Brutalist Buildings in Your Region

[alps]

Originally Posted by Bedhead

Gorgeous shot of two very classy buildings.

Originally Posted by deja vu

Informative Website on Brutalist Architecture:

http://www.essential-architecture.co...E/STY-M11A.htm

That appears to be an outdated regurgitation of the Wikipedia article on Brutalism

[mhays]

Someone should be arrested for that brutalist POS.

[Rizzo]

Originally Posted by Viktorkrum77

Fourtnately, Brutalism didn't touch foot here in Saginaw County, Michigan, only Post-Modernism.

The old federal, civic, whatever building at Western and Genesee was one extreme brutalist example. It was quite the odd looking building with this weird angled fin cantilevering out over the building. Can't remember when it was demolished...10 years ago maybe?

The Events Center is most definitely brutalist, and I think the parking garage is a fine example. Though I'm sure they unfortunately leveled a couple dozen beautiful buildings for it.
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&q=...0.35,,0,-12.12

[Bedhead]

Originally Posted by alps

Gorgeous shot of two very classy buildings.

Thanks! I don't think it's any accident that the roofline of the Institute of Education follows the Georgian terrace so closely - I think it was made to complement it. And I think the fairly austere, soot-stained Georgian buildings have something in common with the grey concrete.

Originally Posted by mhays

Someone should be arrested for that brutalist POS.

It certainly looks out of place at first sight - someone laughed out loud when they saw me taking a picture of the back of it. But I think the architect did make a few subtle decisions to try and adapt the building to its surroundings. I found that the more I looked at it, the more I liked it.

[mhays]

I've seen a lot of brutalism in the UK, next to the various historic vernaculars such as the one shown. I've never warmed to any brutalist building in the UK, possibly because they're generally next to something historic. It's like a plague. I say this despite being ok with brutalist buildings occasionally, if they're close to other newer buildings and have a lot of trees around them.

[deja vu]

Yup, the UK is pretty much where it all started, though it grew out of the work that Corbusier was doing at the time.

[Bedhead]

Originally Posted by mhays

I've seen a lot of brutalism in the UK, next to the various historic vernaculars such as the one shown. I've never warmed to any brutalist building in the UK, possibly because they're generally next to something historic. It's like a plague. I say this despite being ok with brutalist buildings occasionally, if they're close to other newer buildings and have a lot of trees around them.

So I'm guessing you wouldn't like this hospital in Hampstead


my pic

[Nowhereman1280]

Man I love seeing Brualist buildings budding up in the middle of a historic district. Nothing does it for me more with architecture than contrast. I have seen a few brutalist buildings near historic ones that I don't like because they have poor urban planning and ignore the spaces and buildings around them, but that one above does a great job of continuing the massing and echoing the details of the historical buildings next door.

I wish Chicago had more brutalist buildings than it does. We also tend to treat ours like shit and tear them down and modify them. I can think of maybe three or four brutalist buildings in Chicago that have actually been preserved or protected in any way.

[mhays]

In the UK, or at least in/around London, the successful mixed-use districts are, on average, the ones with more historic buildings and few if any brutalist ones. The successful commuter towns, or at least the ones I know, seem to be the ones with few brutalist (or otherwise 50s-70s) buildings.

[Nowhereman1280]

^^^ That probably has nothing to do with the brutalism and everything to do with the amount of development experienced in each community during the 60's and 70's when it was cool to destroy pedestrian environments and turn them into pseudo-suburban wastelands.

[alps]

Originally Posted by mhays

In the UK, or at least in/around London, the successful mixed-use districts are, on average, the ones with more historic buildings and few if any brutalist ones. The successful commuter towns, or at least the ones I know, seem to be the ones with few brutalist (or otherwise 50s-70s) buildings.

I think that would have to do more with the way many buildings of various styles from that period tend to interface poorly with the surrounding urban fabric, rather than the fact that the building is architecturally brutalist. I think examples exist of contemporary brutalism that aren't islands unto themselves as many 60s buildings were within the city.

edit: beat by Nowhereman1280!

[mhays]

Retail is also very heavily impacted by how buildings make people feel. Inviting locations will generally do much better than uninviting ones. Housing is similar in some ways. Even offices and hotels.

Between the (admittedly minimal) polling data about what people say they like, and given where they actually shop, hang out, and live, I'd say brutalism is a big factor in why areas with brutalism in the UK usually suck.

[Bedhead]

You are correct, Brutalism - even the examples which were well designed for pedestrians - is very unpopular in the UK, and places like Croydon and Swindon that still have a lot of exposed concrete are reviled.

Most people even dislike the Brutalist buildings along London's South Bank, even though some of them are considered good examples of the style, and they are well-used because of their central location and excellent accessibility.

Having said that, there is a counter-culture which celebrates brutalism, from a mixture of industrial chic, irony and nostalgia. A Guardian travel guide to 'Secret Britain' lists this car park in Swindon as one of several 'memorials to a lost age of optimism and opportunity'.










my pics

[mhays]

Part of me likes some brutalism as sculpture, or in certain settings. I'm not thinking of anything non-horrible on the South Bank though, though the skaters seem to like some of it.

[Nowhereman1280]

Originally Posted by mhays

Retail is also very heavily impacted by how buildings make people feel. Inviting locations will generally do much better than uninviting ones. Housing is similar in some ways. Even offices and hotels.

Between the (admittedly minimal) polling data about what people say they like, and given where they actually shop, hang out, and live, I'd say brutalism is a big factor in why areas with brutalism in the UK usually suck.

Wrong. "How people feel" is completely subjective and has almost no universal pattern. Just as people have been revolted by this stuff for 20 years, it was popular, in vogue, and considered contemporary in the 70's and 80's. And now its all coming back into style as we are again entering an age of radical, progressive architecture, instead of "ye olde" throw back styles. Remember, old, classical architecture was considered filthy and blighting at the time that brutalism was in style. If preservationists wouldn't have organized, we would have likely lost even more of our historical buildings than we did. People who make the argument you are making tend to forget this, styles go in an out of fashion, what matters is how it functions from an urban planning perspective.

[BodomReaper]

Well that was fun going through all 13 pages

My favorite building in downtown Vancouver is known as the Concrete Waffle. Arthur Erickson (the architect) declared concrete to be "the marble of the 20th century" will working on it...


Thank you Uncle Buddha at Flickr


Thanks to Uncle Buddha again

This one is disorienting

Buddha : )

[mhays]

Originally Posted by Nowhereman1280

Wrong. "How people feel" is completely subjective and has almost no universal pattern. Just as people have been revolted by this stuff for 20 years, it was popular, in vogue, and considered contemporary in the 70's and 80's. And now its all coming back into style as we are again entering an age of radical, progressive architecture, instead of "ye olde" throw back styles. Remember, old, classical architecture was considered filthy and blighting at the time that brutalism was in style. If preservationists wouldn't have organized, we would have likely lost even more of our historical buildings than we did. People who make the argument you are making tend to forget this, styles go in an out of fashion, what matters is how it functions from an urban planning perspective.

Think what you want about how architecture affects retail environments. The people who design and develop urban retail cateorically disagree with you. Making people feel good and feel like buying is very central to these professions. Those who don't know this don't last long. Even the bottom feeders like walmart attempt to do this, or the free version of it.

That doesn't mean that new retail is all well designed. Mixed-use buildings are notorious for retail that's designed by someone who doesn't know retail, developed by developers who don't want to include retail but are forced to by zoning. And many pure retail centers are designed to maximize square footage, frontages, and highway visibility while spending less on architectural interest. But the principles remain the same.

I see no evidence of brutalism coming back, except among a small number of groupies.

[Nowhereman1280]

^^^ Ok, but you aren't talking about poorly designed retail, you are talking about how brutalism = negative feel for occupants. The idea that brutalism = bad retail is categorically wrong.


You can be blind to the resurgence of Modernism and Brutalist influences all you want, but a wide array of the most popular architects are designing essentially Neo-brutalist buildings. The one that comes immediately to mind is Ralph Johnson:

Contemporaire:


plataformaarquitecura.cl

235 W Van Buren:


bp.blogspot.com

The Claire:


chicagoarchitecture.info

Jones Prep:


pbcchicago.com

And that's just one architect in one city... There is definitely a new strain of brutalism and it is alive and well. I never claimed is going to become the style, but it is definitely rising in popularity again. And don't tell me only a few people like it because there is a whole cult in London that is obsessed with it.

PS there is an entire section in the Brutalism article on Wikipedia entitled "Resurgence" talking about how it has rapidly regained popularity over the past few years.

[mhays]

Those are horrific. I highly doubt the general public likes any of them. Popularity with the Dwell/AR crowd means nothing other than, as you put it, a cult likes it.

The two whose bases I can see include one that might be ok for retail depending on how it treats the side street, and one that would be a flat out disaster for retail, if it tried, which it apparently doesn't.

[ardecila]

235 W. Van Buren does have a retail base underneath the heavy parking garage.

Of course, the retail space is currently unleased.