Brutalism was very popular in a certain period of civic and university architecture. It was sort of the modernist answer to Beaux Arts. One of my favorite examples of this is the juxtaposition of Hillman Library and Posvar Hall at the University of Pittsburgh with the Carnegie library and museum complex, which are on opposite sides of a large plaza (note Hillman in the background of the Carnegie image):
Anyway, Brutalism then fell WAAAAAY out of favor. But as usual with these things there is a palpable creep back up in appreciation for Brutalist buildings as they make the transition from merely old to actually historic in terms of contemporary mental categorizations.