Last weekend, my wife and I participated in a walk-a-thon for the fine folks at the Michael Hoefflin Foundation for Children's Cancer. About a thousand SCVers met at COC's football stadium and walked throughout the campus to raise money for children's cancer research on Saturday morning. Great event and great people.
As I walked through what COC now calls the "Central Commons" area, I was struck, for the 1000th time, how uglythe first generation of COC buildings are. You know what I'm talking about, the concrete monoliths that were the unimaginatively named C & M buildings from the early 1970s until about three years ago:
The LA Times adds:
Brutalism also caught on in California from the 1960s-1970s, about the time COC was being built. So it's no surprise that during California's great higher education boom in the 60s and 70s, COC was built in this then-popular architectural style, thus introducing Brutalism to our little town.
As I walked through COC on Saturday, I realized that Brutalism had followed me everywhere. From the cold halls of the C building at COC to Stevenson Hall at Sonoma State University where I did my undergrad work:
and all the way to CSUN's library, where I spent hours studying for my graduate program and where I'll receive my degree this May:
I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that I think you can find Brutalist-influence in other SCV structures built around this time too. Take for instance our Civic Center, christened in 1973 which I think shows hints of Brutalism even at it embraced California's other architectural meme, red tiled roofs:
and perhaps even CalArts' main building:
I realized by the end of our walk around COC that I found these old concrete structures endearing and special even as I think they're ugly and out-of-place. Given a magic wand in which I could replace them with something that does fit in, I don't think I'd do it. They reflect on a zeitgeist so different from what we're in now that I 'm glad they're here to remind us of the past.
And I think it's really cool that there's a little bit of European inspired socialist-utopianism even here, in the conservative, individualistic SCV.
If you love -or love to hate!- the Brutalist style, here is a great Tumblr feed with loads of pictures
A Brutalist Education
As I walked through what COC now calls the "Central Commons" area, I was struck, for the 1000th time, how uglythe first generation of COC buildings are. You know what I'm talking about, the concrete monoliths that were the unimaginatively named C & M buildings from the early 1970s until about three years ago:
In 2009, the College renamed its buildings after people and local canyons, rather than letters of the Alphabet. I give you Bonelli Hall
Image not recoveredbonelli_ext1_5x4_300-600x480.jpg
I say ugly because, objectively, who could love that architecture? It's stark, cold, purely functional and doesn't fit in with its surroundings or the environment at all. It's a beige box PC when what you really want is an iMac. It's so out-of-place it's as if a slate-gray, used and weathered 1973 Volvo was dropped into a Ferrari showroom. It looks like something out of East Germany. It's almost brutal, isn't it?
In fact it is! This style of architecture is known as "Brutalism," and if you've ever attended public university or community college in California, you've probably spent time doodling in a class held in a Brutalist-inspired building. Here's what Wikipedia says about the Brutalist style:
Brutalist buildings usually are formed with striking repetitive angular geometries, and, whereconcreteis used, often revealing the texture of the wooden forms used for thein-situcasting. Acommon theme in Brutalist designs is the exposure of the building's functionsranging from their structure and services to their human usein the exterior of the building.
...
Brutalism gained considerable momentum in the United Kingdom during the mid twentieth century, as economically depressed (and World War II-ravaged) communities sought inexpensive construction and design methods for low-cost housing, shopping centres, and government buildings. Nonetheless, many architects chose the Brutalist style even when they had large budgets, as they appreciated the 'honesty', the sculptural qualities, and perhaps, the uncompromising, anti-bourgeois, nature of the style.
The LA Times adds:
Brutalist buildings are heavy, monumental and defiantly unbeautiful. Their concrete surfaces are intentionally left exposed. Their ambience is austere.
Brutalism evolved as a revolt by certain European architects against a more widely accepted elegant design of the 1940s called Corporate International Style, which glorified "glass box" construction in a style that emphasized lightness, anonymity and rectilinear precision.
Brutalist advocates shunned it, however, maintaining that the International Style was an elitist fashioning that ignored the cold, harsh realities of post-World War II working-class life.
Brutalism also caught on in California from the 1960s-1970s, about the time COC was being built. So it's no surprise that during California's great higher education boom in the 60s and 70s, COC was built in this then-popular architectural style, thus introducing Brutalism to our little town.
As I walked through COC on Saturday, I realized that Brutalism had followed me everywhere. From the cold halls of the C building at COC to Stevenson Hall at Sonoma State University where I did my undergrad work:
When it first opened in the late 1960s, SSU had the unfortunate nickname of "San Quentin North"
Image not recovered1774946182.jpg
to SSU's Darwin Hall, where I took science courses:
Image not recoveredDarwin-Hall-2-464x480.jpg
and all the way to CSUN's library, where I spent hours studying for my graduate program and where I'll receive my degree this May:
Image not recoveredcsun-640x427.jpg
I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that I think you can find Brutalist-influence in other SCV structures built around this time too. Take for instance our Civic Center, christened in 1973 which I think shows hints of Brutalism even at it embraced California's other architectural meme, red tiled roofs:
Image not recoveredWP_000143-640x480.jpg
and perhaps even CalArts' main building:
Image not recoveredScoop-Graphic-3-CalArts-640x426.jpg
I realized by the end of our walk around COC that I found these old concrete structures endearing and special even as I think they're ugly and out-of-place. Given a magic wand in which I could replace them with something that does fit in, I don't think I'd do it. They reflect on a zeitgeist so different from what we're in now that I 'm glad they're here to remind us of the past.
And I think it's really cool that there's a little bit of European inspired socialist-utopianism even here, in the conservative, individualistic SCV.
If you love -or love to hate!- the Brutalist style, here is a great Tumblr feed with loads of pictures