Today: Architectural Record of 1963.
Welcome to hell:
The pages are full of these Brutalist bastards. They’re all institutional structures. No one building a big proud skyscraper was particularly interested in raw concrete.
A big round of applause for lift-slab technique:
This was a famous hotel at the time, a new addition to a downtown in a part of town that had sagged for years. It had a Bucky Fuller dome on top, with a restaurant.
Last time I was there I changed into a holiday suit to get on a float and get towed up the Nicollet Mall for the Holidazzle. It's been a while.
Another proud example of the lift-slab technique! And what a dullard it was. SOM, of course.
Nah, don't need windows on that side
This next one, I like. As I always say: One or two of these makes a city great. Nothing but buildings like these make a city rote and routine.
Hard to find it today.
There was a brief vogue for the rippling accordion facade. When you come across something like this today, you know you’re seeing a relic of another era.
It's different! I'll allow it.
The problem, of course, is that you don’t know if it’s an elementary school, a post office, a city hall, or a bank.
An ad, reminding you that GOLD was a high-class hue for the stinkiest room in the house . . .
And that 1963 was also fussy and cluttered.
But that was what people wanted. What they were given . . . was this.
We'll end with an ambivalent note. I love this ad - hate the hat, but love the ad. But. She seems too small for the escalator.
And she doesn't seem to be going anywhere.
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