AMHERST — An ongoing campaign of appreciation for Brutalist architecture on the Amherst campus of the University of Massachusetts, including 1970s-era buildings such as the Randolph W. Bromery Center for the Arts and the Murray D. Lincoln Campus Center, is garnering national recognition.
Docomomo US announced Sept. 12 that UMassBRUT, which has promoted the architectural form on both the Amherst and Dartmouth campuses, is one of 12 projects across the country receiving a Modernism in America Award.
“The UMassBRUT campaign stood out in the Inventory/Survey category for its all-hands-on-deck approach to rallying large educational institutions around better stewardship of their modern resources,” wrote the nonprofit organization, whose name is derived from its mission of documentation and conservation of buildings, sites and neighborhoods of what is known as the Modern Movement.
“Following a two-day symposium, they have made great strides in educating and warming their community toward Brutalism,” Docomomo US wrote.
Brutalism is defined as architecture popular during a 20-year period, from the mid-1950s through the mid-1970s, that used raw concrete and other textured materials in the finished product.
At the Amherst campus, examples of Brutalism include the Fine Arts Center, designed by Kevin Roche and constructed in 1974, and the Campus Center, designed by Marcel Breuer and constructed in 1970.
Other key structures were designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, Edward Durrell Stone and Hugh Stubbins, and include McGuirk Alumni Stadium, completed in 1965, the Lederle Graduate Research Tower, constructed in 1966, the Whitmore Administration Building, the Campus Center parking garage, Tobin Hall and Herter Hall, the W.E.B DuBois Library and the Southwest Area and Hampshire Dining Commons.
UMassBRUT, led by faculty, students, staff and administrators at both UMass Amherst and UMass Dartmouth, is working to ensure that these structures will be fully appreciated by generations of students and community members to come, jury member Angel Ayón said in a statement, adding that it is an “exemplary and responsible stewardship of a massive educational site.”
“We know the rhetoric they are dealing with — Brutalism is ugly — but they leaned into it and made a case for why it is important,” Ayón said.
“It elevates Brutalism to a new height where it can be recognized for its contribution to 20th-century architecture.”
Besides the symposium, UMassBRUT’s initiatives have include a website and Instagram page, hosting virtual and in-person tours and lectures and creating a printed and virtual guide to the Amherst camus.
The work is continuing this fall as it undertakes a project titled, “Illuminating Brutalism: A Projection Art and Music Experience,” during Homecoming Weekend.
On Oct. 29 from 7 to 8 p.m., artwork will be projected onto the south facade of the Bromery Center for the Arts.
Other New England projects recognized with Docomomo US awards, in the ninth year of the program, are the Stockmayer House in Norwich, Vermont, and the Hotel Marcel, in New Haven, Connecticut.
“This year’s Modernism in America Awards honor a full range of truly incredible preservation efforts being undertaken across the country, introducing us to fascinating pieces of our modern heritage and highlighting innovative ways that we can use that heritage to educate, inform and inspire,” Meredith Arms Bzdak, Docomomo US board member and chairwoman of the awards committee, said in a statement.
