Rudolph was Chairman of the School of Architecture at Yale University from 1957 to 1965, during which time he also designed its Art and Architecture Building, one of his most famous projects. Completed in 1963, the building's brutalist concrete form and spatially intricate interiors drew both accolades and criticism. The building is clad in grooved cast-concrete panels that were hammered by hand to create a rough "corduroy" texture that generates constantly shifting patterns of light and shadow, brilliantly captured in this ink drawing. Rudolph was one of few architects who drew their own presentation drawings; he used a distinctive technique of closely spaced lines drafted in ink and embellished with additional parallel and crosshatched lines to render depth and shade. The building created a complex sectional development of interlocking multistory spaces within a monumental structure, in the tradition of Frank Lloyd Wright. It is currently being renovated by Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects.
Gallery label from 75 Years of Architecture at MoMA, 2007.
