"Completed in 1963, Paul Rudolph's Yale Art and Architecture Building is the ultimate realization of Brutalist architecture, a bravura manipulation of mass, volume, and space."--BOOK JACKET.

"From its inception, the Art and Architecture Building was a flashpoint for both architectural and political protest. It was severely damaged by a mysterious fire on 14 June 1969, assumed to have been the work of students revolting against the perceived oppressiveness of the academic establishment in general and Rudolph's design in particular.

The fire of 1969 was followed by a series of unsympathetic renovations that eliminated much of the building's grandeur and destroyed its most majestic spaces, prompting Rudolph to disown it."--BOOK JACKET.

"Though critics once wondered if the colossal concrete school offered lessons that students were better off not learning, today a new regime at Yale is seeking to recapture the building's former greatness. Ezra Stoller's photographs, taken just after the school opened, offer a glimpse of the building in its original glory and convey the essential humanity of both building and architect."--BOOK JACKET.