The Great Canadian Brutalism Appreciation Thread
 

How about some love for this under appreciated style? We have some fantastic examples of it across Canada too!

I'll start with what I think is ones of the coolest buildings in the country - the Andrews Building at UofT's Scarborough campus. Designed by John Andrews and Page & Steele Architects, it was completed in 1964:


https://i.imgur.com/UaZhmYM.jpg https://i.imgur.com/PkbZbxT.jpg
https://oaa.on.ca/bloaag-detail/Andr...ding,-UTSC/524

https://i.imgur.com/MYD4mYi.jpg
https://www.pinterest.es/pin/501729214723094801/

https://i.imgur.com/vhES9IQ.png
https://discoverarchives.library.uto...orough-library

https://i.imgur.com/65nGzDE.jpg
https://twitter.com/utsc/status/772124519502721024

https://i.imgur.com/X7XxTP9.jpg
https://www.reddit.com/r/brutalism/c...toronto_photo/

https://i.imgur.com/eP0YnfD.jpg
https://tnq.ca/why-i-value-the-humanities-wing/

https://i.imgur.com/uITkdwd.jpg https://i.imgur.com/q2hZyw9.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/RWVZTJu.jpg
https://andresalvador.smugmug.com/AR...ARIO/i-p5ftFZT

Your post reminds me of a blog I like to read from time to time. The writer seems to be a fan of brutalist/modernist architecture.

Here's a link:

https://halifaxbloggers.ca/noticedinnovascotia/

The blog as a search function where you could enter "brutalist", "concrete", etc. if you want to find those posts specifically.

Ontario Science Centre. Completed in 1969, designed by Raymond Moriyama:


https://i.imgur.com/UbBAzEp.jpg
https://robertmoffatt115.wordpress.c...or-technology/

https://i.imgur.com/8TCKZOp.jpg
https://robertmoffatt115.wordpress.c...or-technology/

https://i.imgur.com/8ayKEIF.jpg https://i.imgur.com/7A9eCmY.jpg
https://www.azuremagazine.com/articl...mond-moriyama/

https://i.imgur.com/YgK3t1q.jpg
https://twitter.com/moriyamateshima/...68961627787264

https://i.imgur.com/KnO8j3k.jpg
https://mtarch.com/projects/ontario-science-centre/

https://i.imgur.com/70X0z33.jpg https://i.imgur.com/83esr2c.jpg
https://mtarch.com/projects/ontario-science-centre/

https://i.imgur.com/OyUdCHk.jpg
https://mtarch.com/projects/ontario-science-centre/

Great idea for a thread.

Arthur Erickson's University of Lethbridge, opened in 1967:


https://i.imgur.com/yPFOhVX.png
https://www.arthurerickson.com/educa...rsity/7/thumbs

https://i.imgur.com/IGTNZJJ.png
https://www.arthurerickson.com/educa...rsity/7/thumbs

https://i.imgur.com/cBKLIfg.png https://www.architectural-review.com...LUMN_1_635.jpg
https://www.architectural-review.com...658049.article

https://i.imgur.com/KnFiwuc.jpg
https://images.app.goo.gl/42j36i6GmvhoXCqb6

https://i.imgur.com/hAmHm2e.jpg
https://www.uleth.ca/giving

Simon Fraser University (1965) another Arthur Erikson design.

https://99bitcoins.com/wp-content/up...tion-large.jpg
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pr...Pi-Jn4dPEksYWE
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DXETRJQW0AUGJo1.jpg
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...8/Sfu_1967.jpg
https://the-peak.ca/wp-content/uploa...9/RCB-Hall.jpg

I've yet to see a brutalist building anywhere in the world that is not depressing and ugly.

:previous: I was gonna post that one next, another great one!


https://i.imgur.com/bcpFj7x.png
https://www.arthurerickson.com/educa...ity/13/caption

https://i.imgur.com/MrPAvmV.png
https://www.arthurerickson.com/educa...ity/13/caption

https://i.imgur.com/C8KB9OR.png https://i.pinimg.com/originals/8c/db...3d57623111.jpg
https://www.arthurerickson.com/educa...ity/13/caption

https://www.sfu.ca/content/sfu/engin...7409912773.jpg
http://www.sfu.ca/engineering/Contact_us.html

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/82/39...3d1a155086.jpg
https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/489836896973160766/

https://live.staticflickr.com/3651/3...923c604e_b.jpg
https://www.flickr.com/photos/31202477@N02/8477553947/

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1690/...91ca5f0b_c.jpg
http://modernistarchitecture.blogspo...eat-white.html

Robarts Library (aka the Turkey) - UofT

https://i.imgur.com/WA5EtDh.png

Exactly what I was going to post. A lot of Brutalism is ugly, but one is awesome, looks like it is out a sci fi movie. It seems more rare today to build something that is so starkly contradsts with the natural landscape, now we view every inch of earth as sacrosanct.

Love this thread. Does anyone know the building they use for the stand in of the Mars Congressional Republic Embassy on Earth in The Expanse? The scenes in the UN capital (New York) are mostly filmed in Toronto, so I figured it's there somewhere.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/26/e6...0a3ba5d9c0.png




Edit: Omg :haha: It's the first post on this page! U of T Scarborough! Wild.

It's the first building in the OP

Yeah haha I had already edited the bottom of my post before you mentioned that :P I felt dumb. To be fair though, it doesn't show an entrance shot like the one I posted.



The former Calgary Board of Education building. It has so much potential to be an awesome institutional building downtown, but it's been sitting idle for around a decade now.

https://cdn.skyrisecities.com/sites/...6113-91156.png
https://calgary.skyrisecities.com/ne...-citys-history


It reminds me a little of the south side of Vancouver's Robson Square, the part attached to the BC Courthouse. It has soooo much potential, but it's just rotting. Thankfully they restored the 'Family of Man' sculptures a couple years ago though.

https://www.westonlangford.com/media/photos/401313.jpg
https://www.westonlangford.com/images/photo/401313/


https://live.staticflickr.com/8314/8...5cd1bb63_b.jpg
https://www.flickr.com/photos/volvob12b/8068145941

:tup: I have a lot of affection for brutalism, though I can understand why many find it an aesthetic of frigidity, impersonalness, and despair.

None from me. It's an interesting curiosity, but it is always deleterious in an urban context.

I challenge anyone to post a photo of a brutalist building in a city that isn't ugly in and of itself and/or makes its surroundings worse.

222 Jarvis Street

https://i.imgur.com/IMU25hs.jpg

Courthouse, London Ontario.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/d4/46...b526f5dad7.jpg

Weldon Library, Western University, London.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped..._Ontario_1.jpg

SFU is extra depressing due to the weather in Vancouver. It's cloudy for 6 months, rainy for most of that. SFU is high enough that it gets more fog from low hanging clouds.

It used to be very isolating up there for people who lived on campus, since there were no "stores" for groceries, etc. You had to drive down the mountain, or take the bus. Pretty isolating for people moving from somewhere else.

The environment is better now with more private development and a bit of a community forming.

https://live.staticflickr.com/7205/6...3d2c81d6_o.jpgNational Arts Center, Ottawa by Joel Bedford, on Flickr

To each their own, but I think The Gugg definitely rocks it ...
https://www.artstor.org/wp-content/u...0313789057.jpgSource

Harbour Centre in Vancouver? With the revolving restaurant on top? With the Sun building next door. Are these two considered brutalist architecture?

It's partly a function of their age (having been built in the broadly anti-urban 60s and 70s) and partly a function of their use (the style being favoured for monumental institutional buildings), but you're right, there aren't many brutalist buildings that are sympathetic to their urban surroundings or that generally adhere to the "correct" rules of traditional urban design. The movement wasn't really about creating great cities.

Still, I think our cities are richer for having this kind of architectural diversity than they would be if they were to be replaced by urbanistically correct buildings.

Loving this thread! Brutalism is honest architecture which is why I love it. It doesn't pretend to be anything but what it is. And generally the few examples that we have from it are still pretty good. Sad to see the AGA in Edmonton made into a mediocre Gehry-inspired building even if I still like it.

http://spacing.ca/edmonton/wp-conten...01-600x410.jpg

Image from Spacing magazine http://spacing.ca/edmonton/2015/07/0...s-renaissance/

Edmonton Art Gallery now the Art Gallery of Alberta...

https://325mwx119m59jqt5r27qnkcn-wpe..._img1_1000.jpg

Image from Canadian Art Magazine

Edmonton Art Gallery... http://capitalmodernedmonton.com/wp-...Image_0002.jpg

From the Capital Modern exhibit... http://capitalmodernedmonton.com/bui...tonartgallery/

Here's another look at what the AGA looks like now... http://www.stoutarc.com/museum.html#aga

omg I forgot about this building. A week or two after I moved to Ottawa, a guy (who soon after became my boyfriend for a few months) took me on a walking date all around town and we ended up dancing (without music :haha: ) on the raised public area of this building. It was sooo romantic I was swooning haha. It was in the area of those 4 hexagonal planters, I believe overlooking the Rideau Canal.

The undisputed capital of brutalism in the Maritimes is Charlottetown.

Here's a panoramic shot of the Confederation Centre of the Arts, built in 1964.

https://confederationcentre.com/wp-c...n-1920x846.jpg

To add to the fun, in the background on the right is the former Dominion Building, which used to be the main federal office complex in the city, also built in the early 1960s.

Another couple of photos:

https://www.tourismpei.com/search/as...1582652969.jpg

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/p/...Px=w660-h440-c

The main provincial office complex in Charlottetown is also brutalist.

https://psc.gpei.ca/sites/psc.gpei.c...ages/105_0.jpg

https://sbmacinnis.files.wordpress.c.../fountain1.jpg

I find government buildings which use a Brutalist style to be a really interesting combination. Brutalism always comes off as cold, impersonal, and imposing. It is an odd choice for a court of law, since attending court is already one of the most imposing interactions someone can have with the state. Ditto for something like a police office (I believe the old Saskatoon police station was brutalist, for example).

Perhaps it was intentional given the sense of authority expressed in the architecture. I wonder if the province would choose a different style were they to build a new courthouse today.

https://live.staticflickr.com/5466/1...1b6f57f9_h.jpg
Jonathan F.V. - Museum of Anthropology 2 on Flickr

Taste is subjective. I could explain the theories of Brutalist architecture to you, but honestly? No one should waste their time trying to convince you of something you won't allow yourself to understand.

Case in point, I think your local courthouse would be this:

In all fairness, that being London, there was nothing to ruin in the first place. :frog:

There's a riposte to the "name one brutalist building that improves the surroundings." The Confederation Centre is brilliant. Partly because it isn't looming and oppressive but with wide open spaces, invites passers-by in to its internal spaces.

The Killam Library, on the Dalhousie University campus in Halifax, is probably the east coast's most-loathed example of the style, but I completely love it. It doesn't really come through photos, but there's a grace and levity to it in person that's really striking. The foundation along the bottom contains similar stone as the early 19th-century buildings original to the campus--a nice way to establish some aesthetic continuity with the historic campus, even in this radically different style.

https://i.redd.it/yiqevawa4fl01.jpg

https://dalgazette.com/wp-content/up...t-1024x768.jpg

Brantford City Hall is gorgeous.

At first glance I was sorta with ya, but the more I look at it, the more I hate it.

The ostentatious hatred of finely-grained surfaces and ornamentation is an affront to the human soul. Down with Brutalism!

I am going to be accused of being biased but I don't care what anyone says...……….I love the London Courthouse! I love it's sense of strength and dominance it has when driving into the city over the Fork of Thames. I like the imposing stance, strong stature, and bold design that is befitting of a legal institution.

Generally I don't like brutalist architecture but there are some exceptions and I think the LCH is one of them.

In any medium, I never judge a work of art based simply on its style or its genre. To criticize architecture for being brutalist is like criticizing a painting for being impressionist, or a photograph for being street photography, or a song for being neoclassical darkwave, or a film for being comedy, or a video game for being an RPG. It doesn't make sense to me.

So many awesome buildings in this thread. Some of these are my favourite buildings in the whole country. It's especially refreshing after so much sterile soulless glass the past 15 years. The heaviness and solidity of brutalist buildings are so re-assuring and comforting. In a throw away world where so much feels temporary it's ability to anchor and emit a sense of permanence is a welcome sight.

More please!

The ethos of brutalism is totalitarian, nihilistic and atheistic. It has no place in our cities and crushes rather than uplifts the soul.

It is not surprising that this monstrous form finds so much favour here as so many of the posters on SSP are globalist authoritarian leftists.

Super easy to build in Minecraft... Also, harkens to:
https://www.easterisland.travel/imag...ano-raraku.jpg

"Curmudgeon" is an extremely appropriate screen name. I agree with the first part of your post, but laugh at the second part. Yowza.

I guess these guys didn't get the memo!


https://architizer-prod.imgix.net/me...cs=strip&h=352
https://architizer.com/blog/inspirat...ncrete-church/

The Colonnade, built 1963.

https://i.imgur.com/aZEYjwl.jpg
https://www.torontorentals.com/toron...onnade-id66619

https://i.imgur.com/cUGEaBb.png
https://www.torontorentals.com/toron...onnade-id66619

https://i.imgur.com/j62EYEk.jpg
https://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/...-TSPA_0109881F

https://i.imgur.com/vDimSTH.jpg https://i.imgur.com/q2N7AyB.jpg
https://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/...-TSPA_0109881F

I can't post pictures but someone should post the huge federal office complex Place du Portage in the central Hull district of Gatineau.

It is home to 10,000 workers. One of the largest concentrations of public employees in the world.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Place_du_Portage

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/d4/46...b526f5dad7.jpg

Reminds me of a Nazi flack tower from WW2. :)

Edmonton Art Gallery renovated an no longer Brutalist
Edmonton Public School Board Building, used as a paintball game centre. Never did have a proper tenant after EPSB moved out.
Law Courts still standing and is Iconic.
Students' Union Building was renovated a few years back and lost most of its Brutalist look.

Architects

Don Bittorf
Jock Bell
Bittorf and Wensley Architects
Richards Berretti and Jellinek Architects


I have always like the Roberts Library and the Science Centre.

Walking through SFU campus I find the buildings cold. But still a fascinating building.

It is kind of a shame that we boomed in the 60's when all these institutional buildings were being designed in the style of the times. Imagine we had that sort of momentum in the 20's. Place du Portage but in the style of Buffalo City Hall...

That being said I think it is good to embrace the quality examples that we have. One thing is clear from these photos, Brutalism works better when it is isolated and interacting with the landscape as opposed to an existing urban fabric. See Lethbridge and the Science Centre as opposed to London's court house.

Scott Library at York U. Completed 1970 by Adamson, Parkin, Shore & Moffat: 

https://live.staticflickr.com/8008/7...af71d048_b.jpg
Scott Library & Scott Religious Centre, York University, Toronto Ontario by Greg's Southern Ontario (catching Up Slowly), on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/1587/2...cc034c2e_b.jpg
Scott Library, York University, Toronto by Thomas Guignard, on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/1493/2...54e11c40_b.jpg
on a ramen noodle diet by Fob Rord, on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/1679/2...2aa452de_b.jpg
Scott Library, York University, Toronto by Thomas Guignard, on Flickr

https://i.imgur.com/mUe3k8W.jpg https://i.imgur.com/vyoCWiO.jpg
http://vikpahwa.com/photos/20190409-...scott-library/

https://i.imgur.com/5mxHGCe.jpg
http://vikpahwa.com/photos/20190409-...scott-library/

https://i.imgur.com/huugspQ.jpg https://i.imgur.com/dodmk6Y.jpg
https://twitter.com/scottlibrary