Understanding Paul Rudolph

Mark Byrnes (BAED ’10)

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Mark Byrnes is an editor at the architecture firm, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM). Previously, he was an editor at CityLab, an urban affairs online publication, where he reported extensively on postwar design in the built environment, the politics behind their existence, and the forces driving their preservation and removal today. 

Understanding Paul Rudolph

Between 2015 and 2019, Mark Byrnes reported extensively on the architecture of Paul Rudolph and the complicated relationships so many cities have with his buildings today. These stories included explorations of affordable housing and community development in Buffalo, a public library in Niagara Falls, a health and welfare center in Boston, and a government services center in Goshen. Many of Rudolph’s works face demolition due to diminishing public resources, real estate pressures, and a general misconception of Brutalism as an aesthetic and ideological assault on the traditional American landscape.

Project Credit: CityLab