{"id":2289326,"date":"2024-07-05T02:41:01","date_gmt":"2024-07-05T06:41:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/new-exhibit-displays-brutal-life-of-washingtons-ugly-architecture\/"},"modified":"2024-07-05T02:48:21","modified_gmt":"2024-07-05T06:48:21","slug":"new-exhibit-displays-brutal-life-of-washingtons-ugly-architecture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/new-exhibit-displays-brutal-life-of-washingtons-ugly-architecture\/","title":{"rendered":"New Exhibit Displays &#8216;Brutal&#8217; Life Of Washington\u2019s Ugly Architecture"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fnew-exhibit-displays-brutal-life-of-washingtons-ugly-architecture%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2289326&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Summary: The\u2063 &#8220;Capital Brutalism&#8221; exhibit at the National Building Museum delves into the controversy surrounding Brutalist architecture in Washington D.C. The exhibit showcases eight modern structures\u2063 in the city\u200b and explores the criticisms levied against\u200b Brutalist buildings over the \u200cyears. From insults likening buildings to &#8220;ten floors of basement&#8221; to public surveys labeling them\u200b as the \u200dugliest, the exhibit confronts the polarizing \u200dviews on \u2062this architectural style. It also reflects \u200don the political implications of Brutalism, suggesting a government dominance \u200drepresented by \u2064the blocky concrete structures.<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, the exhibit questions\u200d whether Brutalism can be salvaged \u200bby proposing reimagined designs for the existing buildings. It discusses the challenges of \u2063balancing urban growth and minimizing carbon \u2062emissions while\u2064 preserving these structures. the\u2063 exhibit aims to\u200c provide context and a new perspective\u2062 on Brutalism, attempting to challenge negative perceptions and offer insight into the complex relationship between architecture, politics, and public opinion.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>In these <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/peter-navarro-full-interview-with-don-jr-the-night-before-prison\/\" title=\"Peter Navarro&#039;s Exclusive Interview with Don Jr. on the Eve of His Incarceration\">polarizing times<\/a>, it seems little wonder that even <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/antifa-blm-vandalize-ice-building-burn-original-starbucks\/\" title=\"Antifa, BLM vandalize ICE building, burn original Starbucks\">federal buildings<\/a> have turned into political battlefields. In his final weeks in office in late 2020, President Trump <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2020\/12\/21\/948926995\/keep-it-classical-says-trump-order-on-federal-architecture\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">signed<\/a> an executive order establishing classical architecture as the official basis for federal building design\u2014 only to have Joe Biden promptly <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2021\/02\/25\/971312635\/president-biden-revokes-trumps-controversial-classical-architecture-order\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">revoke the order<\/a> upon taking office two months later.<\/p>\n<p>A new exhibit at the National Building Museum wades into the dispute by examining the style of architecture that many observers love to hate. In studying eight modern structures in Washington\u2019s urban core, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbm.org\/exhibition\/capital-brutalism\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Capital Brutalism<\/a>\u201d attempts to bring context to a style that seems ever-present around the District of Columbia.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Critics\u2019 Complaints<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The exhibit does not shy away from the insults lobbed at Brutalist buildings over the years. It quotes the late Housing and Urban Development Secretary Jack Kemp as calling the departmental headquarters building he worked in \u201cten floors of basement,\u201d despite the fact that notable architect Marcel Breuer designed the structure. (In this case at least, objection to the building appears bipartisan, as Barack Obama\u2019s first HUD secretary, Shaun Donovan, called it \u201cthe most reviled in all of Washington \u2014 and with good reason.\u201d)<\/p>\n<p>In another case, The New York Times\u2019 Ada Louise Huxtable called the Smithsonian\u2019s Hirshhorn Institution as \u201clack[ing] the essential factors of aesthetic strength and provocative vitality;\u201d elsewhere, the Times dubbed the structure \u201ca <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/israel-strikes-back-military-strikes-130-palestinian-terrorist-targets-in-response-to-rocket-attacks\/\" title=\"ISRAEL STRIKES BACK: Military Strikes 130+ Palestinian Terrorist Targets In Response To Rocket Attacks\">bomb shelter<\/a>.\u201d Sad to say, that Brutalist \u201cbomb shelter\u201d stands on the National Mall, directly across from the neo-classical National Archives and the National Gallery of Art\u2019s Sculpture Gallery. And an attempt to revamp the Hirshhorn by creating an inflatable bubble in its open-air atrium, a proposal that notable architect Frank Gehry called \u201crefreshing,\u201d got shelved more than a decade ago due to cost concerns.<\/p>\n<p>The public tends to agree with the Brutalist critics. As the exhibit points out, a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/fbi-headquarters-voted-ugliest-building-country-survey-1775469\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">2023 survey<\/a> found the FBI\u2019s downtown Washington headquarters the ugliest building in the nation, and the second ugliest in the world, behind only the Scottish Parliament building in Edinburgh.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Ugly Architecture, Big Government<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>It seems not entirely coincidental that the rise of Brutalism \u2014 the term originates from the French <em>beton brut<\/em>, or \u201craw concrete\u201d \u2014 reached its zenith during the 1950s and 1960s, including the height of Lyndon Johnson\u2019s Great Society. The blocky concrete structures hint at a government Goliath showing its dominance, and to critics, an ugliness overpowering the landscape.<\/p>\n<p>The exhibit occasionally alludes to this philosophy, when it quotes the headline of a 2021 Washington Post article: \u201cBrutalist Buildings Aren\u2019t Unlovable \u2014 You\u2019re Looking at Them Wrong.\u201d To suggest that individuals are mistaken in their beliefs about architecture echoes the same kind of big-government paternalism that derides people as \u201cdeplorable\u201d for \u201cclinging to their guns and religion.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Other comments in the exhibit imbue a paternalistic philosophy when they rationalize Brutalist architecture by arguing the impossibility of starting over: \u201cThe carbon crisis demands a less binary approach. To allow our cities to grow and evolve in a healthy way while minimizing carbon emissions, we have to find a \u2018third ways\u2019[[<em>sic<\/em>]forward.\u201d You may hate that ugly building, but the \u201ccarbon crisis\u201d demands it stay.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Can Brutalism Be Save<\/strong>d?<\/h2>\n<p>The exhibit does try to sand the rough edges off of Brutalism, \u201creimagining\u201d each of the buildings\u2019 structures, with greater or lesser degrees of success. For instance, one proposal suggests that a portion of the Forrestal Building (which houses the Department of Energy) overlooking 10th Street SW be removed to restore vistas to the Smithsonian Castle.<\/p>\n<p>But the suggestion that portions of the building be repurposed for residential housing makes little sense, as plopping down a massive concrete block between row houses seems neither practical nor likely to be welcomed. Would you want a structure like this in your neighborhood?<\/p>\n<div>\n<figure><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>My favorite \u201creimagining\u201d idea came for the Hubert Humphrey Building, now home to the Department of Health and Human Services. The proposal envisions a Temple of Play, the headquarters of the new Department of Play, with \u201cthe addition of several pyramidal stories to create even more space for slides, climbing facilities, affordable dining, and other amenities, all with the goal of improving the mental and physical health of people from across the U.S.\u201d Absurd and silly, yes \u2014 but in some respects, far less damaging than the bloated welfare state firmly ensconced in the Humphrey Building at present.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps the most appropriate quote in the entire exhibit came from critic Wolf Von Eckardt, who termed the FBI headquarters building \u201cthe perfect stage set for a dramatization of George Orwell\u2019s <em>1984<\/em>.\u201d Von Eckardt understands the parallels between an overbearing government and the architectural style that came of age in the middle of the 20th century. In that sense, \u201cCapital Brutalism\u201d shows why conservatives should want to place Brutalist architecture right where Ronald Reagan (along with his ally Margaret Thatcher) consigned Soviet Communism \u2014 to the ash heap of history.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c<em>Capital Brutalism\u201d is on view at Washington\u2019s National Building Museum now through Feb. 17.<\/em><\/p>\n<hr>\n<div>\n<p>      Chris Jacobs is founder and CEO of Juniper Research Group, and author of the book &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/dp\/1645720020\">The Case Against Single Payer<\/a>.&#8221; He is on Twitter: <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/chrisjacobsHC\">@chrisjacobsHC<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In today&#8217;s divisive climate, federal buildings have become battlegrounds for political ideologies. President Trump&#8217;s executive order in late 2020 to establish classical architecture as the official design for federal buildings was quickly overturned by President Biden upon taking office. The National Building Museum&#8217;s new exhibit, &#8220;Capital Brutalism,&#8221; delves into the controversy surrounding the architectural style that many dislike. By examining eight modern structures in Washington, the exhibit aims to provide context to the prevalent Brutalist style in the District of Columbia. Critics have not held back in their disdain for Brutalist buildings, with insults ranging from likening them to bomb shelters to calling them the ugliest in the nation. The exhibit also explores the connection between Brutalism&#8217;s rise during the 1950s and 1960s and the expansion of government power during that time. While attempts are made to reimagine and soften the harshness of Brutalist buildings in the exhibit, the underlying paternalistic philosophy and the public&#8217;s general dislike for the style suggest that Brutalism may not be easily salvaged. Ultimately, the exhibit raises questions about the future of Brutalist architecture and its place in modern society<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":521,"featured_media":2289327,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Department_of_Housing_and_Urban_Development.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[20234,33969,23812,33970,33224],"class_list":["post-2289326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-architecture","tag-brutalism","tag-exhibit","tag-urban-design","tag-washington-dc"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Department_of_Housing_and_Urban_Development.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2289326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/521"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2289326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2289326\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2289327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2289326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2289326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2289326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}