Carbone wrote on his blog, “Unless something drastic happens in the next few days, the Paul Rudolph-designed Government Center is coming down.”
Matthew Carbone Carbone wrote on his blog, “Unless something drastic happens in the next few days, the Paul Rudolph-designed Government Center is coming down.”

Architecture critic Michael Kimmelman urged legislators weighing the demolition of the Paul Rudolph-designed Orange County Government Center in Goshen, N.Y., to reconsider the building’s fate in an article for the New York Times on Tuesday. A proposal from Gene Kaufman of New York-based Gwathmey Siegel Kaufman Architects to buy the structure and transform it into an arts hub was vetoed by Orange County Executive Steven Neuhaus in January, but Orange County officials were scheduled to meet today, pending a winter storm in the northeast, to discuss overruling Neuhaus’s veto.

Interior, Orange County Government Center.
Matthew Carbone Interior, Orange County Government Center.

“They can do the right thing Thursday,” Kimmelman wrote. “They can overturn the veto and reconsider demolition.”

The Orange County Government Center, by Paul Rudolph.
Matthew Carbone The Orange County Government Center, by Paul Rudolph.

Architectural photographer Matthew Carbone shot the Rudolph building last week in case legislators decide against retaining—and ultimately restoring—the Orange County Government Center, which was completed in 1967. “The writing is on the wall,” Carbone wrote on his blog. “Unless something drastic happens in the next few days, the Paul Rudolph-designed Government Center is coming down.”

The Brutalist building is known for its assemblage of jutting boxes.
Matthew Carbone The Brutalist building is known for its assemblage of jutting boxes.