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Old Posted May 20, 2020, 1:24 AM
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Architype Architype is offline
♒︎ Empirically Canadian
 
Join Date: Mar 2004
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Quote:
Originally Posted by lio45 View Post
There's one I really like in Vancouver. Towers over everything around it in its area. Pencil-shaped from the side.

The pics I can find online don't do it justice. IMO it's actually quite elegant while also obviously very brutalist - a pretty special combination.






Its base is also really well done IMO.

https://www.google.ca/maps/@49.26409...4!8i8192?hl=en

https://www.google.ca/maps/@49.26431...4!8i8192?hl=en
That's the Frank Stanzl Building.

https://ounodesign.com/2012/05/27/19...dimir-plavsic/

I've always admired that building as well, probably the most outstanding one in the Broadway area, it must have been inspired by Erickson's Macmillan Bloedell Building downtown.

https://goo.gl/maps/dYRqB9c7rco5bd6t6

Brutalism seems to age surprisingly well in Vancouver. Erickson thought of concrete as the new marble of building materials.

"The renowned architect, who died 10 years ago at 84, loved concrete. He called it the “noble material” and talked of creating Doric facades with concrete, of using concrete the way classical Rome and Greece used marble."

https://vancouversun.com/business/co...changes-hands/

https://modtraveler.net/city/vancouv...edel-building/

One of the reasons often cited for the public's derision of Brutalism is the tendency for the concrete to not weather well. As the concrete ages it often becomes discoloured and dirty looking (i.e. city hall of Nfld's capital city). Unfortunately the term "brutalist" is often associated with the idea that it is "brutal". This is not the origin of the term, lol.

Last edited by Architype; May 20, 2020 at 1:53 AM.
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