Something about the Nature of Architecture: The History of the Robert B. Haas Family Arts Library
Renovation & Restoration
Art & Architecture building with addition, 2016
Rudolph Building Renovation/New History of Art Building/Arts Library, East Elevation
During the economic crises of the '70s, Yale instituted a policy of deferred maintenance which was not lifted until the late '80s. During this time, the interior of the A & A became dark, overcrowded, and overused. After the fire, the structure suffered a series of "unsympathetic renovations" (Sanders, 29) obscuring Rudolph's original vision. Reports from the 1980s-1990s were "rife with librarians' please for expansion" (Vestermark, 9).
In the 1989-1990 school year, faculty members from the School of Art, School of Architecture, and History of Art Department formed a committee to plan a library space that would combine their collection. In spring 1996, the plan was approved, but it was still a decade before an architecture firm was selected to remodel the School of Architecture and Arts Library and create a new adjacent building for the History of Art Department (Vestermark, 10). "The task was imposing: restore a controversial, commanding piece of American architectural heritage while introducing new infrastructure and sustainability measures" (Rohan, 29).
The Jeffrey H. Loria Center and restoration of Rudolph Hall was completed in 2008, led by architect Charles Gwathmey. Gwathmey studied under Rudolph in the 1960s, and his addition of the Loria Center was meant to highlight the original Rudolph design rather than compete with it. The renovation brought the Department of History of Art into the same building for the first time. The goal was to restore the original design to its original intention and introduce technology, air conditioning, and LEED standards. The project cost was $126 million and added 87,000 additional square feet of space. It was a "mix of literal restoration, interpretive renovation, and sensitive intervention, all sensitive to Rudolph's vision" (Yale Arts Complex Press Release, 2008). Critic Ada Louise Huxtable commended the thoughtful addition of the Loria Center: "The first rule of such a charged architectural situation, as in medicine, is do no harm; the addition honors that directive and does what it is supposed to do very well" (Ada Louise Huxtable, 2009, "The Beauty in Brutalism, Revisited and Updated" Wall Street Journal).
View of the Great Hall from above (after renovation)
The work to the library was summarized in the press release for the reopening: "The library that was originally in the building has been vastly expanded and transformed, as the university's art, architecture, and drama libraries and its arts of the book collections--previously located in separate buildings across campus--are now integrated into a single, comprehensive resource. The new Robert B. Haas Family Arts Library straddles the two buildings of the arts complex at the ground floor level."
A review in the New York Times emphasized the critical "interlocking" position of the library's new triple-height "Great Hall" (a former courtyard): "Not surprisingly, the addition’s most powerful innovation is the way in which the two buildings interlock. A staircase leads down into the library. The room, once an outdoor courtyard, is enclosed under a grid of domed skylights. The back of the old art and architecture building is now an interior wall, further blurring the distinction between inside and out. A single skylight extends into Rudolph’s second-floor lobby, gracefully tying the two together."
Robert A.M. Stern, former Dean of the School of Architecture, stated in a press release for the reopening of the building: "To see Rudolph's masterpiece restored to its original glory, and to see students once again working in its light-filled spaces is exhilarating. We hope that the restoration of the building--designed by one of the most talented, inventive, and important architects of the last century--will call attention to the pressing need to preserve both Paul Rudolph's original work in particular and great modern architecture in general."
View of the Rudolph Reading Room from the Architecture Gallery after renovation (Gwathmey Siegel & Associates)
Exterior view of the Art & Architecture Building before the Loria Center addition (eary 2000s)