There were some choice words a few weeks back about the proposed redevelopment next to Waterfront Station and in previous posts about the supposed architectural monstrosity at 555 West Cordova.
I didn’t think the original design was particularly beautiful, and understand that much of the opposition is in relation to the obstruction of viewsheds and downtown gateways, but the aesthetic opposition struck me as a little harsh. Not because it isn’t ok to knock an ugly building, but because there are so many better targets out there.
One of my unfulfilled ambitions in New York was to create a coffee table book of Brutalist Architecture in the city. Brutalism is easy to pick on, but it’s damned sure sculptural and unique. A lot of people don’t picture Brutalist architecture when they think of NYC, but it’s there if you know where to look.
Two of my personal favourites for Most Brutal are the Tracey Towers – a pair of upright concrete loofahs at the northern terminus of the Grand Concourse in the Bronx. They were designed by Paul Rudolph, the same man who gave the world Boston’s Government Center, and who brought that same cozy warmth to the North Bronx.
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The light throws a lot of different hues over these towers at different times of the day and year, but it’s most splendid when it rains. The tracking of rainwater through the course grooves of the exterior concrete casts unevenly darkened splotches down the side of each building. The effect is well described as a recreation of Alice Cooper’s face in four dimensions. Two of them. You can see these things from atop a Midtown skyscraper on a clear day, but like all good architecture, you need to be up close to appreciate it.
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The Tracey Towers
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Another incredible structure is Woodhull Hospital in Brooklyn, where I was once treated for a small wound. If Ming the Merciless needed an administrative outpost on Earth, this would be a logical and ready-made choice. This is a hospital that was very obviously designed by someone who despised humanity and every facet of its existence. If you’re ever in Bushwick and need some healing, you’ll be taken to Woodhull.
Woodhull Hospital, Brooklyn – birthplace of human children
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And I have to include the windowless AT&T (now Verizon) Long Lines Building at the corner of Worth and Church. Google it and you’ll find that almost all available images accentuate its looming bulk.
AT&T Long Lines Building at Church and Worth streets (middle), in the context of decades of development – from Deco (foreground left) to 60s International Style (upper left) to Gehry (upper middle left) to new Vancouver-style residential (middle right)
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These are just three brazen examples from back East. I’m curious to hear from PT readers what their choices are for Lower Mainland’s most eye-shaming buildings.
Please share.
The ATT building is much more interesting when you realize it is not for people but for equipment to take the fiberoptic signals from major trunk lines and translate them to the various smaller fiberoptic and wire cables that lead out into the city. Even more interesting when you find that many of the offices clustered around this building house the terminals for major brokerage houses looking to get market information nanoseconds ahead of their competitors in order to beat them in high-speed trading. You’ll find a more detailed account of this kind of building in Michael Lewis’ “Flash Boys”.
I’ve no doubt it serves an interesting and uncommon function – especially for the fact that it’s housed in some very expensive Lower Manhattan real estate. But it is foreboding. And having worked across the street from this hulk for several years, it also whistles very loudly.
Not a “favourite” – but definitely most brutalist.
The Masonic Temple on West 8th – which is to be redeveloped.
http://skyscraperpage.com/forum/showpost.php?p=7282631&postcount=5038
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