Paul Rudolph: Lower Manhattan Expressway October 4, 2010

'Paul Rudolph: Lower Manhattan Expressway' is organized in collaboration with The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture of The Cooper Union. The Lower Manhattan Expressway (LME) was first conceived by "master builder" Robert Moses in the late 1930s as an innovative multi-use expressway system running across Lower Manhattan. The idea was revisited by architect Paul Rudolph in 1967 when the Ford Foundation commissioned a study of the project. Had it been constructed, this major urban design plan would have transformed New York City's topography and infrastructure. In this exhibition, approximately 30 full-scale reproductions of drawings, prints, and photographs dated from 1967-1972 will be on public view for the first time. These works from the Paul Rudolph Archive at the Library of Congress will be shown together with a reconstruction of Rudolph's model of the LME project created by architecture students at The Cooper Union. Presenting the only records of Rudolph's visionary proposal, this exhibition illuminates Rudolph's unique approach to architectural drawing and highlights the fundamental importance of drawing in his overall practice.