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:
City: Champaign
State: Illinois
Zip Code: 61820
Nation: United States
STATUS
Type:
Status: Demolished
TECHNICAL DATA
Date(s): 1962-1965
Site Area:
Floor Area:
Height:
Floors (Above Ground): 2
Building Cost:
PROFESSIONAL TEAM
Client: Christian Science Organization
Architect: Paul Rudolph
Rudolph Staff: John Damico, Job Captain
Associate Architect:
Landscape:
Structural: Spiegel & Zamecnik
MEP: Van Zelm, Haywood & Shadford
QS/PM: Smith, Seation & Olach
SUPPLIERS
Contractor: Felmley-Dickerson Company
Subcontractor(s):
Christian Science Student Center at the University of Illinois
Because of its particular site - on a busy intersection and surrounded by campus buildings of varied sizes, styles and materials - the exterior of the building is developed to be read as having many scales - in effect, to be scaleless.
Much like the Yale Art & Architecture Building finished just before the design for the project began, vertical piers anchor the mass of the building and visually turn the corner. These solid-looking piers actually form interior light shafts.
Also like the Yale Art & Architecture Building, the project is constructed using a monolithic material and scale-giving elements are recessed to give the building a monumental quality and allow it to be read as many different sizes.
The walls are finished with the same bush-hammered finish that Rudolph used at the Yale Art & Architecture Building.
Interior spaces are made complex by means of smaller volumes intersecting with larger ones, with sliding partitions allowing for flexible use of the space.
Vertical space is manipulated using seven floor levels and by many different ceiling heights and light shafts.
In each light shaft the angles and intensities of light are controlled by a variety of window shapes, that reflect light onto different colored ceiling panels and into the spaces below.
Due to heating costs and a decline in the size of the student congregation over time, the building is eventually closed during the winter months.
Local interest in the building is revived when Rudolph spends a semester at the University of Illinois School of Architecture as the Plym Distinguished Professor of Architecture in the Fall of 1983
The University of Illinois declines to purchase the building when it is listed for sale, citing it does not meet the university’s immediate critical space requirements.
Preservation of the building is supported by the University of Illinois School of Architecture and the local chapter of the AIA in a resolution unanimously passed at its January 1986 meeting.
In 1986 the building is purchased by local real estate developer Gloria Dauten who claims to have “spent a lot of money to see if it could be moved,” but concludes that the building is as firmly planted as “the Rock of Gibraltar.” “I’ve searched my soul on this,” claims Dauten, “I think I’ve gone out of my way to see if something else can be done, and I don’t think it can. It’s really not doing anybody any good in this condition.”
Dauten offers the building to the university for purchase or trade for another suitable construction site. The university administration briefly considers but rejects the offer based on “cost of purchase, and the ability of some university function, urgently in need of space, to use the building efficiently.” The university concludes “the Christian Science Building could not accommodate any of (the university’s) urgent needs for new space without considerable modification to the building as it exists. There is no doubt . . . that extensive physical changes, particularly internal ones, would have destroyed much of the architectural quality of Rudolph’s building.”
The building is demolished in March 1986. Eyewitnesses claim that on the first swing, the wrecking ball bounced off the building. The first cranes and wrecking balls are determined to be too small and it is feared that the building will damage them. Two scheduled days of demolition turn into two weeks.
The building is later replaced by Gregory Towers, a student housing building designed by a local architect who frequently teaches at the School of Architecture.
“At that time I liked the building, and I still like it, which I can’t say about all my buildings.”
“This building is sited next to structures of disparate scale and style. The exterior is purposely scaleless and can be read as many different sizes. The interior has many functions but most of the volumes of space are interconnected, with sliding walls allowing the building to be used occasionally for much larger lecture groups. The character of individual spaces changes markedly by the way light is introduced into the building, by the use of colors and of varying proportions.”
“Deliberately designed by Rudolph to be without scale on its exterior, so that it will not appear too small in contrast to an immense armory next door. Elements which have a readily identifiable size-such as doors or steps- are deeply recessed. Unit materials of known dimension- brick or concrete block for example – are avoided for exterior walls and paving, and different textures of concrete are used instead. The structural supports for the projecting roof and parapet are heavier, deeper and more tightly spaced than necessary, playing their part in fooling the eye.”
DRAWINGS - Design Drawings / Renderings
DRAWINGS - Construction Drawings
DRAWINGS - Shop Drawings
PHOTOS - Project Model
PHOTOS - During Construction
PHOTOS - Completed Project
PHOTOS - Current Conditions
LINKS FOR MORE INFORMATION
RELATED DOWNLOADS
PROJECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
Riley, Robert B. “Light and texture in a student center.” col. il. AIA Journal 68 (September 1979): 84-85.
Religious Buildings by the editors of Architectural Record. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1979. il. plan, sec. pp. 26-31.
“Christian Science organization building.” Architecture and Urbanism 80 (July 1977): 130, 240-241.
“Chronological list of works by Paul Rudolph, 1946-1974.” il., plan. Architecture and Urbanism 49 (January 1975): 159.
Paul Rudolph, Dessins D’Architecture. Fribourg: Office du Livre, 1974. sec. pp. 120-121.
Marlin, William. “Paul Rudolph: drawings.” sec. Architectural Forum 138 (June 1973) 48-49.
Spade, Rupert, ed. Paul Rudolph. London: Thames and Hudson, 1971.
Rudolph, P. and Moholy-Nagy, S. The Architecture of Paul Rudolph. New York: Praeger, 1970.
Koeper, Frederick. Illinois Architecture From Territorial Times to the Present. Chicago: University of Chicago, 1968. il. pp. 284-285.
“Implied space".” il. plan. Architectural Review 142 (September 1967): 171.
“Architecture strongly manipulated in space and scale: a Christian Science student center.” il. (pt. col.), plans, diags. Architectural Record 141 (February 1967): 137-142.
“Paul Rudolph’s elaborated spaces: six new projects.” il., plans, sec., elev. Architectural Record 139 (June 1966): 146-147.
McCahill, E. (1965, October 12). Finish New reading Room. Chicago Daily Illini, p. 3