Louis Micheels House

Last updated

Louis Micheels House
Louis Micheels House south elevation.jpg
Louis Micheels House south elevation, east wing, view north
Louis Micheels House
General information
StatusDemolished
TypeSingle family home
Architectural style Modern architecture Brutalist architecture
Address16 Minute Man Hill
Coordinates 41°06′44″N73°21′01″W / 41.11222°N 73.35028°W / 41.11222; -73.35028
Completed1972
Demolished2007
OwnerDr. Louis J. and Ina Micheels
Height28.10 ft (8.56 m)
Technical details
Floor count2
Floor area4,200 sq ft (390 m2)
Design and construction
Architect(s) Paul Rudolph
Structural engineerDavid Hofman
Main contractorCharles Remlin

Louis Micheels House was a single family home in Westport, Connecticut, designed in the style of the Sarasota School of Architecture by founder Paul Rudolph. Built in 1972, it was considered an example of Modern and Brutalist architecture. The home was commissioned by Louis Micheels, and it was razed in 2007.

Contents

History

Construction

Louis Micheels House west wing office view southeast showing built-in bookcases and cabinets Louis Micheels House west wing office view southeast.jpg
Louis Micheels House west wing office view southeast showing built-in bookcases and cabinets

The Louis Micheels House was a 4,200 sq ft (390 m2) home in Westport, Connecticut, a town on Long Island Sound. It was designed by Paul Rudolph, a founder of the Sarasota School of Architecture, and completed in 1972. [1] The building is named for the owners who commissioned the project, Dr. and Mrs. Louis Micheels. The land was purchased by the Micheels on July 12, 1971, and Rudolph was hired to design a home which had a "light, airy feeling". [2]

Demolition

In 2005 Louis and Ina Micheels began trying to sell the property. The asking price was 5 million dollars and by late 2006 the building had not found a buyer. [1] The town of Westport began to take an interest in saving the building in 2006. The town issued 92 demolition permits for buildings in the area in 2006 alone and they feared that a new buyer would demolish the building to make way for a modern home. One media outlet reported on the potential for a raze permit to demolish the house in a section they entitled "Teardown of the Day." Because of the publicity the town's Historic District Commission took an interest. At 34 years old, the building was not old enough to trigger the town's "Delay of Demolition" ordinance. The National Trust for Historic Preservation determined the home was of "great significance". [3] Next, the State Historic Preservation Office became involved. On December 21, 2006, the Connecticut Trust filed suit to stop the planned demolition of the building. A buyer who wanted to preserve the building was found. When no deal happened Connecticut's Attorney General Richard Blumenthal filed an injunction prohibiting demolition. Despite the efforts of the officials to stop the building's demolition, the Micheels made a deal with a couple who planned to raze the building. [3]

David and Yvette Waldman purchased the building in 2007, [1] paying $3.234 million for the property. The couple immediately had the building razed to make way for a larger 6,200 sq ft (580 m2) home, and attended the demolition. [1] [2] In 2013, the Sarasota Herald Tribune reported, "Micheels himself opposed a historic designation that could have impeded demolition. He had 3.2 million reasons." [4] Louis Micheels died less than one year after the sale of the home. [5]

Design

The home was designed in the style of Brutalist architecture. [4] It was designed with floating sections that can be seen in Rudolph's later designs (like the Bass Residence in Fort Worth Texas). [3] It had a multiple levels and cantilevered geometric flat planes. [1] The master bedroom was cantilevered from a hillside, [6] and supported with thin piers. [3] To provide shade, thin panels were cantilevered above the windows. [6] The interior of the building was filled with stark white wallboard and white cabinetry. [3]

The exterior walls took on a rough stucco-like appearance: there were pieces of quartz in the finish which gave the walls a rough texture. [6] The home sat on top of a hill and was supported on one side and cantilevered on the other. [3]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sarasota, Florida</span> City in Florida, United States

Sarasota is a city in and the county seat of Sarasota County, Florida, United States. It is located in Southwest Florida, the southern end of the Greater Tampa Bay Area, and north of Fort Myers and Punta Gorda. Its official limits include Sarasota Bay and several barrier islands between the bay and the Gulf of Mexico. Sarasota is a principal city of the North Port-Bradenton-Sarasota, FL Metropolitan Statistical Area. According to the 2020 U.S. census, Sarasota had a population of 54,842, up from 51,917 at the 2010 census.

Brutalist architecture is an architectural style that emerged during the 1950s in the United Kingdom, among the reconstruction projects of the post-war era. Brutalist buildings are characterised by minimalist constructions that showcase the bare building materials and structural elements over decorative design. The style commonly makes use of exposed, unpainted concrete or brick, angular geometric shapes and a predominantly monochrome colour palette; other materials, such as steel, timber, and glass, are also featured.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Rudolph (architect)</span> American architect (1918–1997)

Paul Marvin Rudolph was an American architect and the chair of Yale University's Department of Architecture for six years, known for his use of reinforced concrete and highly complex floor plans. His most famous work is the Yale Art and Architecture Building, a spatially-complex Brutalist concrete structure. He is one of the modernist architects considered an early practitioner of the Sarasota School of Architecture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Riverview High School (Sarasota, Florida)</span> Public high school in Sarasota, Florida, United States

Riverview High School is a four-year public high school in Sarasota, Florida, United States. Riverview educates students from ninth grade to twelfth grade. As of the 2022-2023 school year, the school had 2,606 students and 127 teachers. The school's mascot is the ram. As of the 2015-2016 school year, it is the largest school in the county.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rudolph Hall</span> Brutalist building in New Haven, Connecticut

Rudolph Hall is one of the earliest and best-known examples of Brutalist architecture in the United States. Completed in 1963 in New Haven, Connecticut, the building houses Yale University's School of Architecture. Until 2000, it also housed the School of Art.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sarasota School of Architecture</span> Architectural style

The Sarasota School of Architecture, sometimes called Sarasota Modern, is a regional style of post-war modern architecture (1941–1966) that emerged on Florida's Central West Coast, in and around the city of Sarasota, Florida. It is characterized by open-plan structures, often with large planes of glass to facilitate natural illumination and ventilation, that address the unique indigenous requirements of the regional climate. Many of the architects who pioneered this style became world-renowned later in their careers, and several significant buildings remain in Sarasota today.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ocean House, Rhode Island</span> Building in Watch Hill, RI

Ocean House is a large, Victorian-style waterfront hotel originally constructed in 1868 on Bluff Avenue in Watch Hill, Rhode Island. The original 1868 hotel closed in 2003; it was demolished in 2005 and a new facility opened in 2010 on the same site which retained much of the original structure's form and appearance, as well as the original name. Both the original and its reconstruction are noted for their rambling Victorian architecture and distinctive yellow siding.

John MacLane Johansen was an American architect and a member of the Harvard Five. Johansen took an active role in the modern movement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boston Government Service Center</span> Government complex in Boston, Massachusetts

The Boston Government Service Center (BGSC) is a state government complex in the West End of Boston, Massachusetts. The center was designed in the Brutalist style, led by architect Paul Rudolph. It is one of the major components of the Government Center complex in Downtown Boston. The complex is made up of two connected Brutalist buildings: the Charles F. Hurley Building and the Erich Lindemann Building, as well as a courtyard; sometimes included is the newer, 1998-built, Edward W. Brooke Courthouse.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Revere Quality House</span> United States historic place

The Revere Quality House is a house located in Siesta Key, Florida that was designed by architects Paul Rudolph and Ralph Twitchell. It is a breakthrough in twentieth-century residential architecture which blends elements of the International Style with site-sensitive design that is considered one of the notable examples of the Sarasota School of Architecture. The house represents a substantial advancement in how people should live within their environment, and established a new paradigm in tropical home construction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Third Church of Christ, Scientist (Washington, D.C.)</span> Building in D.C., United States

Third Church of Christ, Scientist, established in 1918, is a Christian Science church in downtown Washington, D.C. From 1971 to 2014, the church was located in a controversial building at 16th and I Street NW. Considered a significant work of "Brutalist" church architecture by some critics, the building was considered unsatisfactory by members of the Church's congregation, which shrank over the years. In 2007, the church applied for a demolition permit for the building to permit sale and redevelopment of the site, with plans to relocate to a more suitable structure. A 1991 application for landmark status for the building, filed to forestall a demolition threat then, was subsequently approved. After a lawsuit and hearings, the District of Columbia issued a demolition permit in May 2009, and the building was demolished in 2014. In 2015, Third Church merged with First Church of Christ, Scientist. The congregation continues as First Church and conducts its activities in a portion of the new building.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Old Prentice Women's Hospital Building</span> Demolished hospital building in Chicago

The Prentice Women's Hospital and Maternity Center was a hospital on the Downtown Chicago campus of Northwestern University's Northwestern Memorial Hospital in the Streeterville district of Chicago's Near North Side.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louis Micheels</span> Dutch Jewish analyst and Holocaust survivor

Louis J. Micheels was a Dutch Jewish physician (psychoanalyst), and survivor of the Auschwitz concentration camp and the Dachau concentration camp. Micheels survived three years as an inmate at Auschwitz and then survived a ten-day Death March to Dachau concentration camp. The Nazis tattooed him with the number 117641 in Auschwitz and in 1989 he wrote a book with that number in the title: Doctor 117641: A Holocaust Memoir.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">23 Beekman Place</span> Apartment building in Manhattan, New York

23 Beekman Place, also the Paul Rudolph Apartment & Penthouse, is an apartment building between 50th and 51st streets in the Turtle Bay neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. Built c. 1869 as a five-story brownstone residence, it was substantially redesigned in the late 20th century by Paul Rudolph, an American architect and one-time dean of Yale University. It is one of the few known projects Rudolph designed in the city.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Architecture of Jacksonville</span>

The architecture of Jacksonville is a combination of historic and modern styles reflecting the city's early position as a regional center of business. According to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, there are more buildings built before 1967 in Jacksonville than any other city in Florida, though few structures in the city center predate the Great Fire of 1901. Numerous buildings in the city have held state height records, dating as far back as 1902, and last holding a record in 1981.

J. W. Chorley Elementary School was a modernist architecture school building in Middletown, New York designed by American architect Paul Rudolph while he was serving as Dean of the Yale School of Architecture. The school was torn down in November 2012.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hiss Residence</span> Historic house in Florida, United States

The Hiss Residence is a mid-century modern home designed by architect, Paul Rudolph. Built as the show home for Sarasota's Lido Shores neighborhood in 1953, the structure blends international style modernism with indigenous tropical design. It is among the preeminent works of the Sarasota School of Architecture and considered “one of the most remarkable homes of the twentieth century.”

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hotel Marcel</span> Building in New Haven, Connecticut

Hotel Marcel is a Hilton hotel in the Long Wharf district of New Haven, Connecticut. It is housed in the Armstrong Rubber Company Building, later known as the Pirelli Tire Building: a former office building designed by modernist architect Marcel Breuer. The structure is a noted example of Brutalist architecture. Since its renovation into a hotel, the building operates as a zero-energy building, generating enough renewable energy to sustain its operations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elion-Hitchings Building</span> Building in North Carolina, U.S.

The Elion-Hitchings Building on Cornwallis Road in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, U.S. was an architecturally significant brutalist building designed by Paul Rudolph and completed in 1972 as the headquarters for Burroughs Wellcome. Part of the original building and a later addition were torn down, and despite opposition, the rest of the building was demolished in January 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Milam Residence</span> Sarasota Modern house in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida

Milam Residence is an oceanfront residence in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, United States. It was designed by architect Paul Rudolph in the style of Sarasota Modern. The late modernist home has an unusual facade of large geometrical shapes facing the ocean. Completed in 1961, it was one of Architectural Record's 20 "Record Houses" of 1963. In 2016, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Hay, David (January 14, 2007). "Modernist No More: Home by Famous Architect Is Razed" . The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 30, 2022. Retrieved January 30, 2022.
  2. 1 2 "Micheels Residence". Paul Rudolph Heritage Foundation. Archived from the original on January 30, 2022. Retrieved January 30, 2022.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Wigren, Christopher (March–April 2007). "Modern Masterpiece Demolished in Westport". Connecticut Preservation News. Vol. XXX, no. 2. Archived from the original on January 30, 2022. Retrieved January 30, 2022.
  4. 1 2 "From dreams to debris". Sarasota Herald-Tribune. December 12, 2013. Archived from the original on January 30, 2022. Retrieved January 30, 2022.
  5. Hay, David (June 15, 2008). "Dr. Louis J. Micheels Obituary". Legacy.com. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved March 24, 2013.
  6. 1 2 3 Hay, David (December 17, 2006). "Plan to Raze Home Prompts Belated Outcry" . The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 30, 2022. Retrieved January 30, 2022.