The following is a guest post by Vyta Baselice, Architecture, Design & Engineering Programs Assistant, Prints & Photographs Division.
Brutalism is an architectural style that emerged first in Great Britain in the 1950s and soon gained popularity in the United States. It is easily identifiable by the buildings’ large scale, rectangular shapes, and extensive use of exposed concrete. Due to the low cost of the material, the style was often employed to build large government and institutional buildings, for example laboratories, libraries, and housing. Prints & Photographs Division collections contain many examples of the style, particularly as documented in the Historic American Buildings Survey, the Carol M. Highsmith Archive, and the Paul M. Rudolph Archive.
[Art and Architecture Building, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. Preliminary scheme. Perspective view. Presentation rendering]. Drawing by Paul M. Rudolph, 1959. //hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppmsca.03542
Although the association stuck, the origins of Brutalism had nothing to do with brutalities of the government or politics at large. Indeed, famed architect Le Corbusier coined the term in 1952 when constructing his Unité d’Habitation housing project in France. The term referred specifically to his use of untreated and exposed concrete — béton brut in French. Since then, English-speaking architects transformed the term into the style Brutalism, which signified their embrace of natural and untreated materials as both the ethic and aesthetic of design. These architects claimed that exposed concrete, iron, and wood communicated values of honesty and transparency — ironic, considering the later interpretations of the style.

Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, California. Photo by Carol M. Highsmith, between 1980 and 2000. //hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/highsm.13139
The low cost of concrete also meant that the material could be used to construct housing for everyone in large, communally shared structures. British and American architects who embraced Brutalism therefore thought that the style could help build a more equal modernity.
[Resort community, Stafford Harbor, Virginia (project). Hills, bird’s-eye perspective]. Drawing by Paul M. Rudolph, 1970, from drawing made by 1966. //hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppmsca.03482
[Orange County Government Center, Goshen, New York. Final scheme. Perspective looking north. Presentation rendering]. Drawing by P. Rudolph, 1963. //hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppmsca.03538
Learn More:
- Learn about Paul M. Rudolph’s architectural contributions through these videos:
- Model City: Buildings and Projects by Paul Rudolph for Yale and New Haven, Timothy M. Rohan, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, December 16, 2008.
- Libraries: The Architecture of Community, Kenneth Breisch, author, American Libraries 1730-1950, April 12, 2018.
- A portion of the vast Paul M. Rudolph Archive has been digitized; explore digitized items through the Prints & Photographs Online Catalog.
- Review the origins and accomplishments of the Historic American Buildings Survey, which has been documenting examples of American architecture since 1933, joined by companion surveys, Historic American Engineering Record and Historic American Landscapes Survey.
- Carol M. Highsmith has been documenting America and its built environment through her camera since the 1980s. Take regular tours through the online Carol M. Highsmith Archive, which is ever-growing.
Comments
Oi. If I didn’t live in Boston with a walking commute past three big bossy Brutalist government buildings everyday, I might feel again the same preservationist streak I did when I lived in Seattle and watched the saga of the nuclear reactor building on the UW campus.
Thanks for reminding me that not all Brutalist buildings have empty plazas screaming for parades of nuclear weapons.