UMass Amherst offers a guide for walking tours of its collection of brutalist structures.
https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/cfcd17872b7d4ceea34c857dd1bf6450
3 Likes
McMahon Hall, a dorm at the university of washington is, I think, brutalist:
Formerly Condon Hall and Law School at UW (now home to university police, which is a good fit):
If anyone ever tells you that architects donât make big mistakes, look at that south facing side of the building with those concrete slabs with thin slits over all the windows. This was apparently a design feature for a similar building to be sited in Arizona and the cement window coverings (and thatâs exactly what they are) were meant to control sun in the afternoon. Did I mention that the building faces directly south and that itâs located in Seattle? Yeah, an extra ribbon of concrete to cover the .5% of total building material made of glass. Instead of, you know, window shades? Great idea.
The only thing worse to me than old Condon is that picture @circuitrider posted of the Amherst building thatâs been or is in the process of being torn down. That one is straight up claustrophobia nightmare. It is a hunk of brick with almost no ability to see outside. Horrible looking and must have been horrible to work in. Yuck. Truly awful:
2 Likes
But any fan of Brutalism really needs to see Paul Rudolphâs UMass/Dartmouth plan.
4 Likes
Oh, to be fair, the former Amherst Merrill Science did have windows - all facing away from the main campus:
Fun Fact: Itâs successor, the newest iteration of an Amherst student union, will occupy the same concrete foundation as Merrill because it was so firmly embedded into the hillside that it would have taken dynamite to dislodge it.
2 Likes
These are architectural design elements called brise soliel. Designed to provided shade in summer and allow winter sunlight to enter(due to lower angle of sun in winter).
I know I have mentioned this before, but S24 and I were literally walking right through the middle of that picture when a huge chunk of Merrill came down, startling our tour guide (and making quite the impression).
Which is really not relevant, except to the extent that even though I am relatively tolerant of Brutalism, that one is definitely not one I will miss.
Ok, that makes more sense. That side of it is hideous and I remember the first time you posted thinking, âI donât remember that one.â
I recall someone giving me that explanation as well. Having spent some time inside, I can tell you that the light, or what there is of it, is insufficient in the winter, early spring and late fall. The sun is out in force in the summer and the angle eventually catches up to the south side of the building. But most people whoâve used the building donât think that shade was worth the price of a layer of concrete on the windows of a building that exists geographically where there is a figurative layer of concrete across the sky for good percentage of the non-summer months.
I agree that this would be a much better design element to use in Arizona rather than Seattle.
2 Likes
A question still floats around about whether Wesleyanâs well-known Center for the Arts is or is not brutalist. Itâs made of independent blocks of limestone in a very deliberate layout.
I can testify that, in person, it looks nicer than most of the examples weâve seen in this thread. The exterior limestone blocks give a slightly smoother and cleaner feel than typical exposed concrete brutalism. And there is something about it when youâre there that hints at something else altogether than the aims of brutalism, at least as described in the little reading Iâve done of that style. For example, the CFA doesnât scream âfunction!â when youâre wandering around the layout. Still, it is obviously very geometric and modern in appearance.
It would be interesting to hear others proffer to which architectural style, tradition or school they think it belongs.
2 Likes
The photo with the bench has cemetery vibes, in my opinion.
4 Likes
These buildings were one of the things my daughter hated about Wesleyan (she wasnât a fan in general though on paper it was a great fit for her).
3 Likes
Spot on. 
1 Like
Wesleyanâs arts center may be Beaux-Arts influenced. As an example of a predecessor, some may recognize its form in the Folger Shakespeare Library (1932) in Washington, D.C:
However, to describe Wesleyanâs arts center as a form of unadorned classicism may represent a safer attribution, in that its Beaux-Arts influences were decades in the past at the time of its construction.
4 Likes
What really separates the Wesleyan University CFA from most of the buildings on this thread is that it consists entirely of load-bearing walls. Not even concrete (though that was a matter of sheer chance) but limestone blocks slid into place, block by block with a special epoxy. So, yeah there is a resemblance to cemeteries since where else in the United States are you going to find that big a collection of Classical-Greek inspired buildings?
Oh, wait:
2 Likes
The upcoming Student Union/Dining Commons at Amherst looks to be a vast improvement over Merrill and takes advantage of some pretty spectacular views of the Holyoke Range.
https://www.amherst.edu/campuslife/student-center
However, between the Student Union and the recently completed Science Center plus the new geothermal power complex, Amherst will have spent over $500 mil. And Amherst still plans to replace its Robert Frost Library sometime around 2030. Even with their wealth, that kind of physical plant spending is bound to put strains on their endowment.
1 Like
It looks like they will be using it as a gigantic staircase to get from the main campus to the playing fields and new dorms below the hill.
1 Like
Southwest Residential area at UMass. Completed in the early 1970âs:
W. E. B. Du Bois Library. Completed 1974:
Hotel UMass: while I appreciate the others, for me this one falls under âwhat were they thinking??â
4 Likes
