The many buildings and projects created by celebrated architect Paul Rudolph (1918–1997) for New Haven and Yale University—designs that changed the face of the city and the campus—are the subject of this exhibition.

“Model City: Buildings and Projects by Paul Rudolph for Yale and New Haven” is part of a celebration that includes the rededication of Paul Rudolph Hall on November 8 (exactly 45 years after the dedication of the Art & Architecture Building in 1963) and the dedication of Yale’s new complex that includes Paul Rudolph Hall, the new Jeffrey H. Loria Center for the History of Art, and the new Robert B. Haas Family Arts Library. The project was designed by Charles Gwathmey of Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects.

Known as the “Model City” for its leadership in urban renewal, New Haven was a proving ground for Rudolph to develop ideas about the primary themes of post-World War II modernism. Soon after Rudolph became chair of Yale’s Architecture Department (1958–1965), Mayor Richard Lee and his administrator for urban renewal, Edward Logue, engaged the architect to help usher New Haven into the automobile age with the Temple Street Parking Garage (1959–1963). Intended to help revitalize downtown, the parking garage project was part of Rudolph’s larger, unexecuted scheme for Church Street Redevelopment (1959–1960), which will be on public display for the first time in this exhibition.

The exhibition is curated by Timothy M. Rohan, associate professor of architectural history at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, who has drawn upon a range of materials, selected primarily from the Paul Rudolph Archive at the Library of Congress.