16 Minute Man Hill
Westport, CT 06880, USA

Paul Rudolph`s Louis Micheels House, 16 Minute Man Hill, Westport, Fairfield County, CT

"Rudolph`s architecture often used relatively simple means to achieve environments of astonishing complexity. He had no peer in his deft and dramatic articulation of the flow of space, and to visit any of his beautiful works is to embark on a rich and revealing architectural journey." In the Micheels House, this complexity of architectural scenery was achieved with white wallboard on the interior, and stucco studded with arctic quartz gravel on the exterior, combining the roughness of Rudolph`s Brutalist designs with the all-white floating qualities of later works. Sited so that every room would share panoramic views to Long Island Sound, the house sat atop Compo Hill, firmly anchored to the earth at one end but cantilevered at the other, where the Master Bedroom, supported only by the slender piers, seemed to float above the ground. The result, again according to Sorkin, "shows Rudolph`s characteristic orientation and climate, and his unshakable dedication to joyful living."