“Brutalist Architecture.” TreeHugger.com‘s Lloyd Alter celebrates the 40th birthday of Robarts Library:
Brutalist architecture is not very popular these days. The concrete in them has barely cured through, yet they are under threat everywhere. They are solidly built; tearing them down is a difficult job and a huge waste of energy, both embodied and in the process of demolition. Some people even say that they were designed to intimidate; at Slate they recently asked Were Brutalist Buildings on College Campuses Really Designed to Thwart Student Riots?
From Wikipedia:
(“Robarts Library” by Dr.K. – Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Commons.)
Quite the thing. Not too far from here, the University of Minnesota has Rarig Center:
(“Rarig Center Minnesota 1” by AlexiusHoratius – Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Commons.)
Perhaps not as horridly magnificent, but it has its quiet sense of having stomped on something as it settled into place.
