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: 165 Church Street
City: New Haven
State: Connecticut
Zip Code: 06510
Nation: United States

STATUS
Type: Government
Status: Project

TECHNICAL DATA
Date(s): 1968-1972
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PROFESSIONAL TEAM
Client: City of New Haven, Connecticut
Architect: Paul Rudolph
Associate Architect:
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Structural:
MEP:
QS/PM:

SUPPLIERS
Contractor:
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Government Center including new City Hall, library, plaza, police station, bank, Federal office building and garage

The project scope is to design a 240,000 s.f. City Hall and a new library, with underground parking on a site bounded by the New Haven Green and a group of existing buildings on the block, including the existing 32,000 s.f. City Hall.
Rudolph’s design preserves part of the existing Victorian Gothic building facing the green - and use the section with its grand stair as the entrance to the new city offices.
The library is on the lower floors of the new building. A ceremonial outdoor space is created between the City Hall and library wings.
The new buildings echo the verticality of the old City Hall - with tall window slits echoing the Gothic windows, slant-topped stair and elevator wells are meant to suggest “towers.”

“Paul Rudolph’s design for the New Haven Government Center is the most sophisticated kind of urban in-fill: it creates new buildings sympathetic to the old in color, massing and character - and adds some fine new outdoor spaces.”

— Jeanne M. Davern in "Architecture 1970-1980: A Decade of Change", 1980.