Welcome to the Archives of the Paul Rudolph Heritage Foundation. The purpose of this online database is to function as a tool for scholars, students, architects, preservationists, journalists and other interested parties. The archive consists of photographs, slides, articles and publications from Rudolph’s lifetime; physical drawings and models; personal photos and memorabilia; and contemporary photographs and articles.

Unless otherwise noted, all images and drawings are copyright © The Estate of Paul Rudolph and The Paul Rudolph Heritage Foundation. Please speak with a representative of the Paul Rudolph Heritage Foundation to get permission to use any drawings or photos. Drawings, sketches and other materials produced by Rudolph’s architectural office at the Library of Congress are maintained there for preservation, but the intellectual property rights belong to the Paul Rudolph Estate and Ernst Wagner, founder of the Paul Rudolph Heritage Foundation.

LOCATION
Address: 9390 Midnight Pass Road
City: Sarasota
State: Florida
Zip Code: 34242
Nation: United States

STATUS
Type: Residential
Status: Demolished

TECHNICAL DATA
Date(s): 1951
Site Area:
Floor Area: Large cottage 792 s.f.; Small cottage 594 s.f.
Height:
Floors (Above Ground):
Building Cost: $21,622 at $15,60/s.f. (1951)

PROFESSIONAL TEAM
Client: Kate Wheelan
Architect: Ralph S. Twitchell
Associate Architect: Paul M. Rudolph
Landscape:
Structural:
MEP:
QS/PM:

SUPPLIERS
Contractor:
Subcontractor(s):

Wheelan Cottages

The cottages were designed as temporary rental units
The tent-like tension roofs are made-up of catenary curves formed by flat 1/8” x 1-1/2” mild steel bars, spaced 1’-4” on center, to which are clipped large sheets of 1/2” insulating building board, covered with a 1” layer of glass-fiber insulation with a finished surface of 1/16” thick sprayed-on vinyl plastic
Tension and compression members along the North and South walls of the structures are designed to compensate for the inward thrust of the roof
The soffits of the portion of the roof that extended beyond the building line are surfaced with plywood
It was demolished for a multi-family development

““In comparison to the Coward Residence, the Kate Wheelan Cottage conveys a more pronounced sense of abstraction in the disposition of form and material. Planar block walls of uniform height anchor the two cottages to the ground and to each other. Through the use of open side walls and glazed gable ends, the thin swooping roof reads as an independent form, seeming to float in air. The broad, sheltering quality of the roof is further emphasized in the interior. Freestanding partitions, except at the bathroom enclosure, continue at the same height as the block walls, independent of the hovering canopy above.

These cottages, designed as short-term rental units, achieve a sense of both lightness and protection. Neither elevated on pilotis nor terraces, they are constructed directly on the ground and continue the idea developed ten years earlier in the Twitchell Residence: a way of living in a minimal pavilion immersed in the benign, though seemingly wild, subtropics.””

— Domin, Christopher, and Joseph King. Paul Rudolph:The Florida Houses. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2002. p. 119.