Schweikher's Student Union isone of two buildings that have

changed th e scale of an urban camp us.

BERKELEY 9 0

Architect-Planner Sirn Van der Ryn

and his associate, Murray Silverstein,

report on their study of how students

live and work in dorms.

BOOKS 76

John Jacobus' survey of mid-20th-cen-

tury architecture. Reviewed by Edgar

Kaufmann, Jr.

FOCUS 8 6

A monthly review of notable buildings.

TAKROUNA 9 8

An a ncien t Berber village as seen by

Myron Henry Goldfinger.

PREVIEW 114

New life for an old school.

THE ARCHITECTURAL FORUMV O ~ . 27 No. 1. July/Aug. issue.Published 10 ti ~a es year, combiningJan./Feh, and July/Aug. issues,by Urban America, Inc., 111W. 57 St.New York, N. Y. 10019.

Sent without charge to architectsregistered wi thin the U.S.A. Qualifiedpersons are invited to write theCirculation Manager on companyletterhead. Please give your principalstate of architectural registration,your title, an d the kind of work YOU do.Correspondence re garding service,change of address, etc., should be sentto the Circulation Manager.Subscription rate is $12 within theU.S.A. and possessions: Canada, $15;Elsewhere, $20 . College Rate f or studentsand facu lty members of U.S. accreditedschools of al-chi tecture, $6.Single copies, $1.60.Member of Business PublicationsAudit of Circulation, Inc.Controlled circulation postage paidat New York, N.Y.0 967 by Urb an America, Inc.All rights reserved.

J i : ' ' $ 1 /

PUBLISHER'S NOTE

The most recent addition to therising tide of urban literature iEc

Urban America's own magazine,City. We extend a very specialwelcome to the new bi-monthlyreview for veiy special reasons.

Fi rs t of all, because of it s pub -lication, no longer will we haveto explain tha t T H E ARCHITECTURAL FORUMs not the headquar-ters' voice of Urban America.City is . THE FORUMemains whatit has been since its acquisitionby Urban America, the magazine

about architecture and urban de-sign for architects and otherurban designers.

Secondly, we were sure thatwhen former FOR UM managingeditor, Don Canty, went to Wash-ington to direct Urban Amer*ica's Urban Information Center,he wouldn't forget that he wasprimarily a journalist. City, withCanty as its editor, proves wewere right. The current July issuepresents its wide variety of arti-cles on current urban issues in areadable format which, for illus-

trations, eschews the camera forbold art.

Our welcome is warm, too, be-cause City's masthead includesthe n ames of Louise Campbell,another one-time FORUM senioreditor, and Peter Bradford, ex-FOR UM rt staff mem ber and cur-rently a frequent cover designer.

As the official publication ofUrban America, its NonprofitHousing Center, its Business andDevelopment Center, its UrbanDesign Center, its Urban Infor-

mation Center, its Urban Policy

Center, City accepts no advertis-ing. For that reason, too, we wel-come it.

* * *

We ruefully admit that our con-test to identify the componentsof the May cover skyline at-tracted fewer contestants than thesomewhat more widely promotedLucky Buck games sponsored bythe gasoline station people. TOmake everything legal, however,me promise to announce the win-ner s nex t mo nth . --L.W.M.



THE CHANGES

Wh en Pau l Ru d o lp h ' s Ar t &

Arch i tec tu r e Bu i ld in g a t Ya le

opened late in 1963, the fanfare

that mas specially composed for

the dedication was only the be-

g in n in g o f th e f an fa r e th a t r e -

so u n d ed th ro u g h th e a~~ch i tec -

tural wor ld .

Af ter the elaborate praise inthe magazines (FORUM,p r i l

'64)) canle some criticism. But

clidn' t the exhilaration of the

spatia l exper ience overr ide mun-

clane problems, it was a rgued.

Mom recent word fro111 New

Haveil suggested tliat the build-

ing-while st ill great-liiight Ile

something of a disastei- in prao-

tical teams. Charles Moore, Ru-

dolph 's rep lacement as chair i i ia i~

of the architecture depar tment,

looks at it this way: "It 's a I liag-

nificent building, ~vi tli fa ta lfla~vs," lie said recently, "wbicli

is nluch better t han a good bnild-

in g wi th 111inor flaws."

Intrigued, aiicl not malltiilg to

wait the ten-year miilinluili for

an official return visit, me re-

turilecl to the A & A Buildiilg

fo r a l ive-in and a speak-out .

Much lias changed about the

building, and much canilot be

changed. The most str iking

change has occurred on the floor

of the architecture set t lement

(opposite)-strikiilg, tliat is, to

those who reinember the careful

rows of carefully desigiied draft-

ing tables when the building

opened (below lef t) . Today i t is

a fnvelln, a spolltalleous shanty-

town that changes with the

years as new students br ing

their talents and neecls to this

unassigned design problem.

The s tructures are f l imsy 01%

solid, straightforward or whim-

sical, modest or grandiose. Last

year, a student built a two-stonyoffice for himself; next year may

see a totally new answer to the

special requirements of function

(a p lace to hang yo ur drawings,

as well as yo111. hat), of privacy

(a p lace to shut out neighbors) ,

and of ego ( a pIace to express

your own personali ty , perhaps

with a sense of competition, or

a surge of ter l~itor ial i ty , o r a

need fo r homeliness-or what-

ever makes us build as me do).

Another major transformatior

has taken place, but by inten

tion , a t the penthouse. Af ter i

number of v is i t ing d ignita~ies

had complained about elevatoi

noise intruding on the elegancc

of the gxest su ite (below cen~

t e r ) , it was proposed to ehangc

the are a i nto a coffeel~onse (be

low right) . This is so socoessfu,

as a meeting place th at at leas1

two professors now claim thcidea as their 01~~11,n d th e o p era

tion earns several thousand a

y ear f o r th e s tu d en t lo an fu n d

It provides alnlost the onlj

meeting place between students

of different departments, ancl an

ironic after-the-fact justif ication

for their being in the same build-

ing in the f ir s t p lace. The pre-

viously designated lonnge on the

exhibition floor has not worked

satisfactorily as a meeting place.

The w ays i n ~vli ich he build-

ing h a s -o r hasn 't-adapted tothe l i fe with in i t a re indeed in-

s t iuctive. But the s trong impact

the build ing makes on s tudents

-the involvenlent it demands,

the violence i t evokes, the irri-

tant and stinlulus it provides-

nl&e this bnilding an unusua l

o n e fo r ed u ca tio n. I t h as a

dimension today that it lacked

when it was neat and new. Then

it was only a three-dimensional

piece of theoretically habitable

sculpture. Today, it is lived-in,

talked about, h a t e d , m i t t e n o n ,

delighted in, with an involvement

that is perhaps the real success

of a builcling tha t also has m any

aspects of failure.

The build ing s t i l l s tands out

1s a place of distinction. Some

students cal l i t the Rucliberger ;

tnd one s tudent tel ls of the v is i-

.or driving by who asked if it

,was the Holiday Inn.

But ins ide, i t is unquestion-

~ b l y n e of th e mo s t s t imu lat in g

:nvironments for the s tudy of?nvironmenC. Whether this re-

nits mo re f ro m th e p eo p le o r

he build ing , no one can say . I t

s s imp ly ap p aren t th a t th e p eo -

)la here m e involved, connected,

elated-to the ir morlx, to each

) ther . I f the build ing has any-

hing to do with th is , the

~chievelnenl may well bala nce

~ n t he d ir t that can no longel*

le s~ v cp t n d er th e n o ~ v h ab by

lange carpets .



The building at once seems slop-pier, more casual, than when the

carpets were new. (So me carpetshave been replaced by brown or

beige; Rudolph says he wouldstill choose the original color, butshould have chosen a better qual-ity.) It isn't so much a deteriora-

tion about the place---everythingseems older than its fo ur years-but a wearing down to a shabbi-ness beyond which it is unlikelyto deter iorate further .

The windows ase in an ad-vanced state of filth, not havingbeen cleaned since they were in-stalled. Window cleaning wouldrequire a scaffolding estimatedat $2,200, says the administra-tion, and they are not about tospend money for it. Actually,

says Rudolph, the intention wasto use a rope system over theparapets, but he concedes thatthe jogs in the building's ex-terior make this difficult. Brealr-age and replacement are no an-swers, either-one larg e replace-ment had to be lifted to anupper floor on the tops of two

elevator cabs, which luckily as-cended in tandem.

Exposed concrete walls that,four years ago, were fresh fromthe vertical folanboards are now

plastered with graffiti. It i s asif the existing wall surfaces wereunfinished, the way the scratchcoat of a plaster wall receivesvarious directions, artwork, com-ments. Bub in this case, themessages are the wall. finishes.

The relatively smooth sur-faces lef t by the vertical f o m -ing seem the most popular, al-though there are also shy graf-fiti occasionally penned in thevertical ribbing of the concrete

corduroy. Most popular placesare the usual ones--bathrooms,stair towers, elevator lobbies-plus a few unusual ones ( a de-rogatoly comment about the

building appears, for instance,under one armpit of the Eeo-nardo figvre). The messages arenot all verbal: the Minenva'seyes are "blunked out" lilre Lit tleOrphan Annie, and cigarettesare stuffed into the holes left by

the anchors of the formwork.

50

I



But some things can't bechanged, and the list of com-plaints goes from the top of thebuilding to the bottom. (If theair conditioning had been in-stalled as planned, however, sev-eral complaints would disap-pear. The cost of installing it

now k estimated at $150,000.)Many complaints are by de-

partment, and are a function of

its special space and equipment.Painters, for instance, are onthe top two floors, in airless\vanens that seem to operate

largely as storage cubbyholes.Comp laints ar e basic-an over-lighted studio on the east ( it wasoriginally foil drawing, not forpainting) ; a l imitation on the

size of paintings (7 by 7 f t .o r 6 by 8 f t . is the largest

canvas that can f it into theelevator-anything larg er has tobe taken off its stretchers) ; heconstantly ciwnbling ceiling ofacoustical plaster that falls intofresh work ( a criticism commonthroughout the building).

The pa inte rs pre fe r to beaway from the building com-pletely; some are selected by lotfor the university-owned build-ing on Temple S treet, and somework at home. There is a move-

ment afoot to get an entirelyseparate building for all thepainters. Their space in the A& A Building, according to one

student, is typical of Pale's at-

titude towards its artists. "Theywant something for us, but don'tknow what. No artist could haveseen these plans." The a rt fac-ulty were involved, of course, inthe planning, bu t even they were

for the vehement re-action of the students.

Architects, on the two floors

just below, have other com-plaints. Drafting room noise is aproblem that the most elaboratefavella cannot change. One stu-dent solves it by plugging him-self (by the earphones) into hishi-fi;many o thers work a t home.Rudolph thrives on openness (hisNew Pork office i% fully open),and although he adm its that some

may not work best this way, hethinks that the net result is all



Lighting has been a probleirin the drafting room. Students

remove the reflector bulbs (tc

reduce heat froin tliem, or sin1

ply to use then1 at home), bul

this lighting mas not satisfac.

toiy in any case, according to s

recent article in I l l z c~~ t i na t i ~g

Engilzeering. The original inten-

tion, says Rudolph, was never tc

rely solely on the reflectors atworlr areas.

The other large space, the ex-

hibition hall, is not popular1 Painters don't like to exhibit

here, citing "overpowering arch-

itecture," bad illumination, and

the difficulty of hanging work

against the ribbed malls. The

most successfu1 exhibitions have

been three-dimensional and

space-filling-one on banners,

another on ICiesler's sculpture.

The jury pit, too, has not

realized its potential-as a fluidspace where students could wan-

der in and out. The soundproof

ceiling makes it difficult to hear

jurors unless they are given to

excessive histrionics. There is

also conflict with the typing

noise from the administrative

floor above, which is open to

this floor. Large juries are now

held in the auditorium.

I n the basement, some of the

same criticism is raised. In the

graphic design quarters, lighting

(again by reflectors) was so in-adequate that a new fluosescent

strip mas installed down the

length of the low-ceilinged

studio. "We have a tremendous

advantage, thongh, with the

only opening windows in the

building," says a professor.

The printmaking studio has

little direct daylight, but to some

extent the situation has been im-

proved by painting the rough

concrete white, so as to gain the

full benefit of reflected daylight.

The lack of sufficient air re-mains a problem in a studio with

pungent materials.

But the sculptors, in the snb-

basement, are the true step-

children. Some 17' tons of ma-

terial were delivered to .their

studios in the first year, but

they only got a freight ele-

vator this spring. (It mas one

of the items cu t from the orig-

inal design to save money.) The

foundly has had such inadequate

ventilation that a blue haze

hangs over tlle area ~vllile t is

operating, malting it virtually

inlpossible to work here at the

saine time. (A foundry mas not

part of the original program.)

The present solution is an es-

haust fan in the open elevator.

Ceiling height for the sculp-

tors i s a f ar inore basic constric-

tion. Lucky are those who worknear the outsicle mall, able to

borrow height from the nlonitors

that go through to the next

floor. I t has been suggested that

the ceiling be relnoved between

beams in this area, adding an-

other 18 in. or so to the usable

height of the work area.

There are further criticisms :

Security p~oblen ls. "No one

foresaw the problenis of being

open 24 horns a day," says Dean

Gibson Danes, who came to his

office in the same year (1958)that Rudolph becanle chairnlan

of the architecture department.

The exhibition area and library

3honld have been separate froin

,theis facilities, Danes feels.

c Acoustical problems. Added

to those already mentioned (be-

tmeen open floors) aye those,

for instance, in the baseinent

~~~clitoriunlhere the inechanical

quipment and any loudly swear-

Ing student in an adjacent studio

are fully audible.

@ Privacy problems. Faculty of-ices, on the administrative level,

a e not ear-tight. The architec-

,ure chairman's office has only

3econ1e privake mith the addition

~f a door and the extension of

putitions to the ceiling.

Q Maintenance problems. Door-

mobs have fallen off. The bare

:oncrete of elevator lobbies has

~ e e n errazzoed.

Educational problems. Per-

laps the most serious shortcom-

ng on this long list is the fact

,hat the entire building essen-,idly represents one person's

~pproach . This has been criti-

:ized recently even by Nilcolaus

?evsner, who gave the laudatoiy

~dd res s t the building's dedica-

ion. The enthronement of the

my, the dearth of seminar

*ooms, every allocation and ar-

>angement of space amounts to

vhat one professor calls "a

eaching progam that has been

)onred in place."



- they ar e par t of what hap-

pens to a building; lie Peels, aucl

are Illore real tllan a slick sur-

se, allJrone .face that remains pristine.

f a chance," s ag s one Despi te indignat ion, s tudents

a of the bui lding. Many may be Inore a t home here than

building full, inventive, in the llolllcs lvliere they greu\i

exciting., romalltio. ('It UP. ((YOU all do anyt hing to th e

the very fe w buildings building, it's inclestructible,"says one student as he pulls off

a handful of the ceiling. "I go

n~l looolt i t in his hands along the wal l with a hammer

in my hand ; and we s p ray mod-

els in the s ta i r tower." Maybe

. a b~ l i ld ing o r young peop le i s

tioll best mhen it becolnes lik e olcl

jiIst doesn't come off, clothes. This one is l ike an old

o,ny parts Of the build- jacket-still warm and wear-

of able , ba t with the but tons fa l l -

al intricacies," Olle ing off and the edges fraye d.The bui lding has an undeni-

able impact on the s tudents '

appreciation of archi tectur al re-

liscovel*ies, "I'm tired sponsibility, w h y , they aslr, mas

),ack agai llst it," the re SO little foresight conceill-

rc] s tudent . "But tha t 's ing s tudents ' needs? W hy sol i t t le a t tent ion to whether cargo

net t ing mould screen the sun?

And wha t happens when a bud-

g e t i s t i g h d m h a t g e t s c n t , a n d

h by wllom? ('There's somethin g

are lrolv people react, ~ v r o n g b o ut a man s ix f loors in

long as they react ." the a i r chipping away a t tha tconcrete," say s one of the arch i-

tecture professors. "But it isn't

fa i r to ois it io ize Rudolph fo r not

nlaking an exci t ing hui lding

,cecl to collf rollt it. that also works. Yale only asked

for an exciting building."

To sonie students, this atti-

a r e a n a t t e m p t t o tude is s hock ing . Pe t they re -

overpowering arohi- por t th a t vis i tors are equally

to carve o ut sonie shocked to find the building so

thers say no, th a t s t rongly resented, when i t mas

s tudents wil l bui ld so s t rongly pra ised in the press .

is pei.mitted, carv - This, in fac t, nlay be one of th e

snlallest and most building's lllajor lessons. Ther ea re few a rch i t ec tu re s tuden t s a t

Yale who aren ' t aware of the

need to take a second look at

lllany buildings in use, and the

s te n si ve g r af f it i? ~ o s - n ee d, i n m a n y c as es , f o r a n

defacement from has- architect to take a closer look

possibly this visually a t the ultiniate users of a build-ing. The building is emphatically

an educat ion, fo r s tudents in and

out of school, and in a time of

bland bui ldings and bland edu-

cat ion, perhaps this is uniquepra ise f o r a unique bui lding.

----ELLENERRYERKELEY

ca,lnn ab ou t the gb.affiti, "nO'oGRAPHS: "After" photography

by ROY Berkeley; "before" by Ezrak ~ , nd the crunibl ings st0ller ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ i ~ ~ ~ ~ .

yale_ a building as a teacher (architecture on the campus)

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