I think contemporary styles begin to reflect people's insecurities about the future and maybe that's partly why they start to lose favor. Movies like Metropolis showed a future dystopia in art deco and 50 years later films like Logan's Run, A Clockwork Orange, and that sequel to the Planet of the Apes franchise showed dystopia in Brutalism.
I agree, but also in the case of Brutalism, it's fortified bunker style was popular at the height of the cold war - the Cuban missile crisis in the early 60s. I don't think it's a coincidence that buildings which gave the appearance of being bomb resistant would be built during that era. I was a kid and young teen during that time and remember the general feeling of paranoia in society.
I've always liked Paul Rudolph's work. UMass Dartmouth is where I went to undergraduate school. I was there when the campus was only a couple of years old, and loved the feeling there, in large part due to the architecture and layout of the buildings.
These look pretty good, as does Brutalism in general, compared to a lot of the flimsy stuff being put out now. At least Brutalism had a solid and substantial look to it.
Nice angles and shapes. It's not that this building is inherently ugly, it's more the setting and context it is in; i.e., City Hall plaza. If this building were on a normal city block with a normal streetfront, abutted and surrounded by buildings with streetfronts including some retail, apartments, etc., this would be fine. But as it is, standing in the middle of a vast dead zone carved out of a dense city, it looks wrong in that context.
I really like the shapes and the brick exterior. So much easier on the eyes than aging concrete stained by rain runoff.
Agreed. Makes me wonder how much City Hall would be improved aesthetically if the concrete received the same refurbishment that the top of the Pru did in its recent renovation...
