kafka's dream.

There's a new band called The Concretes, but I think Brutalism might be a whole new movement! Straight outta Buffalo!

chuck,

look up the larkin building by frank lloyd wright. built in 1904 in buffalo and torn down in 1950. this city court building is its phoenix.

Buffalo seems to be an interesting place to do a little urban exploration in general (but why the hell would anyone want to live in Western New York?).

http://www.buffaloexploration.com/

I remember the tour guide at University of Chicago describing the school as "Gothic Brutalist."

I decided it didn't sound like the most welcoming college atmosphere.

Okay, I'm not crazy about that Buffalo building, but I don't hate it either. It has a look of power to it, and it is somewhat futuristic, like some pre-production artwork from Star Wars.

But I love concrete as a building material, and the prison-like structures built with it in the 70's. I seem to be alone in this. I detest most things that came out of the '70's, with the two major exceptions of punk rock and this kind of concrete architecture.

I love the look of Freeway Park. I think the most beautiful architecture in all of Seattle can be found at North Seattle Community College. Both places share the mix of the grey of the concrete, and the green of the landscaping. That combination makes physical the moods that I get during a Northwest "winter."

Speaking of brutalism and the law being hard on man, did anyone else catch the news that Prezzie BushCheney Inc. just signed a bill that empowers him to effectively declare martial law in any state or provice of the country?

Check Slashdot here:
http://politics.slashdot.org/politics/06/10/28/1934208.shtml

And the Bill here; Section 1076:
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h109-5122

It's all slowly falling into place isn't it... They'll need more Buffalo Brutality Buildings in the near future. But they'll all probably be privatized.

One has to wonder if the architect foresaw the move to blast resistant public buildings.

The architect was Roswell E. Pfohl - one of Buffalo's foremost architects and engineers, having practiced for 47 years. He was Senior Partner of the firm Pfohl, Roberts and Biggie.

Chuck, get on a flight to Zagreb. You'll see real Brutalism in their architecture. After leaving beautiful Split, I arrived in Zagreb and by the time I made it to the hostel, decided I had to leave the city immediately.

As it should be.

I was married in that building!
No joking, I was living in Buffalo and that's where we tied the knot. If you haven't been to the city on the Niagara River, you can't know how every architectural masterpiece and misstep features in Buffalo's tragic mythos. The city that once strived to be a symbol of the riches of industry is instead a crumbling monument to the death of American enterprise. Forget Hollywood- Buffalo is the city of broken dreams.

True to form, my marriage ended in abject failure.