Brutal Realities

University of Massachusetts Amherst

This presentation examines the changing tide around the reception of Brutalism in the United States during the last decade, while questioning how that change will impact our treatment of concrete buildings in the future. As concrete modernism comes into more positive focus today, will attitudes toward the future of these buildings in the architecture and preservation communities readjust? Should such structures be preserved or conserved, adapted or transformed? And how important is it to be responsive to original intentions and elements of significance? A conservation management plan for Boston City Hall is presented as a case study in which careful management of change is rooted in an understanding of the structure’s intentions, history, and significance.

https://scholarworks.umass.edu/umassbrut_community/2021symposium/day_2/1