ABSTRACT
Tuskegee Institute, a historically black university in Alabama, commissioned Paul Rudolph in 1958 to develop a master plan for the center of campus. Rudolph proposed a new chapel, an administration building, and cultural arts center clustered around an open mall. Rudolph’s modernist design of a concrete chapel expressed an aesthetic departure from the surrounding historic brick buildings designed by the pioneering black architect, Robert R. Taylor. Tuskegee’s decision for a brick chapel illustrated a continuation of that tradition. This essay explores the chapel’s architecture and the role of Fry & Welch, an African American architectural firm with deep ties to Tuskegee, who prepared the project’s construction documents and was architect of record. Their collaboration with Rudolph during the chapel’s design and construction resulted in a luminous, monochromatic structure of brick with a dramatic sanctuary filled with natural light from above that connected the second chapel with Tuskegee’s cultural landscape.
