During the late House & Garden Magazine's "Design Happening," I went to see this townhouse by Paul Rudolph, completed in 1994. If this series of lectures and events is any indication, it's no wonder the publication went out of business; the whole thing was run extremely poorly. The woman organizing this particular one was just beyond rude.
One of the speakers was an historian, Donald Albrecht, who knew quite a lot about Rudolph, the other was Rudolph's lighting designer, Ernst Wagner, who also still lives in the house. My friend and I had arrived a bit early, and were the first ones there. Wagner let us in and was really very, very sweet and hospitable.
The house is on East 58th Street, if I remember correctly. Rudolph evidently had another house on Beekman Place where he spent most of his time, but he used this address to play around and test out different ideas.
Click on the pictures for larger views.
It was revealed later that the front facade actually reads as the interior of the house in section: the arrangement of all the floors and circulation routes and everything else, all the way to the back.
Living/ Music Room/ Library:
Kitchen:
If you look closely, the white horizontal sort of shelves in front of the glassware are actually stairs leading up to the second floor:
TV Room/ Dining/ Back Terrace:
All images ©2007, Heidi Gelover and Ryan Witte
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