Brutalism: DC Metro
Not all architecture sees the light of day...
Maybe part of the reason brutalism leaves a bad taste in the mouths of so many people is because it was so commonly used in government buildings – and who likes sitting around at the DMV office or courthouse? But the raw concrete lends itself to a variety of uses, at varying scales.
Case in point: Washington DC’s Metro system.
Architect Harry Weese — who studied at the Cranbrook Academy of Art, surrounded by Modernist powerhouse names like Saarinen, Knoll and Eames — designed most of the stations built in the decade after 1968 (when construction started).
Farragut Station, one of the first five stations opened in 1976.
Like Le Corbusier, Weese was interested in more than just a single standalone construction; instead, he designed the system as a “kit,” with repeating structures and features from one station to the next. The resulting simplicity and uniformity are classic hallmarks of the brutalist style.
What first strikes you about Weese’s design are the interplays; the juxtapositions. There you are, deep underground, surrounded by concrete, and yet … there’s an expansiveness to it. It also somehow manages to feels at once nostalgic and timeless.
The famous escalator to Dupont Circle Station, located more than 90 feet below the road surface.
The sheer scale and permanence and weight of it all makes you feel grounded, even though you’re in a place designed solely for moving from one place to the next.
The repetitive patterns serve as a fitting metaphor for mass transit’s (original) great promise of democratization; while the repeating components from one station to the pay homage to the (inter)connectedness that mass transit fosters.
These stations are truly works of art that — individually and collectively — embody the spirit of brutalism which, from Le Corbusier’s first grand experiment, is rooted in “big ideas” - a new sense of community, democracy, discovery … and all the great promises of life after the WWII.
The Dupont Circle Station platform. Photo credit: WikiCommons.
Weese passed away in 1998. In 2014, his Metro design received an American Institute of Architects 25-Year-Award. Today, some 40+ years after construction, some of the stations have definitely seen better days. Efforts continue to repair and restore them, but nothing lasts forever — especially when literally under the weight of the nation’s capitol — so if you get a chance to visit DC, be sure to check them out.
Interesting footnote: It may be the style everyone loves to hate, but brutalism was good enough for the American Institute of Architects: constructed in 1974, the AIA’s national headquarters in DC is a prime example of how brutalism often plays with angles, materials, balance and interchanging spaces.
(All images courtesy of WikiCommons.)