Houston: Brutalist

[Montrose1100]

The Moddy Towers have awesome views from the dorms. The Dorms are pretty awful though.

[Luminare]

Did they alter the Moody Towers? Why?

 

Probably the original conceptual design and then during the process it turned into what was there today.

[Montrose1100]

The Moddy Towers have awesome views from the dorms. The Dorms are pretty awful though.

*Moody*

 

 

UH Law Center:

 

 

Federal Building:

 

 

Alley:

 

 

I don't have a picture but there is a Holiday Inn that is 13 floors on the far west side of Town that is sort of brutalist.

 

The following are questionable to me, so architecture buffs help me out. Are they considered Brutalist?

 

 

I know they are more functionally brutalist... 

 

 

Med Center

 

Four Seasons?

 

Intercontinental/Royal Sonesta?

 

Melrose? I know the panels were a lighter blue when originally built..

 

And for you HAIF history buffs.... What was this structure?

[Luminare]

UH Law Center- noticing the concrete used in that project it is not actually a "brutalist" building. It has elements of it, but just because something is all concrete doesn't mean its brutalist. For example, one of my fav architects is the Japanese architect Tadeo Ado who uses a lot of concrete in his buildings, but it's almost always in a minimalist/modern language or postmodern.

 

Federal Building- Postmodern

 

Alley Theater- Brutalist/ Postmodern/ Expressionist

 

AT&T Building (Westlayn)- Brutalist.

 

AT&T Building downtown- Art Deco. A very boxy one at that, but if you look closer at the exterior ornament on the side its Art Deco.

 

Med Center- Brutalist motifs but is mostly post-modern in its concept and language

 

Four Seasons- not brutalist. It's actually late Modern.

 

International/ Royal Sonesta- not even close to brutalist lol. This is postmodern

 

Melrose- Modern

 

That last building used to be a large switchboard station/education center. I can't remember the name, but that is all modern. It's actually in a book I have at home. I will post the name and the architect later today. Sadly, it was torn down to make way for the Toyota Center.

[mollusk]

That last building used to be a large switchboard station/education center. I can't remember the name, but that is all modern. It's actually in a book I have at home. I will post the name and the architect later today. Sadly, it was torn down to make way for the Toyota Center.

 

IIRC it was an HL&P adjunct to the electrical substation across the street and underground.  It even had a glass capsule elevator that went up and down to the facilities above below for the benefit of tours, which were shut down by our terror of terrorists.

[Montrose1100]

UH Law Center- noticing the concrete used in that project it is not actually a "brutalist" building. It has elements of it, but just because something is all concrete doesn't mean its brutalist. For example, one of my fav architects is the Japanese architect Tadeo Ado who uses a lot of concrete in his buildings, but it's almost always in a minimalist/modern language or postmodern.

 

Federal Building- Postmodern

 

Alley Theater- Brutalist/ Postmodern/ Expressionist

 

AT&T Building (Westlayn)- Brutalist.

 

AT&T Building downtown- Art Deco. A very boxy one at that, but if you look closer at the exterior ornament on the side its Art Deco.

 

Med Center- Brutalist motifs but is mostly post-modern in its concept and language

 

Four Seasons- not brutalist. It's actually late Modern.

 

International/ Royal Sonesta- not even close to brutalist lol. This is postmodern

 

Melrose- Modern

 

That last building used to be a large switchboard station/education center. I can't remember the name, but that is all modern. It's actually in a book I have at home. I will post the name and the architect later today. Sadly, it was torn down to make way for the Toyota Center.

I thought I had read somewhere the Royal Sonesta was a modern take on brutalist.. Maybe I made that up in my head. It even has some rusty/water drainage stains on it. Looks cold like a bunker in Russia.

 

I knew the Four Seasons was built in the 1980's but it has a very 60's resort feel to it.

 

I'm also surprised by the Federal Building, as it reminds me of a commie block. Thank you for your answers, as I have truly lost touch.

 

Edit:

 

So I guess this is just post-modern? This is the Hotel I was speaking of.

 

 

[H-Town Man]

UH Law Center- noticing the concrete used in that project it is not actually a "brutalist" building. It has elements of it, but just because something is all concrete doesn't mean its brutalist. For example, one of my fav architects is the Japanese architect Tadeo Ado who uses a lot of concrete in his buildings, but it's almost always in a minimalist/modern language or postmodern.

 

Federal Building- Postmodern

 

Alley Theater- Brutalist/ Postmodern/ Expressionist

 

AT&T Building (Westlayn)- Brutalist.

 

AT&T Building downtown- Art Deco. A very boxy one at that, but if you look closer at the exterior ornament on the side its Art Deco.

 

Med Center- Brutalist motifs but is mostly post-modern in its concept and language

 

Four Seasons- not brutalist. It's actually late Modern.

 

International/ Royal Sonesta- not even close to brutalist lol. This is postmodern

 

Melrose- Modern

 

That last building used to be a large switchboard station/education center. I can't remember the name, but that is all modern. It's actually in a book I have at home. I will post the name and the architect later today. Sadly, it was torn down to make way for the Toyota Center.

 

I think it may be a tad anachronistic to call the Alley and especially the Federal Building postmodern, considering when they were built.

 

The Med Center building might be my new favorite Brutalist building in Houston.

 

 

[Luminare]

I think it may be a tad anachronistic to call the Alley and especially the Federal Building postmodern, considering when they were built.

 

The Med Center building might be my new favorite Brutalist building in Houston.

 

Aren't a good amount of movements we give terms to "Anachronistic" I get what you are saying though. I certainly agree with it and it's a logical conclusion.

 

All the Med Center needs is a good power washing and it will lock fabulous! The Med Center is a nice composition.

[Luminare]

Ok so still looking for my book with that one structure, but while I was thinking about that one, I was able to recall two other brutalist gems.

 

Bayou Place (formerly Bayou Center)

 

This was an awesome fusion of both Brutalism and Formalism. It might not look it now, but underneath all that rubbish clad onto it is a really great building.

 

 

 

Neiman Marcus

 

Could certainly use a good power washing though . With all the new development in Post Oak, and you know they will probably redevelop good portions of the galleria in the future to more go in line with Houston's New Urbanism, I just hope this one can survive.

 

 

[Subdude]

IIRC it was an HL&P adjunct to the electrical substation across the street and underground.  It even had a glass capsule elevator that went up and down to the facilities above below for the benefit of tours, which were shut down by our terror of terrorists.

 

I think the facility was closed when control of the Texas grid was centralized, maybe in the 1990s.

 

 

 

 

I'm not sure I would call the Federal Building post modern, although it was later considered a precursor, especially to Graves' Portlandia building.  Since it was designed 20 years before true post-modernism, I think it was just considered idiosyncratic for a long time.  If anything I think it is perhaps a last gasp of some of the designs from the 1940s and 1950s that tried to evoke a sort of regionalism with elements like relatively small windows.  These were also used in the downtown Memorial Hospital and original Hermann Hospital.

[Specwriter]

I think the facility was closed when control of the Texas grid was centralized, maybe in the 1990s.

 

 

 

 

I'm not sure I would call the Federal Building post modern, although it was later considered a precursor, especially to Graves' Portlandia building.  Since it was designed 20 years before true post-modernism, I think it was just considered idiosyncratic for a long time.  If anything I think it is perhaps a last gasp of some of the designs from the 1940s and 1950s that tried to evoke a sort of regionalism with elements like relatively small windows.  These were also used in the downtown Memorial Hospital and original Hermann Hospital.

 

There was supposed to be an aluminum screen on the exteroior of the building covering the small "punched" windows. The screen was omitted as a cost saving measure so there you have it - pre-Post Modern.

 

[bachanon]

....on the alley theatre:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alley_Theatre

 

interesting info on the alley and its brutalist design.

 

also, a quote from alley theatre architect ullrich franzen in playbill:

 

"Franzen told the Houston Chronicle at the time, "The towers act visually as pivots but are, in fact, the required fire stairs as well as the housing for much of the mechanical equipment." He described the building as "ancient as stone and as modern as Houston." The structure contained two theatres, a small, square arena-style space and a larger fan-shaped auditorium.

The construction of the new theatre was covered by the national press. When the Alley opened, Newsweek called it “the most striking theatre in the U.S. … another step along the road toward ending Broadway’s domination of the American theatre." But the building had its detractors as well, who called it cold and fortress-like. Even today, opinions are split as to whether it is one of the ugliest or most daring buildings in the city"

[Naviguessor]

Love it.

I'm worried how the renovation will effect it's character.

[IronTiger]

Well after spending so much time at the Langford Hotel in College Station , I actually came to appreciate this kind of architecture. Brutalism is so misunderstood. It's letting the material's represent everything about the building from it's overall form, function, and even aesthetic. Another good one is the Houston Chronicle building at 610 and 59. It's literally a castle stripped to bare bones and placed on an plinth almost as if the architect wanted to place his architecture on its very own plane different from the rest of its environment. The same can be said for Alley Theater only with this one is almost as if it started out as one sold piece of stone and was somehow sculpted.

 

Of course there are the bad ones too. I mean they tore down the awesome HISD building, but kept the monstrous AT&T building still standing? It's as if the city was trolling everyone and now its like the building just sits there almost defiant to change with the evolving nature of the urban environment around it.

 

Anyway, its a very underappreciated movement because its a work of inner beauty. I hope some these continue to stay around for awhile.

I don't remember the HISD administration building, but I remember passing by (c. 2008) a vacant lot. As for Langford, I'm almost never over there (the building is super weird) but I'm a fan of Kleberg and Heep (west campus), which are basically 1970s-era concrete monoliths.

As for Houston, I also tend to be a fan of the JCPenney "New Look" buildings (see Northwest, Almeda buildings)

[JLWM8609]

I think both the Ernest J. Sterling Student Center and Thurgood Marshall School of Law at TSU would be contenders for Houston brutalism. I believe John Chase was the architect on both buildings and both opened around the same time in the late 70s.

[IronTiger]

Is the Crowne Plaza off 59 (used to be a Holiday Inn Select until around 2011, and was originally a Holiday Inn) considered brutalist? I always thought it was ugly (but unique).

[NenaE]

Nice discussion on Brutalism. To me, it's a building that totally dominates the space with its simple lines and massive scale, or heaviness. Maybe, just maybe, the architects intentionally left the designs ambiguous, or open to interpretation, like so much art is. Or they liked blending or experimenting with styles.

 

IronTiger, do you have an address or nearby x-street for the 59 Crowne Plaze hotel?

[IronTiger]

2712 SW Freeway

[Subdude]

That building came much much later than Brutalism.  High-rise Brutalism is relatively rare, but if it were I would be looking for exposed concrete surfacing.

 

 

[IronTiger]

What would you consider "true brutalism", then? I hold that my A&M buildings (Heep and Kleberg) are rather late-era Brutalist, with massive reinforced concrete walls.

[NenaE]

I think of concrete and 1970's with Brutalism.

[IronTiger]

Kleberg Center, for reference:

Langford:

O&M:

Of course, as this is Houston-related, it should be noted that buildings on universities tend to have a longer shelf life than buildings in a continuously evolving city like Houston.

[Luminare]

The last one isn't brutalist. It is definitely monolithic in nature, in fact so much so that there is an ordinance now in college station which prevents such structures from being built again lol. This is more post-modern.

 

Ah Langford, literally my home my last semester of school (no seriously I slept there to save money on commute from Cypress because I had just finished the Corps xD and wanted to do awesome in studio )

 

I think I should say this once more. Just because a building is made exclusively of concrete doesn't mean it's brutalist That would make almost all of Tadeo Ado's buildings brutalist which they most certainly weren't as well as the work of so many other architects.

[IronTiger]

I never went to Langford for classes (my most recent memory involved me sprinting there to buy some water for a friend who skinned both knees) but yes for O&M and def. Kleberg. I would say Harrington Tower may be early brutalist (not concrete, but has that "look"), Zachry very yes, Rudder no.

So as for Houston...we've determined that the Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza wasn't brutalist (I never liked it anyway), I like the Joske's/Dillard's near The Galleria, aforementioned JCP at Northwest/Almeda, Neiman Marcus and The Galleria too...and that about wraps it up.

It's not my imagination that usually the most interesting/outlandish examples of Brutalist end up getting razed first, is it? 

[NenaE]

I'm amazed that the Houston Post building is still standing.

 

[Luminare]

I never went to Langford for classes (my most recent memory involved me sprinting there to buy some water for a friend who skinned both knees) but yes for O&M and def. Kleberg. I would say Harrington Tower may be early brutalist (not concrete, but has that "look"), Zachry very yes, Rudder no.

So as for Houston...we've determined that the Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza wasn't brutalist (I never liked it anyway), I like the Joske's/Dillard's near The Galleria, aforementioned JCP at Northwest/Almeda, Neiman Marcus and The Galleria too...and that about wraps it up.

It's not my imagination that usually the most interesting/outlandish examples of Brutalist end up getting razed first, is it? 

 

Really I would classify the Kleberg building as Formalist. Not really brutalist (forgot to mention that one lol). The materials are just way to smooth and perfect. It's language also is more formalist. Zachry is simply fascist xD

[IronTiger]

I'm amazed that the Houston Post building is still standing.

Especially with the redevelopment going on in the area, yes. That's one of the buildings I'd be a bit sad to see on the "Daily Demolition Report", along with a few other examples (including the flat that "J" and later, "L" lived in near Rice Village)

 

Zachry is simply fascist xD

Aw I like Zachry. 

[NenaE]

In reference to IronTiger's photos - IMO...The first two building designs - nice.

I've read that Brutalism has never been a favorite style among the general public. I've come to appreciate it's bold nature.

 

 

[Luminare]

In reference to IronTiger's photos - IMO...The first two building designs - nice.

I've read that Brutalism has never been a favorite style among the general public. I've come to appreciate it's bold nature.

 

I think it's only after you have gone through the gauntlet that is architecture school is when one learns to appreciate movements like Brutalism

[infinite_jim]

I'm amazed that the Houston Post building is still standing.

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