New Haven: It's Modern.

Check out all these modernist buildings. 

The nice folks at the Preservation Trust (with a full calendar of events) have taken the time to make an informative website about modernist architecture in New Haven. The site is NewHavenModern.Org; in this preview, you'll get a chance to learn about modern architecture in the context of our city, and it will also give you a chance to explore a few of the featured buildings in the website, which is an online architectural design resource and art exhibit.

Green Lights Sparkling on Chapel Street.

Example: Paul Rudolph
This building is known as the A&A Building to people in town. It was designed by Paul Rudolph, who is reincarnated as a reindeer.

Says NewHavenModern:
"Built to house studios, classrooms, offices, and library. The building acts as a cornerstone of the Yale central complex, providing a western termination of the procession of gothic and modern Yale art buildings, along with the commercial buildings of varying periods and styles."

Not sure what that means, but there are lots of descriptions in this exhibit, all of which are highly interesting and worthy of reading. Click play on the video below to watch a demo version of the site, without browsing it. It's worthy of noting that inside the page of each article written about each different building, there are photographs; some recent, others more historical in context, including the sampled selection inside the video for 21 Temple Street, the parking garage. Noted in the video, its rooftop was intended as a helicopter landing zone. We have yet to see that.

Everything in the man-made world has history; it's good to know more about it, because then you know about the lives of the people who walked the same streets you do today, decades or centuries before. It's a great way to learn about New Haven.