The modernist Brookline Town Hall building stands in stark contrast to the many historic buildings in Brookline Village, and even more-so from the town’s third Town Hall, a Victorian Gothic design by architect Samuel J. F. Thayer. Completed in 1965 as a six-story municipal “skyscraper”, the structure was designed by Anderson, Beckwith, and Haible, architects who specialized in sleek, clean, Modernist designs, primarily in office parks and college campuses. The unadorned box is broken up only by the rows of identical windows and slightly projecting fins, which break up the bays in their own monotony. Like many such municipal and office buildings of the time, the structure is set back from the street and surrounded by landscaping, with surface parking behind. While the building was lauded when it opened in 1965, tastes shifted and like in many communities, a majority of the public (and likely the employees who work here) would have preferred its predecessor.
Located just north of and in stark contrast to the ornate Neo-Gothic 1932 Administration Building of Elms College, the school’s main library building showcases how much architecture styles changed in just 40 years. The college’s library was long in the main Administration building, but was outgrown in the latter half of the 20th century. The two-story steel and cast-concrete library building was built in 1973 with exterior details in red brick and concrete, a nod to the historic materials of the older campus buildings. Unapologetically Modern, and somewhat Brutalist, the building has complex geometry of sunken voids and solid sections, broken up by a horizontal band of windows with concrete fins to mitigate sunlight. The building was designed by Boston architects, Carroll & Greenfield, and recently celebrated its 50th anniversary.
As populations boomed in the decades following the conclusion of WWII and suburbs drew wealthier residents to single-family neighborhoods, city governments were desperate to keep tax dollars in city limits. As a result, many cities instituted a policy called Urban Renewal, where neighborhoods (often with higher percentages of minority or immigrant populations) and historic housing were demolished as a form of “slum clearance” and modern housing centered around the automobile sprouted up in their place. The Washington Park section of Roxbury in Boston was one of the hardest-hit neighborhoods in the 1960s as part of a series of neighborhood plans by the Boston Redevelopment Authority. This housing development, called Westminster Court, was developed on one of the new Urban Renewal parcels in Washington Park. Designed by famed modernist architect Carl Koch, the Mid-Century Modern buildings were constructed in modular units to cut costs and expedite construction time. The buildings utilize precast frames with contrasting exterior panels of brick, exposed aggregate concrete, and aluminum. While many dislike these buildings, it is important to understand the history behind them and how they are part of the complex history of many cities.
I don’t share Mid-Century buildings on here enough, mostly due to the fact that so many of the houses of the period are secluded down winding driveways and surrounded by trees! This stunning house is located in Southbury, Connecticut, and is a great example of a Deck House. The Deck House was a housing type developed by architect Carl Koch. According to At Home With Tomorrow, he began his lifelong mission to create “the good, the beautiful, and the inexpensive” in housing while at Harvard under the guidance of Walter Gropius, who is famous for the development of the Modernist Movement in architecture. After the war, he turned his focus on the housing shortage, a symptom of the Great Depression, WWII, and returning Veterans with growing families and VA mortgage loan offers. His solution was for an affordable house of pre-fabricated parts to cut costs and provide streamlined construction. In 1953, his Techbuilt house was launched, after a decade of research. William Berkes and Robert Brownell had worked with Koch at Techbuilt after graduate school, but wanted to create a design of their own. They left Techbuilt in 1959 and founded Deck House, using the same principles. The exposed Douglas fir beams, wood panel ceilings and mahogany trim and window casements are what give the deck house a lot of its signature aesthetic. A wall of glazing, open floor plan with sloping roof rafters extending beyond the walls and a low placement in seemingly untouched nature are further elements that have endeared these houses to the modern homeowner.
In the second half of the 20th century, parts of Boston saw disinvestment by private property owners as well as local and state government. With people leaving Boston for the suburbs, the hemorrhaging of tax revenue led urban planners to go big and institute ‘Urban Renewal‘ policies and planning to demolish what they believed to be substandard housing and invest in Modern apartments and car-oriented developments. The triangular shaped new community was as comprehensive as any urban renewal district in the region; indeed of the ten General Neighborhood Renewal Plans created by the BRA in 1961, Washington Park was the most self contained Urban Renewal District in the city. It included new police and fire stations, a courthouse, two public libraries, a shopping mall, a health center, elementary school and five garden style housing developments totaling almost 2000 apartments or townhouses. At its completion in 1975, $70.4 million had been invested to build the new community of which $31. 3 million came from the federal government. Part of this massive undertaking was the construction of elderly housing, which resulted in this 20-story cylindrical tower at the southernmost edge of the Urban Renewal area. The tower was constructed between 1967 and 1970 and was designed by Boston-based architectural firm Richmond & Goldberg, led by Isidor Richmond and Carney Goldberg. Apartments were “integrated” with with 70% Black and 30% White residents, all with private balconies and an emergency pull-chain system in kitchens and bedrooms for the elderly residents. As far as mid-century apartment towers go, this one is pretty interesting and unique. The building was renovated a few years ago and renamed the Doris Bunte Apartments. In 1969, Buntè was nominated to the Boston Housing Authority board, making her the first female public housing tenant to serve. In 1972, she was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives, becoming the first woman of color to serve in the Massachusetts legislature, and the first female to serve in the House leadership in 68 years. While there, Buntè helped found the Black Legislative Caucus and the Caucus of Women Legislators.
Modern architecture can often compliment and blend into the context of historic neighborhoods, and this example in Boston’s South End neighborhood is one of the best examples locally. In 2002, developers eyed a long-vacant lot on the busy Mass. Ave corridor through the South End and began designs of a contextual addition to the streetscape. Dolezal Architecture was tasked with designing a modern residential building that would comply with local historic district regulations, a balance that can be difficult to accomplish. Employing traditional masonry, solid-to-void ratios, massing, and bays, but in a modern context, the building blends in with its surroundings yet is architecturally interesting. The building contains ten condos in a single building which reads more like two distinct structures.
Located on the same block as the Arnold-Palmer House (last post) in Downtown Providence, this apartment building is the work of one of the most prolific Modernist architects of the 20th century, Paul Rudolph. During Downtown Providence’s period of urban renewal, which saw the demolition of much of Cathedral Square (much of which remains surface parking lots), planners sought a high-rise apartment building to house displaced elderly residents and others who hoped to reside close to downtown shopping and amenities. Architect Paul Rudolph, who was at the time Dean of Yale’s Architecture School, designed the brick building which employs horizontal bands in concrete which marks off floor levels and provides some breaks in the materiality. The building was originally designed in 1963, but after years of delays and budget cuts from rising construction costs, the balconies and other design features were removed from the final product, leading to its present simplicity. While simple, the building retains intrigue, especially with the projecting window bays and offset openings, a departure from the block apartment buildings at the time.
I typically do not connect my posts to current events, but I really wanted to take time to highlight the strength and fortitude of the Ukrainian people fighting to preserve their home and democracy around the globe. Closer to home, a growing Ukrainian community in Boston in 1956, decided to erect a new church in the Forest Hills section of Jamaica Plain. Land was acquired and a blessing ceremony was attended by members of the church, the architect, and Reverend John Theodorovich; the head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of America, who was born in Ukraine, and served at chaplain with the Army of the Ukraine National Republic in the war against Russia in 1919-20, before eventually moving to North America. The architect, John Kodak, was a Toronto-based architect of Ukrainian descent who ended up in Canada after fleeing from his home to escape communist rule from the USSR. This church is a Modernist interpretation of the iconic St. Andrew’s Church in Kiev, Ukraine, with its onion domes surmounted by crosses. The church, like many others, is holding prayers for Ukraine and is coordinating donations and aid to the Ukrainian people and related charities.
Christensen Hall at the University of New Hampshire in Durham is a rare example of the much-maligned Brutalist style of architecture in the state. In the late 1960s, the university needed more housing and a dining hall for new students of the growing campus, but a very low budget to accomplish this. They hired Ulrich Franzen, a German-born architect (featured on here previously) who attended school at Harvard, learning Modernist principles there that would shape his career. The boxy buildings feature deep recessions to provide each student an identifiable corner and windows. The concrete frame building and engineering provide breezeways and forms that conventional buildings would not be able to accomplish. The building was completed in 1970 and was immediately applauded by architects and was featured numerous architectural publications.
One of the most recognizable buildings (largely due to height) on the University of New Hampshire campus in Durham is Stoke Hall, a large dormitory on the outskirts of campus. The building was designed by Leo Provost, a New Hampshire-based architect, who actually graduated from UNH in 1936. Stoke Hall is named for Dr. Harold Walter Stoke, President of the University of New Hampshire from 1944-1947 during an enrollment surge that more than tripled enrollment and the beginning of a massive building program that continued for decades. The surge began with the conclusion of WWII, and the increase in young men going to college thanks to the GI Bill. Mr. Stoke got around as a President, as after three years at New Hampshire, he became President of Louisiana State University (LSU) until 1951. He later served as President at Queens College, New York, for six years. The Y-shaped building was constructed in two phases, the two wings facing the street were built in 1965, with the rear wing added the summer later. The design blends mid-20th century styles from New Formalism to Mid-Century Modern in a graceful way, especially for a college dormitory, though, I cannot speak for the interiors.
Buildings of New England 