{"id":6774,"date":"2018-04-05T20:35:52","date_gmt":"2018-04-06T00:35:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=6774"},"modified":"2018-04-06T16:32:47","modified_gmt":"2018-04-06T20:32:47","slug":"brutal-destruction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2018\/04\/05\/brutal-destruction\/","title":{"rendered":"Reconsidering Our Hate\/Love Relationship With Brutalist Architecture At An Exhibit Documenting Demolitions"},"content":{"rendered":"

The dire threat to mid-20th century monumental concrete architecture\u2014generally known as \u201cbrutalism\u201d\u2014is demonstrated in \u201cBrutal Destruction,\u201d<\/a> an exhibit opening next week of photos documenting the demolition and alteration of the buildings across the United States and in Britain.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have the problems of these buildings being considered ugly and eyesores and everything else. Which is changing. But while it\u2019s changing, they\u2019re being rapidly erased from cities and other places,\u201d says Chris Grimley, a champion of the style and preservationist who organized the exhibit at Boston\u2019s pinkcomma gallery<\/a>, where it will be on view from April 12 (reception from 6 to 8 p.m.) to May 3.<\/p>\n

\"David<\/a>
David Torke: Shoreline Apartments, Buffalo.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Pinkcomma is a project of the architecture and design firm over,under. Grimley and his pinkcomma colleagues Michael Kubo and Mark Pasnik have been at the forefront of an international effort to promote the value and importance of brutalist structures. They\u2019ve endeavored to rebrand the architectural style as \u201cHeroic\u201d\u2014the title of their 2015 book about \u201cConcrete Architecture and the New Boston.\u201d<\/p>\n

For proponents, this monumental concrete modernist architecture was seen as symbolic of a new, robust culture rising from the ruins of the Great Depression and World War II, of the power and daring of big government, of a new civic spirit to improve lives. Highlighting the construction materials and their structural strength was heralded as a form of honesty. The term brutalism derives (at least in part) from the French \u201cb\u00e9ton brut,\u201d meaning raw concrete, but carries connotations of \u201cbrutal,\u201d which is how many unfavorably view the structures.<\/p>\n

As a result, brutalist buildings have often been poorly maintained and become targets for demolition. The exhibit features photos by Matthew Carbone of the Mechanic Theatre in Baltimore; by Harlan Erskine of Orange County Government Center in Goshen, New York; by Jason Hood of Birmingham Public Library in Britain; by Rey Lopez of Third Church of Christ in Washington, D.C.; by David Schalliol of Prentice Women’s Hospital in Chicago; by David Torke of Shoreline Apartments in Buffalo; and by Oliver Wainwright of Robin Hood Gardens in Britain.<\/p>\n

\"Rey<\/a>
Rey Lopez: Third Church of Christ, Washington, D.C.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The most famous (notorious?) local example of this architecture is Boston City Hall\u2014a \u201cperennial punching bag,\u201d as Grimley notes. In 2013, when Marty Walsh was first running to be mayor of Boston he called for selling off the building<\/a> so that the site could be privately redeveloped. He\u2019s since backed away from the proposal. But widespread dislike of the building and its surrounding plaza continually leave its future in question.<\/p>\n

Grimley notes, \u201cWe\u2019ve lost a couple of structures here, most notably the MLK School in Cambridge \u2026 and no one documented it.\u201d And the Government Center parking garage on Congress Street \u201cis being radically transformed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Help Wonderland keep producing our great coverage of local arts, cultures and activisms by contributing to Wonderland on Patreon<\/a>. And sign up for our free, weekly newsletter<\/a> so that you don’t miss any of our reporting.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n
\"Matthew<\/a>
Matthew Carbone: Mechanic Theatre, Baltimore.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Oliver<\/a>
Oliver Wainwright: Robin Hood Gardens, U.K.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"David<\/a>
David Schalliol: Prentice Women’s Hospital, Chicago.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The dire threat to mid-20th century monumental concrete architecture\u2014generally known as \u201cbrutalism\u201d\u2014is demonstrated in \u201cBrutal Destruction,\u201d an exhibit opening next week of photos documenting the demolition and alteration of the buildings across the United States and in Britain. \u201cWe have the problems of these buildings being considered ugly and eyesores and everything else. Which is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6820,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[100,115],"tags":[37,330,331,332],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6774"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6774"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6774\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6864,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6774\/revisions\/6864"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}