Brutalist Archives

Retro Road Trip

33 Thomas Street: A Sleek Brutalist Habitat for Machines

July 5, 2024
Written by Kye Cardinalis and Featured image by Lars Plougmann

While you are exploring Lower Manhattan in NYC, you may notice a distinctive and unusual building soaring 550 feet and utterly devoid of windows. This ominous, mysterious structure is located…

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Retro Road Trip

Paul Rudolph’s UMass Dartmouth: A Unified Core for Learning

January 18, 2024
Written by Kye Cardinalis and Featured image by UMassD Mrketing and by

Dartmouth, Massachusetts is home to one of the most remarkable examples of brutalism in college campus design: the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth (UMass Dartmouth). In this post, you will learn…

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Retro Road Trip

The Simple Geometric Beauty of Breuer’s BCC Buildings

December 6, 2023
Written by Kye Cardinalis and Featured image by Zii1028/Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike 4.0 International License

While exploring New York City, you may stumble across a surprising amalgamation of architecture at the Bronx Community College (BCC) campus. The college is perhaps most famous for its Stanford…

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Retro Road Trip

Lauinger Library: A Brutalist Take on Romanesque Design

July 14, 2023
Written by Kye Cardinalis and Featured image by catelinp

Among the Romanesque, Georgian and Gothic buildings that define the Georgetown University Campus, you will spot one Brutalist building that stands out through its stark modern lines. This structure is…

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The Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art: A Window on the Landscape

April 1, 2023
Written by Kye Cardinalis and Featured image photography by Dmadeo/CC-BY-SA-3.0

If you are ever at Cornell University, you have the chance to visit the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, also known simply as the “Johnson Museum” or the “Cornell…

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Boston City Hall: A Controversial Brutalist Landmark

March 18, 2023
Written by Kye Cardinalis and Featured image photography by Newton Court/CC-BY-SA-4.0.

If there is one building that divides Bostonians, it is the notorious Boston City Hall. This Brutalist structure looms imposingly over Boston City Hall Plaza, drawing both criticism and praise.…

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the Endo Pharmaceuticals building exterior

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Retro Road Trip

Endo Laboratories: The “Fortress for Pharmaceuticals”

March 16, 2023
Written by Kye

While in Garden City on Long Island, you can drive to see a brutalist structure that has been dubbed the “Fortress for Pharmaceuticals” by John Morris Dixon in “Progressive Architecture.”…

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The Boston Government Service Center and the Psychology of Space

January 6, 2023
Written by Kye Cardinalis and Featured image photography by Gunnar Klack/CC-BY-SA-2.0.

The next time you are visiting West End in Boston, drop by 19 and 25 Staniford Street to pay a visit to the marvel of Brutalism that is the Boston…

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Learn about the Robert C. Weaver Federal Building at https://www.atomic-ranch.com/.

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The Robert C. Weaver Federal Building: Letting in the Light

July 10, 2022
Written by Kye Cardinalis and Featured image photography by Carol M. Highsmith/Public Domain

While visiting Washington DC, consider driving by 451 7th Street SW, better known as the Robert C. Weaver Federal Building. You can’t miss it—this massive X-shaped structure commands attention. It…

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