Blowhard, Esq. writes:
Designed by Gordon F. Powers in 1969. Unlike many of his contemporaries, he was thankfully not taken in by Brutalism.
Compare to Boston City Hall at the Wikipedia link, also built in 1969. Which would you rather work in or look at every day?
Love it. He did that in ’69? It certainly wasn’t the kind of thing the academics or the chic architecture magazines were touting … It’s in fact the kind of thing they were claiming simply “couldn’t be done.” (No arguments here — I was in school at that point, and had teachers and profs who said such things. It wasn’t “of its era,” doncha know.)
No Wikipedia entry, drat. Not much on him on the web generally. It must be an anti-trad-architecture conspiracy.
Did Powers stick to trad styles for his whole career?
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I made a slight mistake. My pictures actually show two buildings: the old City Hall (center left and bottom left), which was built in 1929 and the Administration Building (all the other photos), indeed built in 1969. Obviously designed to match the existing structure.
Here’s a much better photoset: http://www.flickr.com/photos/capitolshotsphotography/6035381334/in/set-72157627291644639/
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Thanks for the Seth Roberts link, btw. I really oughta check in on his blog more regularly.
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Luckily, Spanish Missions left an impression on one or two things in California…
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