Paul Rudolph's Christian Science Building

This paper presents new historical research on the concrete facade of an important but relatively unknown and now demolished building by the American modernist architect Paul Rudolph (1918-1997). Today Rudolph is best known as a proponent of Brutalism and for designing a series of projects built of concrete in the 1960s, exemplified by the Yale Art & Architecture Building (1963). Closely related in materiality and form to the famous Yale building was Rudolph’s design for the Christian Science Building (1965) in Champaign, Illinois, a smaller and lesser known but still remarkable concrete building. However, in contrast to the Yale building, which was recently carefully restored and renamed as “Rudolph Hall” to honor its architect, the Christian Science Building was demolished in 1986 after only 20 years of use. One of the factors cited for the building’s abandonment was the poor performance of its concrete facades. Archival drawings reveal that during the design process Rudolph initially proposed using custom CMU blocks to form cavity walls with continuous insulation. However, due to cost concerns cited by the builder, the walls were instead constructed of monolithic cast-in-place concrete with no added thermal insulation. This decision had significant impacts on the subsequent energy performance of the envelope; eventually the cost of heating and maintaining the building was cited as a major reason for its abandonment and demolition. This research reveals the potentially significant impact that facade construction techniques may have on the future preservation or destruction of twentieth-century modernist architecture.