A Rich Mix
Federal District Court, 141 Church Street. Architect: James Gamble Rogers, 1913.
FBI Regional Headquarters, 600 State Street. Architect: Svigals + Partners, 1999.
Much of the preservation community is talking about a proposed Executive Order* insisting that future Federal buildings and monuments be designed in classical Greek or Roman style and effectively banning certain other styles. Here in New Haven, we reflect on this debate in a sophisticated urban setting of enormous variety.
New Haven is a showcase of visionary architecture, especially from the Modern era (1930-1980). Examples range from the Platonic proportions of the Beinecke Library to Yale’s Stiles and Morse Colleges, designed to suggest the wandering paths of an Italian hill town, to the sharply angular forms of the Dixwell Avenue United Church of Christ, to the Temple Street Garage, a larger-than-life evocation of an ancient aqueduct, to the Firehouse at Goffe & Webster Streets, which evokes the energy and drama inherent in the building’s function. New Haven’s unique mix of recognizable and remarkable places, built up over decades, is an asset few other small cities can match.
Two of New Haven’s Federal buildings are almost a century apart in age and style. The Federal District Court at 141 Church Street is an example of the style advocated in proposed Executive Order, a great classical temple of marble and limestone designed by James Gamble Rogers in 1913. A few blocks away is the FBI Regional Headquarters at 600 State Street, designed by Svigals + Partners in 1999 in a mode the proposed Executive Order would discourage. The FBI Building obeys modern law enforcement requirements within a striking exterior of sharp corners and contrasting facades: tan brick on the north & east and chocolate brown brick on the south & west. Many wish that FBI guidelines allowed the building to come out from behind its fences and meet the sidewalk, in keeping with its urban setting, but this structure nevertheless symbolizes architecture’s ability to fulfill a serious Federal purpose within a contemporary aesthetic.
It is the nature of architecture to create new volumes and spaces, whether their style is visionary or familiar. New Haven’s traditional welcome for novel forms and textures is brought forward into the 21st century in buildings like the dramatic black “corduroy” of the Yale Health Center at 55 Lock Street and its glassy next door neighbor, the Yale Police Department. In contrast to these showy structures, more conventional shapes like the solid blocks of Gateway Community College at 20 Church Street maintain the density of downtown, using colorful tile and vertical metal ribs to give interest to the facade. These buildings are newcomers today, but they (and others) are likely to be valued by preservationists of the future. The Trust embraces both goals: protecting the old and welcoming the new.
What is unpopular today may be appreciated tomorrow, and vice versa. Our daily experience is enhanced by variety and contrast in the streetscapes around us. The Trust values the creative contributions of architects and builder designing in all styles, including those with traditional antecedents.
*The Executive Order was signed and issued on December 21, 2020.
Beinecke Library, 121 Wall Street. Architect: Gordon Bunshaft, Skidmore Owings & Merrill, 1961-1963.
Morse and Ezra Stiles Colleges, 302-304 York Street. Architect: Eero Saarinen, 1958-1962.
Dixwell Avenue United Church of Christ, 217 Dixwell Avenue. Architect: John M. Johansen, 1967.
Temple Street Garage, 21 Temple Street. Architect: Paul Rudolph, 1961.
Goffe Street Firehouse, 125 Goffe Street. Architect: Venturi and Rauch, 1974.
Yale Police Department (The Rose Center), 101 Ashmun Street. Architect: William Rawn Associates, 2006. Yale Health Center (pictured behind), 55 Lock Street. Architect: Mack Scogin Merrill Elam Architects, 2010.
Gateway Community College, 20 Church Street. Architect: Perkins+Will, 2013.