Something about the Nature of Architecture: The History of the Robert B. Haas Family Arts Library

Concrete

Art and Architecture Building, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. View of finished concrete surfaces (1960s)

Art & Architecture Building, concrete from work used in the construction.

To arrive at the iconic concrete texture that we see today, Rudolph design-tested several different forms. In project records from December 1959, the building is depicted with smooth concrete walls. Six months later, Rudolph had decided on a textured surface. His drawings indicate a 2-step process of molding and then hammering the concrete. Research for the concrete structural elements involved five months of experimentation amounting to 36 prototypes. In the final design, four workers were employed full time at a special rate to hammer away freshly formed concrete to create the crumbled ribbed surface that has become the building's innovative trademark. The particular stone aggregate for the concrete, which is revealed after hammering away the smooth form, was chosen for its warm yellow and gold tones which would be especially vibrant when touched by light (Legault, 82).

Hammering the concrete exposed the specific aggregate mix that Rudolph had selected: "reflective micas, seashells, stones, and even branches of coral" (Rohan, 86).  In the stairwell of the building, ornamental plaster casts enliven the bare concrete, while gemstones and other hidden treasures can be found set into the walls. Some of these playful incursions carried symbolic value for the architect: near the library director's office he sticks cuneiform lettering, one of the earliest forms of record-keeping, and "in the walls of one of the subterranean corridors, Rudolph encases half of an iridescent nautilus shell whose shape echoed the spiral form of the pinwheel plan for the building" (Rohan, 93).