Category:

Urban Concrete

Description:

Owen Davies Location: New Haven, Connecticut My image is of the former Armstrong Rubber Building in New Haven, Connecticut. Designed by Marcel Breuer and completed in 1970, it is currently operating as a boutique hotel. To me, the entire structure is a celebration of concrete and its innovative use by renowned architects of the mid-twentieth century. The geometry and sheer mass of the building is immediately striking as it appears to balance on a central column at the base and vanish into the distance. I’m also enamored with the combination of smooth concrete panels and deep sculpted window apertures that give the structure a decorative quality and create new geometry in bright lighting conditions. I made this image from the south side of the building on a bright summer afternoon. I chose this time of day to ensure the shadows created by the window apertures emphasized both the texture of the concrete and the technical precision of Breuer’s design.