Archinect - News

BRUTALISM + PRESERVATION panel discussion tonight in NYC

2013-05-15T12:09:00-04:00

Following the release of CLOG: Brutalism—the architecture journal's most recent issue—CLOG and DoCoMoMO NY Tristate are pleased to co-sponsor a panel discussion that will focus on the politics, opportunities, and constraints surrounding these structures. The conversation will address common issues faced by Brutalist buildings including their structural potential, aesthetics, and how these factors and more make the question of preserving Brutalist structures difficult and oftentimes contentious.

For those of you who heart brutalism, we still have some t-shirts left.

Oh, and CLOG is hiring, if you haven't heard.

Editor's Picks #313

2013-04-30T11:21:00-04:00

SDR complained "The Saratoga Community Center is ‘traditional’ ? Really ? Brickwork with masonry or ceramic trim is no longer a viable architectural material ? What'll be declared dead, next -- the rectangle ?...I don't defend the example above as a work of architecture. I know nothing about it. But it's a surprising contender for 'traditional'--- isn't it ?)".

News
Christopher Gray reviewed John Hill’s book A Guide to Contemporary New York City Architecture, reflected on the current revival of traditional architecture in the United States, and asked Mr. Hill if he has "a bias against the neo-traditional movement?”.

SDR complained "The Saratoga Community Center is ‘traditional’ ? Really ? Brickwork with masonry or ceramic trim is no longer a viable architectural material ? What'll be declared dead, next -- the rectangle ?...I don't defend the example above as a work of architecture. I know nothing about it. But it's a surprising contender for 'traditional'--- isn't it ?)".

observant summarized Mr. Gray’s argument "Ok, so the world is getting tired of peeling Gehry's buildings and the odd cowlicks in Morphosis's buildings, and we're headed back to another swat at post-modern, except that this one is Prairie School revival. I would not have been able to deduce that very easily. It's really watered down. And if the people in the...

Ten Top Images on Archinect's "Concrete" Pinterest Board

2013-04-19T17:21:00-04:00

In case you haven't checked out Archinect's Pinterest boards in a while, we have compiled ten recently pinned images from outstanding projects on various Archinect Firm and People profiles.

Today's top images (in no particular order) are from the board Concrete.

↑ Pavilion Siegen in Siegen, Germany by Ian Shaw Architekten; Photo: Felix Krumbholz

↑ Secondary School, Braamcamp Freire Pontinha in Lisbon, Portugal by cvdb arquitectos; Photo: invisiblegentleman.com

↑ Otsuka-Dofukuten in Kyoto, Japan by Yusuke Seki

↑ Center of Interpretation of Cave Paintings in El Cogul, Lleida, Spain by Prudenci Español

↑ House in Nova Scotia, Canada by Alexander Gorlin Architects

↑ Jindu Sustainable Pavilion in Hangzhou, China by Paul Lukez Architecture

↑ House in Soan Garden, Islamabad, Pakistan by Arkam & Partners

↑ Hotel Básico in Playa del Carmen, Mexico by Central de Arquitectura

↑ Apartment in Brooklyn, NY by Craig Konyk; Photo: Brad Dickson

(Cov...

Government Offers to Swap for a New F.B.I. Headquarters

2013-01-31T18:05:00-05:00

For nearly 40 years, the F.B.I. has had its headquarters in a massive example of Brutalist architecture on Pennsylvania Avenue. But the federal government hopes to swap the building and its prime location for a sprawling new home in the suburbs, and there seem to be plenty of developers eager to help make that happen.

The General Services Administration, the federal government’s landlord, held an “industry day” this month to lay out its wish list for new F.B.I. headquarters, drawing more than 450 interested developers, architects, brokers and consultants.

Paul Rudolph’s Brutalism, reworked, at UMass Dartmouth

2012-11-26T17:28:00-05:00

Designed in the late 1960s by one of the most inventive architects in American history, Paul Rudolph, the campus is a powerful, muscular pile of raw concrete. It’s an example of an architectural style that’s known, for better or worse, as Brutalism. Now one of the major chunks of UMass Dartmouth is being transformed. That’s the Claire T. Carney Library, which is being renovated and enlarged — redesigned, really, in many ways — by a talented Boston architecture firm that calls itself designLAB.

Preservationists back out before fight over FBI’s Hoover Building even begins

2012-10-29T17:09:00-04:00

The public doesn’t typically consider the Brutalist buildings historical — they consider them ugly. The Hoover Building in particular was named the ugliest building on Earth earlier this year by a travel Web site. And now that Penn Quarter has evolved into a posh residential community, neighbors of the building want it gone.

Ten Top Images on Archinect's "Concrete" Pinterest Board

2012-10-19T15:15:00-04:00

In case you haven't checked out Archinect's Pinterest boards in a while, we have compiled ten recently pinned images from outstanding projects on various Archinect Firm and People profiles.

Today's top images (in no particular order) are from the board Concrete.

↑ Casa La Punta in Mexico City, Mexico by Central de Arquitectura

↑ Stöðin Roadside Stop in Borgarnes, Iceland by KRADS (Photo: Kristinn Magnússon)

↑ Modern Island House in the Dominican Republic by Rangr Studio (Photo: Brad Dickson)

↑ House of San-jo in Gwangju, South Korea by studio_GAON (Photo: Youngchae Park)

↑ AzCA Experimental Playground in South Tucson, AZ by Studio Play, a fifth year studio at the College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture at the University of Arizona (posted by team member Drew Allen)

↑ Archohm Studio in New Delhi, India by Archohm

↑ HSU House Mass Wall in Danby, NY by Epiphyte-Lab LLC

↑ AZL Pension Fund Headquarters in Heerlen, the Netherlands by ...

Editor's Picks #286

2012-10-16T00:11:00-04:00

Alex Maymind highlighted the work of Cornell studio "Ungers vs. Rowe" in a piece titled ARCHIPELAGOS: Ungers vs. Rowe. Both the studio and feature, articulate "a theoretical argument about two divergent Cornell legacies: one, O.M. Ungers and the other, Colin Rowe as exemplary urban design positions that after some forty years remain still operative in today’s context". Mr. Maymind further argues that "Both Ungers and Rowe share an overwhelming concern for the deployment and manipulation of precedent (with all of the baggage the term implies) as the basis for making and conceptualizing form". The studio featured two groups of two students, each assigned either Ungers or Rowe, as source material. Steven Ward commented "beautiful work. man, i would have loved this studio" and even Thayer-D agreed "Ultimately, the main source of apprehension in dealing with these two figures comes from the fact that they both sought to criticize the status quo, which is still very much alive"

New...

Brutalist architect, Ulrich Franzen, dies at 91

2012-10-13T18:46:00-04:00

Not everyone liked the skywalks, which connect buildings Mr. Franzen designed at Hunter College on Lexington Avenue. Neighbors lamented the loss of sunlight. But Mr. Franzen, a Modernist subscriber to the form-follows-function credo, considered them the functional equivalent of ivy-covered walkways for urban students. It would “become the college community’s main street,” he wrote of the skywalk plan in 1972 in the college’s student newspaper, “well above rush-hour traffic at street level.”

Gerhard Kallmann, Brutalist Architect, Dies at 97

2012-06-26T18:01:00-04:00

Gerhard Kallmann, the architect who, with Michael McKinnell, designed Boston City Hall, a hulking, asymmetrical, Modernist building that has been widely acclaimed by architects for half a century though disparaged by many Bostonians, died on Tuesday in Boston. He was 97.

Orange County Votes to Keep Brutalist Building

2012-05-04T11:54:00-04:00

Elected officials in Goshen, N.Y., voted Thursday against a resolution to demolish and replace the Orange County Government Center, a late-1960s building in the small Hudson Valley town that sparked debate on the value of modern architecture. "I am deeply disappointed by the outcome of today's vote," Mr. Diana said in a written statement.

Unloved Building in Goshen, N.Y., Prompts Debate on Modernism

2012-04-07T11:21:00-04:00

As Modernist buildings reach middle age, many of the stark structures that once represented the architectural vanguard are showing signs of wear, setting off debates around the country between preservationists, who see them as historic landmarks, and the many people who just see them as eyesores.

Also see this discussion in the forum: Paul Rudolph threatened with demolition: when I see #&*! like this I just want to give up.

How Boston City Hall was born

2012-02-10T19:16:00-05:00

Whatever else you might think about it, Boston City Hall is an improbable building. Call it a giant concrete harmonica or a bold architectural achievement, but to walk by this strange, asymmetrical structure in Government Center is to wonder how on earth it landed there.

Fifty years after a groundbreaking competition, two architects look back at the project that polarized the city — and gave it a new lease on life