Most people hate it, some really love it. It is made from exposed concrete (béton brût) which in English is often called "brutalism," a translation that is as convincing as it is misleading. Boston has its concrete City Hall and Washington a whole bunch of federal buildings that look brutally like bunkers, so the convergence of raw and brutal is not surprising. |
The Mechanic Theater, boarded up as an empty shell (Photo: Fred Scharmen) |
Baltimore, too has a fair share of concrete fortresses that became popular after the riots when many buildings were meant to be fortresses, indeed.
But the Morris Mechanic Theater, designed in 1963 and completed in 1967, is different. Or was, we should say, because it is being decimated to rubble while I am typing this.
The mindlessly produced fortress architecture is almost universally hated. It was ....