Demolition on Hold for Paul Rudolph House
A Modernist house designed in 1972 by Paul Rudolph (1918-1997), dean of Yale’s School of Architecture, was partially demolished this month.
A judge last week halted demolition of the 4,200-square-foot stucco house, built for Louis J. Micheels in Westport, Conn., but it remains in jeopardy. The Micheels House’s prospective buyer, Yvette Waldman, and her husband, David, want to build a new house on the waterfront site.
Workers put a tarp on the building yesterday, according to Helen Higgins, executive director of the Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation, but the house had been left exposed during the rainy weekend. One wall of the house had been knocked down before Judge Taggart Adams of State Superior Court stopped the demolition on Dec. 22.
“We’re only at a status quo,” Higgins says. “The place has been quite neglected and open to the elements.”
Last year the Connecticut Trust gave Waldman an award for his renovation projects.
The Micheels family still owns the house, which is unprotected by easements and was on the real-estate market for a more than a year. Now the Connecticut Trust wants to find a new buyer for the house. (The National Trust for Historic Preservation has provided legal advice to the trust.)
“We have a big battle here. This is a very important Rudolph House,” Higgins says. “It’s the worst kind of teardown.”
