Day 1: UMass Dartmouth
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DOI
https://doi.org/10.7275/rx4s-2w72
Location
UMass Dartmouth
Event Website
www.umassbrut.org
Start Date
22-10-2021 11:00 AM
End Date
22-10-2021 12:30 PM
Abstract
Modeled on UVA’s Lawn, Paul Rudolph’s mid-century Brutalist UMass Dartmouth buildings march down both sides of a gently sloped great lawn following the grade with one exception, the Auditorium, which is raised above the quad’s lawn on a 6’ high plinth, accessed by monumental stairs underscoring the entire building. With its entries elusively tucked into the ends of the building, the Auditorium steps were ceremonial at best and vacant, functionless and windswept at worst.
Evolving tastes, priorities and social behavior over subsequent decades, and even more recently, the pandemic, have made indoor/outdoor relationships, outdoor space, and universal access a top priority, thereby rendering these highly minimalist inaccessible and ceremonial plinths obsolete.
In 2017, a massive steam tunnel replacement project required the demolition of the steps, offering an opportunity to implement a priority project of the recent Campus Vision Plan to activate the Auditorium steps. Landscape architect, John Amodeo, who worked on the Campus Vision Plan, will show how he used landscape design to re-imagine the UMass Dartmouth Auditorium’s plinth from the merely ceremonial to an activated place for students, faculty and staff to gather, socialize, learn and renew, while respecting the Rudolph legacy and preserving the Auditorium’s impressive stature.
Included in
Architectural History and Criticism Commons, Cultural Resource Management and Policy Analysis Commons, Environmental Design Commons, Historic Preservation and Conservation Commons, Landscape Architecture Commons, Other Architecture Commons, Urban, Community and Regional Planning Commons
UMass Brut: Re-imagining the Plinth
UMass Dartmouth
Modeled on UVA’s Lawn, Paul Rudolph’s mid-century Brutalist UMass Dartmouth buildings march down both sides of a gently sloped great lawn following the grade with one exception, the Auditorium, which is raised above the quad’s lawn on a 6’ high plinth, accessed by monumental stairs underscoring the entire building. With its entries elusively tucked into the ends of the building, the Auditorium steps were ceremonial at best and vacant, functionless and windswept at worst.
Evolving tastes, priorities and social behavior over subsequent decades, and even more recently, the pandemic, have made indoor/outdoor relationships, outdoor space, and universal access a top priority, thereby rendering these highly minimalist inaccessible and ceremonial plinths obsolete.
In 2017, a massive steam tunnel replacement project required the demolition of the steps, offering an opportunity to implement a priority project of the recent Campus Vision Plan to activate the Auditorium steps. Landscape architect, John Amodeo, who worked on the Campus Vision Plan, will show how he used landscape design to re-imagine the UMass Dartmouth Auditorium’s plinth from the merely ceremonial to an activated place for students, faculty and staff to gather, socialize, learn and renew, while respecting the Rudolph legacy and preserving the Auditorium’s impressive stature.
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/umassbrut_community/2021symposium/day_1/7