THE STYLE
Brutalism was a very influential European post-war style of architecture, flourishing from the 1950s to the mid-1970s. The term was coined from the French phrase “béton brut,” meaning “raw concrete,” and the style makes heavy use of this material. American Brutalism coincided with both the Eisenhower era of new freeways and Cold War defense, and the mass-production of concrete cinder blocks, both of which encouraged the style.
CHARACTERISTICS
Like the Modernism it sprang from, Brutalism has little decoration. It makes use of very angular geometrics, emphasizing hard materials (glass, brick, concrete) and stark form. Brutalist buildings often ignore their surroundings or cover them up with more concrete, and are often disliked (Tacoma’s Christ Church Episcopal, designed by Seattle architect Paul Thiry, was controversial when it was built in 1969.) Building functions such as water services are often placed prominently outside. Windows are deep-set, emphasizing the hard form; there is seldom paint and never ornament.
WHAT THE EXPERT SAYS
“The style is well-named,” says architecture consultant Michael Sullivan. “It’s scary, cold, anti-natural. It’s a post-paranoia, let’s-hunker-down-and-survive-the-bomb mentality. If we ever reached a nadir in architecture, this would be it.”
The other problem with concrete, says Sullivan, is that it doesn’t weather well in a damp, cold climate like ours. The Brutalist-style Park Plaza parking garages downtown are in poor shape, he points out, with the south garage having had to be resurfaced and built over.
Yet the style isn’t all bad. Says the website for Christ Church Episcopal: “Its simple, plain interior is reminiscent of the stark early Christian basilicas, and its modernity is an affirmation of spiritual life in an atomic age.”
WHERE TO SEE THE STYLE
Tacoma: Christ Church Episcopal, 310 N. K St.; Park Plaza North garage, S. 9th and Commerce Streets; the building and fountain at S. 11th Street and Broadway (southwest corner); also the understructure of most freeways.
Olympia: State parking garage, Columbia Street and Union Avenue; State Library, 6880 Capitol Blvd S.; the Library and Lecture Hall at Evergreen State College, 2700 Evergreen Parkway N.W.
OTHER FAMOUS EXAMPLES
Boston City Hall, Boston; the Geisel Library at the University of California, San Diego; the J. Edgar Hoover Building in Washington, D.C.
Rosemary Ponnekanti: 253-597-8568 rosemary.ponnekanti@thenewstribune.com
