Quote:
Originally Posted by STR
They are rehabbing the buildings, albeit one at a time. Gone is the awful concrete and in its place is a traditional glass and aluminum facade. Last time I was there they were working on the 3rd classroom building. I do hope they leave the Behavioral Sciences building as-is, it's the most confusing maze of a building I've ever been in it's that's kinda of awesome in that one way.
However, Brutalism is not something I celebrate generally. It exemblifies the schism between architects and the public. What architects view as playful, most people view as oppressive. It is what you get when a group of intellectuals get together and think up something theoretically perfect without getting external feedback.
Then again, I might just be overthinking things myself. Perhaps celebrating concrete is just an inherently risky thing to do and very few people have the ability to do it right.
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I know what they are doing to UIC and I think it is a crime. Completely destroying the continuity of the campus in the same way that architects in the 1960's skinned the ground floors of all sorts of wonderful classical or Chicago school buildings and covered them in shitty glass facades.
I don't think that is the case with Brutalism at all. I think Brutalism is just in that age where it is just starting to come down from the apogee of its "30 years later" unpopularity. There hasn't been a single new style of design in history that wasn't rejected 30 or 40 years later, Brutalism is no anomaly representing the idealogical failures of artsy types. I won't dispute there are some absolute disasters like Boston City Hall, but there are also some wildly popular Brutalist designs like the Barbican in London or the Humanities Building in Madison. Yes people may find some of the interiors confusing and inefficient, but have you ever been in a building built around 1900? They are just as bad. People don't realize that Wright was just about the only person to build a logical interior in a building up until the last 20 years or so. Up until then everything was just a series of connected chambers.
There are plenty of people around today who love concrete and, I would argue, if it was in style once, it will be again.