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Dedicated in 1972, plans are underway to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Paul Rudolph’s design for the First Church in Boston.
In 1967, a fire destroyed most of the original 1867 gothic revival church by William Ware and Henry Van Brunt. The congregation considered proposals from Marcel Breuer, Joseph Schiffer, Joseph Eldridge, and Paul Rudolph. They voted in favor of Rudolph’s design [...]
— Docomomo US
In celebration of the anniversary, several events are scheduled at the church building for this weekend, April 30th and May 1st, including an Architects Panel on Sunday from 2–4 pm. View this post on Instagram A post shared by @docomomous View full entry
In an effort to bring the organization closer to its own self-stated goals on sustainability, equity, and collaboration, the Board of Directors of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) has today unveiled plans for a comprehensive new upgrade to its aging Washington, D.C. National... View full entry
Despite an illustrious history, the prized structure on Virginia Key has sat vacant since Hurricane Andrew swept through the city in 1992. It now faces an uncertain future as city commissioners will soon decide whether to allocate $61.2 million in revenue-bond financing for the building’s restoration. — Surface Mag
The Miami City Commission has since moved to defer the planned February 24th vote until late May after Commissioner Joe Carollo urged City Manager Art Noriega to reconsider the mounting financial impacts caused by increasingly costly restoration, which centers around reestablishing its original... View full entry
The result was a beguiling cocktail – part bastion, part brutalist hanging gardens of Babylon – and it stood as the ultimate expression of the modern movement’s search for a monument.
The complexity of incorporating so many venues on so many levels across a 40-acre site has always made the place an infuriating labyrinth for the uninitiated, with successive decades of signage and way-finding strategies deployed in an attempt to ease the maze-like passageways.
— The Guardian
The Barbican’s important birthday comes ahead of next month’s revealing of the winner of the City of London Corporation-sponsored redevelopment contest. The Centre is celebrating with a weekend of special programming including a guest DJ’d after party. Previously on Archinect: City of London... View full entry
One of the most important renewal projects in recent memory is a step closer to being realized in central London. The city’s development corporation has officially revealed its competition shortlist of design partners for the highly-publicized Barbican Centre revamp. Five teams were... View full entry
The development of a huge office campus in downtown San Jose can proceed and an old bank building can be demolished, a Santa Clara County judge has decided in a new ruling on the controversial building. A proposed development that would replace downtown San Jose’s decades-old CityView Plaza with a modern tech campus that could bring 14,000 jobs to the city’s urban core is at the heart of a legal action whose goal was to preserve a bank building designed in a “brutalist” architectural style. — The Mercury News
The ruling denies a petition filed by the Preservation Action Council of San Jose filed seeking to preserve the 1973 Bank of California building and alter the construction of the new office campus being developed by real estate company Jay Paul Co. The petition by the preservationist group claimed... View full entry
Sad news today as multiple outlets are reporting the death of Brutalist icon and former RIBA president Owen Luder in England at the age of 93. Luder held a number of different titles throughout his six-decade career and was a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) at the time of his... View full entry
The Breuer building, an architectural icon and the former longtime home of the Whitney Museum of American Art, could soon have a new owner. The Whitney is considering the sale of the building and brokers are compiling lists of potential buyers, according to sources in the art world and real estate.
Now the multi-million-dollar question is: If the building is sold, can it be developed?
— Artnet
The brutalist masterpiece know colloquially for its architect Marcel Breuer opened as the new home of the Whitney Museum in 1966. The building exchanged hands in 2015 as the Met expanded past Fifth Avenue for the first time to make room for the collection of billionaire cosmetics heir Leonard A... View full entry
Pang, of AaaM Architects, set out to locate Hong Kong’s Brutalist past with other local design professionals, who formed a team of architectural sleuths. They identified more than 70 buildings, 15 of which now feature in an exhibition showing how the architectural style made its mark on Hong Kong’s educational, industrial and religious building — The South China Morning Post
The St. Stephen’s building was designed by Tao Ho, who died in 2019. Ho was also responsible for Hong Kong’s Bauhinia flower flag design, as well as its still-standing Arts Center, which opened in 1977. The exhibition came together with the help of an AaaM intern named Alison Chan Lok-yan, who... View full entry
A brutalist icon continues to make progress with its green makeover thanks to a new Passive House renovation by Becker + Becker. The Pirelli Tire Building is perhaps one of New Haven, Connecticut’s most famous landmarks. The original nine-story structure was completed in 1970 and considered one... View full entry
It’s been a year since former Mayor Marty Walsh announced the start of renovations to City Hall Plaza and work is about halfway complete, despite unexpected obstacles. — Boston.com
The renovation is the brainchild of former Boston mayor (and current Secretary of Labor) Marty Walsh, who promised an 18–24-month construction period when the project was announced in 2019. The barren 7-acre plaza has long been an object of derision in the city after the McKinnell &... View full entry
Paulo Mendes da Rocha, one of the most acclaimed architects in Brazil and around the world, has passed away at 92. The pioneer of “Brazilian Brutalism” died in São Paulo on Sunday May 23rd, following a battle with lung cancer. National Coach Museum, 2015. Lisbon, Portugal. Photo: Aménio... View full entry
The dismantling of The Elion-Hitchings Building, near where Cornwallis Road meets the Durham Freeway, has been underway internally for several months. But now the demolition has reached the point where workers are pulling the building apart and hauling away pieces by the truckload.
Fans of the building and its architect, Paul Rudolph, had hoped to persuade its owner, United Therapeutics, to save it because of its architectural and historical significance.
— The News & Observer
Despite repeated calls to preserve and protect the Paul Rudolph-designed Burroughs Wellcome Building in Durham, North Carolina — a change.org petition launched by the Paul Rudolph Heritage Foundation in September has collected over 5,780 signatures so far — the demolition of this... View full entry
Some of the finest examples of brutalist architecture in the north of England are at risk of being torn down, according to a photographer who believes a crucial part of the country’s architectural history could be lost in the process.
Simon Phipps [...] said that a mix of mismanagement and a general undervaluing of brutalism was leading to unnecessary demolition.
— The Guardian
The Guardian has published a gallery of photographs by Simon Phipps who has been documenting northern England's concrete heritage for his new book Brutal North. View full entry
With only 29 days of his White House mandate remaining, President Trump revisited a topic that had previously stoked sharp criticism from the architecture community and signed an executive order today that makes classical architecture the preferred style for federal buildings. The order opens with... View full entry
