The Elion-Hitchings Building was an architecturally significant
brutalist
Brutalist architecture is an architectural style that emerged during the 1950s in the United Kingdom, among the reconstruction projects of the post-war era. Brutalist buildings are characterised by minimalist constructions that showcase the b ...
building designed by
Paul Rudolph and completed in 1972 as the headquarters for
Burroughs Wellcome
GSK plc (an acronym from its former name GlaxoSmithKline plc) is a British Multinational corporation, multinational Pharmaceutics, pharmaceutical and biotechnology company with headquarters in London. It was established in 2000 by a Mergers an ...
. The building, located on Cornwallis Road in
Research Triangle Park, North Carolina
Research Triangle Park (RTP) is the largest research park in the United States; it occupies in North Carolina and hosts more than 300 companies and 65,000 workers. It is owned and managed by the Research Triangle Foundation, a private non-profi ...
, U.S., remained intact along with a later addition until it was demolished in its entirety January 2021, despite opposition.
Background
Burroughs Wellcome & Company, founded in 1880 in London, established research and manufacturing facilities in the 1920s in
Tuckahoe, New York, which served as the US headquarters until the company moved to
Research Triangle Park
Research Triangle Park (RTP) is the largest research park in the United States; it occupies in North Carolina and hosts more than 300 companies and 65,000 workers. It is owned and managed by the Research Triangle Foundation, a private non-profi ...
in North Carolina in 1972.
Being able to attract Burroughs Wellcome helped establish the significance of RTP as a national center for business.
When Burroughs Wellcome decided to move its headquarters in 1969, the company selected
Paul Rudolph to design its new building, which would serve as both a headquarters and a research facility.
The original building
The 300,000-square-foot building
"was celebrated worldwide when it was built", according to Paul Rudolph Heritage Foundation president Kelvin Dickinson.
Rudolph was known for
brutalism
Brutalist architecture is an architectural style that emerged during the 1950s in the United Kingdom, among the reconstruction projects of the post-war era. Brutalist buildings are characterised by minimalist constructions that showcase the b ...
, and a Historic American Buildings Survey dated 2018 said the building was "frequently described as Brutalist" and that its design was inspired by
Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright Sr. (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed List of Frank Lloyd Wright works, more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key ...
's
Fallingwater
Fallingwater is a Historic house museum, house museum in Stewart Township, Pennsylvania, Stewart Township in the Laurel Highlands of Greater Pittsburgh, southwestern Pennsylvania, United States. Designed by the architect Frank Lloyd Wright, i ...
and Rudolph's work on
Lower Manhattan Expressway
Interstate 78 (I-78) is a part of the Interstate Highway System that runs from Union Township, Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, to New York City. In the US state of New York, I-78 extends . The entirety of I-78 consists of the Holland Tunne ...
.
Rudolph's design was "an A-frame with terraced floors and angled walls and windows"
with "an eccentrically loaded trapezoidal steel frame with columns inclined at 22.5 degrees".
[ The design used concrete panels to create "an elongated hexagonal module that gives the building a strong horizontal reading on the long elevations".] Also, the design uses "hexagonal geometry on the short elevations, pulling out of the building in different ways to express its ability to expand. In plan, the building wraps around two courts that face in opposite directions in a sort of S configuration." These courts act as a front porch entrance and a service court for the offices and laboratories. The entrance had three levels with column
A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member ...
s suggesting Antebellum architecture
Antebellum architecture (from Antebellum South, Latin for "pre-war") is the Neoclassical architecture, neoclassical architectural style characteristic of the 19th-century Southern United States, especially the Deep South, from after the birth of ...
and goes against the "form follows function" idea of Louis Sullivan
Louis Henry Sullivan (September 3, 1856 – April 14, 1924) was an American architect, and has been called a "father of skyscrapers" and "father of modernism". He was an influential architect of the Chicago school (architecture), Chicago ...
, instead suggesting futuristic ideas but requiring a person to go inside to understand the building's purpose. The laboratories have high ceilings with skylights providing some of the lighting.
The futuristic appearance led to its use in the movie '' Brainstorm''.
Rudolph himself said the building was "architecturally an extension of its site", meaning the wooded hills, and that the use of an A frame made it possible to put as much space as possible on lower floors, while the mechanical systems that needed less space could be at the top. He also said the building was designed to be expanded.
Myrick Howard
Myrick Howard is an American historic preservationist, best known for his leadership of Preservation North Carolina (PNC), where he served as president from 1978 until his retirement in 2023. Under his guidance, PNC became a national model for his ...
of Preservation North Carolina said the building established that RTP was important. In 1996, Chuck Twardy of the ''News & Observer
''The News & Observer'' is an American regional daily newspaper that serves the greater Triangle area based in Raleigh, North Carolina. The paper is the largest in circulation in the state (second is the '' Charlotte Observer''). The paper has be ...
'' wrote, "The innovative building set the design standard for RTP and remains the park's most remarkable structure." The building was considered "a local landmark and symbol" not just for the company but for the park. While some of the more uptight employees wanted "innovation" but were dismayed when they saw how it appeared, the building became a symbol of what RTP meant and was even used in the park's promotional materials.
Later developments
A 130,000-square-foot wing with more offices and a dining room was described as using characteristics of the original building, turning the original building into an L shape. Rudolph wanted the L eventually turned into a U-shape. The A-frame became a V which was repeated, but the angle for the structural steel in the original building was not used.
In 1988 the building was named after the Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes ( ; ; ) are awards administered by the Nobel Foundation and granted in accordance with the principle of "for the greatest benefit to humankind". The prizes were first awarded in 1901, marking the fifth anniversary of Alfred N ...
winning scientists Gertrude B. Elion and George H. Hitchings, who worked at Burroughs Wellcome and invented drugs still used many years later.
Glaxo P.L.C. acquired Wellcome P.L.C. in 1995 and GlaxoWellcome merged with SmithKline Beecham
GSK plc (an acronym from its former name GlaxoSmithKline plc) is a British multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company with headquarters in London. It was established in 2000 by a merger of Glaxo Wellcome and SmithKline Beecham, w ...
in 2000 to form GlaxoSmithKline.
GlaxoSmithKline moved all of its operations from Cornwallis Road and Maughn Road to Moore Drive in 2011. United Therapeutics
United Therapeutics Corporation is an American biotechnology company that develops pharmaceuticals and technologies related to organ transplantation, including xenotransplantation. Many of the company's products are focused towards lung disease an ...
, which opened a research and manufacturing facility in 2009 next door, bought the building from GlaxoSmithKline along with 140 acres and two other buildings, for $17.5 million in a deal that closed in June 2012. The new owner tore down 400,000 square feet of the buildings in 2014, while promising to make an effort to save the remaining 150,000 square feet. According to Dickinson, United Therapeutics actually did nothing other than offer tours, while the building continued to deteriorate.[ In 2018, the status was "renovation and extension planned".]
Demolition
United Therapeutics received a permit on September 4, 2020, to tear down the remainder of the building,[ saying it was too deteriorated and too expensive to renovate.] Design critic Alexandra Lange and modern architecture conservation non-profit Docomomo International
Docomomo International (sometimes written as DoCoMoMo or simply Docomomo) is a non-profit organization whose full title is: International Committee for Documentation and Conservation of Buildings, Sites and Neighbourhoods of the Modern Movement. ...
announced the news September 10 on social media
Social media are interactive technologies that facilitate the Content creation, creation, information exchange, sharing and news aggregator, aggregation of Content (media), content (such as ideas, interests, and other forms of expression) amongs ...
, and Dickinson said making people around the world aware was the key to saving the building.[ Late in September 2020, a petition opposing this action had 2500 signatures.]
On January 18, 2021, images appeared on Twitter showing the last standing portions of the building being torn down.
References
{{Reflist
External links
Photo of building in 1970s
Brutalist architecture in the United States
Buildings and structures completed in 1972
Buildings and structures demolished in 2021
Demolished buildings and structures in North Carolina