The personally designed home of large-looming architect Paul Rudolph, the late former dean of the Yale School of Architecture, has been put back on the market for $28M after failing to sell in 2012. Last listed for $27.5M, the four-unit townhouse is still advertised with the same set of photographs showing its stark white interior in a state of sparse appointment, and though the marketing material makes mention of the abode's two AIA awards, and the fact that architecture critic Michael Sorkin believes it to be "one of the most amazing pieces of modern urban domestic architecture produced in this country" (the listing's words, not his), the full breadth of its reception is probably more mixed then that. Even if you're Paul Rudolph, you don't buy a townhouse dating back to 1930, tear the roof off, and build a very modern triplex penthouse on top (as Rudolph did in 1970) without ruffling a few feathers.
Wes Anderson fans may recognize the place from its 2001 role as Ben Stiller's home in The Royal Tenenbaums. Since then, the penthouse—which has four interconnected levels of "cantilevered floors, mezzanines, bridges, floating stairs, steel I beams, and pergolas"—has been subject to a renovation that added panes of glass to the railings and saw many of the fixtures replaced. One fun tidbit: according to Curbed NY, Rudolph confessed to being afraid of going out to the end of the bird walk that juts out from the rooftop terrace. Hit the archives for more on the Brutalist pioneer's hive-like homes, traveling beach houses, and threatened government centers.
· Paul Rudolph's Incredible 23 Beekman Relisted for $28M [Curbed NY]
· All Paul Rudolph coverage [Curbed National]
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