Handwringing preservationists perturbed by pace at which buildings designed by late legend Paul Rudolph seem to be meeting with the business end of a bulldozer (after getting the Dementor's Kiss from a developer) finally have something else to do with those hands aside from alternately wring and sit on them: take out those money clips and buy one, for $1.8M. A 4,458-square-foot, five-bedroom home that the baron of brutalism designed in the late '60s for Frank and Anne Parcells (who selected him on the recommendation of a friend, after they "attended numerous open houses in the western Detroit suburbs and conducted research to hone in on their architectural likes and dislikes," according to Michigan Modern) is up for sale for what looks to be the first time ever. The listing touts its "impeccable condition," with an updated kitchen being the "only change made to the original design." Weighed against getting razed, an updated kitchen really isn't so big a deal.
As Architectural Record points out, the home bears a strong resemblance to Rudolph's Orange County Government Center—which has been threatened with demolition for the last decade, and could yet be saved by an eleventh-hour offer from NYC architect Gene Kaufman to buy the building and convert it into lofts—with rooms projected out from the facade in hive-like fashion. According to the owners, "the inside and outside are married," and though some might classify the current furnishings as trouble in paradise, the experience of sitting in that expansive, light-filled living room looks pretty splendid.
· Rudolph on the Market [Architectural Record]
· All Paul Rudolph coverage [Curbed National]
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