Rockwell King DuMoulin (January 31, 1906 – February 11, 1983) was an American architect and professor and department chair at the Rhode Island School of Design.
[3] He was registered to practice in Rhode Island, New York, and Washington, D.C.[3] During and after World War II, he was active in relief efforts in Europe, working as an architect and consultant in rehabilitation and redevelopment.
[2] He continued to work for the Institute of Inter-American Affairs from 1949 through 1954, traveling to Bolivia, Columbia], Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, and Peru.
[2] Because of his work abroad, DuMoulin became a student and architect of rammed-earth construction, writing an article advocating its benefits in 1938.
We are free to seek an architectural expression of our scientific and industrial civilization, and the new relationship with time and space that it has brought to us, in a pattern of interrelated planes and surfaces which vary in structure, texture, form, extent and arrangement to suit their functional or artistic purpose.
[2] In South Kingston, Rhode Island, he designed the Modernist style clubhouse for the Willow Dell Beach Club in 1938—a commission secured through his father-in-law Nathaniel Waite Smith.
"[22] The Sibley Smith Jr. house has been called “a handsomely modest example of its type—a hopeful image for a time which strove to incorporate the best of what was modern with the best of a regional vernacular.
[18][3] Watch Hill Beach Club had lost three clubhouses to hurricanes and was no longer able to secure traditional or federal insurance.
[18] DuMoulin came up with solutions that so cleverly engineered against storms that Lloyd's of London insured the new building at half the prior rate.
[18] He combined deep-driven piles with designing and orienting the building to provide minimum surface resistance to the waves and wind.
[18] Also in 1955, DuMoulin designed a new beach pavilion for the Misquamicut Club which similarly lost its building with Hurricane Carol.
[24] In a guidebook to New England architecture, the Museum of Modern Art recognized the Misquamicut Club "as a fine example of design respecting environmental conditions.
[24] DuMoulin also designed the Arthur Little House, a contributing building to The Dunes Club National Register of Historic Places listing.
[2] Built in 1968, "the one-story, wood-shingled, heavily-glazed residence is a fine example of mid-20th-century Modern residential architecture in Rhode Island.
[25] The project included studios and workshops, housing, and a common use building with dining and kitchen facilities, exhibition space, offices, and lounge.
[3][12][40][41] He was also program director for the 11th Congress which was held in Washington, D.C.[42][3][43] DuMoulin met his future wife at the wedding of fraternity brother Winslow Ames.