Paul Rudolph: The Florida Houses
Christopher Domin , Joseph King

Paul Rudolph, one of the 20th century's most iconoclastic architects, is best known—and most maligned—for his large "brutalist" buildings, like the Yale Art and Architecture Building. So it will surprise many to learn that early in his career he developed a series of houses that represent the unrivaled possibilities of a modest American modernism. With their distinctive natural landscapes, local architectural precedents, and exploitation of innovative construction materials, the Florida houses, some eighty projects built between 1946 and 1961, brought modern architectural form into a gracious subtropical world of natural abundance. Like the locally inspired desert houses of another modern master, Albert Frey, Rudolph's Florida houses represent a distillation and reinterpretation of traditional architectural ideas developed to a high pitch of stylistic refinement. Paul Rudolph: The Florida Houses reveals all of Rudolph's early residential work. Along with Rudolph's personal essays and renderings, duotone photographs by Ezra Stoller and Joseph Molitor, and insightful text by Joseph King and Christopher Domin, this compelling new book conveys the lightness, timelessness, strength, materiality, and transcendency of Rudolph's work.


Christopher Domin i s an architect and educator living in Tucson, Arizona. He is a professor at the University of Arizona where he teaches design studios along with history and theory seminars that focus on mid-century and contemporary architecture.

Joseph King is an architect practicing in Bradenton, Florida. He is a specialist in landscape, development, and design as related to regional issues of sustainability.
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Editorial Reviews

DOCOMOCO :
"an in-depth view of Rudolph's regional practice...Ezra Stoller's stellar period photographs... show these houses in their best light " (Spring 2000)

LA Architect:
"In Ezra Stoller's crisp period photographs these houses seem almost dreamlike...Every aficionado of mid-century modern should buy this elegant volume." (May/June, 2002)

Choice:
"Authors Domin and King are both architectural educators, and they have done a model job of corralling facts, pictures, and interpretations for a publisher dedicated to the promotion of thoughtful modern architecture. " (December, 2002)

AIA:
""a handsome new volume ..... The Florida Houses offers fresh reconsideration of Rudolph's early--and arguably best--work...the authors let the houses speak for themselves through Rudolph's drawings and Ezra Stoller's photographs." " — Robert J. Taylor

Sarasota Herald-Tribune:
"The authors, young architects who so admire mid-century modern houses that each has personal ties to one, have written a thoroughly researched book with extensive footnotes" (April 20, 2002)

World of Interiors:
"The images alone make the book worth the outlay: Rudolph's own crystal-clear drawings and the glowing monochrome photos of Ezra Stoller." (September, 2002)

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