William J. Rupp (August 25, 1927 - February 7, 2002) was an American architect and one of the modernist architects considered part the Sarasota School of Architecture. With a focus on making architecture in harmony with its surroundings, Sarasota architecture featured a clean, open contemporary floor plan, filled with light and terrazzo floors, wide overhangs, and flat roofs.
Rupp worked with founding Sarasota School of Architecture member architect Paul Rudolph and ran his Sarasota office before starting his own practice. Other major members include: Ralph Twitchell; Jack West; Gene Leedy, Mark Hampton; Tim Seibert, Victor Lundy; Bert Brosmith; and Carl Abbott. Mr. Rupp designed many projects in Florida, New York and New England. Among them were a dining pavilion for the Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, the Scott Building now housing the Center For Architecture Sarasota, numerous residential buildings, renovations and new exhibits for The Bronx Zoo, work for the New York Aquarium and other private and public commissions including residences, banks, schools, hospitals and housing developments.
"We students at the University of Florida in the early 50s began to hear of an architect named Twitchell doing some remarkable work. Some students went down and reported that, in fact, the work was being done by a young Harvard man named Rudolph. Soon the publications were being sought and studied. A field trip was organized to see Frank Lloyd Wright's campus at Lakeland and over to Sarasota for the work of Twitchell and Rudolph. Both principals were out of town but an accommodating young man, Mark Hampton, their sole employee, took us on the tour. It is no understatement to say that we felt that we had found The Answer." William Rupp (1978) - Paul Rudolph: The Florida Years