Another shining moment for Charles Gwathmey

Above: The newly dedicated Paul Rudolph Hall, with addition by Charles Gwathmey at right. Below: Frank Lloyd Wright's Larkin Administration Building in Buffalo, demolished in 1950.

Charles Gwathmey, whose firm Gwathmey Siegel and Associates designed the new Burchfield-Penney Art Center and the UB Center for the Arts, recently unveiled his addition to Yale University's Paul Rudolph Hall in New Haven, Conn. The new complex, which houses the school's art and architecture programs, was designed by Rudolph and -- as Richard Lacayo points out in his fascinating blog entry on the building's rededication -- embodies influences from Frank Lloyd Wright's mighty Larkin Administration Building, which was demolished after years of neglect and disrepair in 1950. That demolition certainly ranks among the most devastating and ill-advised in the history of the United States, and certainly the city of Buffalo. Lacayo on Wright's influence:

Rudolph's building owed a lot to Frank Lloyd Wright's rethinking of architectural space in terms of thrusting planes and volumes, and to Wright's way of interlocking compressed and open spaces. It's practically a posthumous tribute to Wright's great Larkin Administration Building of 1904, which had been demolished in 1950.

It's good to see the tradition of the Larkin building still being honored today, as Rudolph himself honored it with his original building at Yale in 1963. Also worth noting is the compelling and prolific work of Gwathmey and his firm, who have left an indelible mark on the already rich architectural landscape of Western New York.

--Colin Dabkowski

(Photos from Time.com.)