The Road as a Means for Architectural Design: The Case of the Armstrong Rubber Company Building
Year: 2019
Type: Research
Faculty Advisor: Jorge Otero-Pailos
Type: Research
Faculty Advisor: Jorge Otero-Pailos
The Armstrong Rubber Company Building is located near the intersection of Interstates 95 and 91 in New Haven, Connecticut. Marcel Breuer made the design in partnership with Robert F. Gatje between 1968 and 1970 for housing the headquarters for one of the major tire companies of that time; the Armstrong Rubber Company.
The case of Armstrong Rubber Company building expands the fact of serving a tire company towards a new conception for urban development in New Haven during the mid-twentieth century. It is the embodiment of more significant efforts for revitalizing the city by persuading businesses and developers to hire well-known architects to design impressive new modern buildings. Understanding the structure as part of the Long Wharf redevelopment project, this paper argued that the Armstrong Rubber Company Building exemplifies that edifices were planned from an increasing automobile development perspective. In this sense, experimenting with the road through the steering wheel played a significant role in the development of modern cities and buildings, particularly in the corporate typology. This investigation used two case studies developed during the 1960s to compare and contrast with the Armstrong Rubber Building. First, the case of the Knights of Columbus Headquarters, designed by Roche & Dinkeloo Associates. And second, the IBM Headquarters, developed in Boca Raton, Florida, also designed by Breuer and Gatje as part of a suburban corporate park.
