What designers can learn from a misunderstood modernist

Paul Rudolph (1917-1997) is what you might call an acquired taste. While the modernist architect dabbled in elegant international style beach houses, swanky townhouses for the glitterati, and dizzying conceptual megastructures, he’s best known for his mammoth brutalist buildings, many of which have been on the losing end of high-profile historic preservation debates. One person’s monumental structure is just as easily another’s authoritarian symbol. [Photo: Eileen Travell/courtesy of...