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Faculty members Timothy Rohan and Meg Vickery both helped organize and presented at a two-day symposium held jointly at the University of Massachusetts’ campuses in Amherst and Dartmouth (Oct. 22 and 23). Part of the UMassBrut collaborative, the event brought together a team of distinguished scholars, industry professionals, artists and passionate citizens with an interest in the preservation of mid to late twentieth-century architecture. Each day featured professional workshops, scholarly lectures, guided campus tours, public art exhibitions and creative activities including video projections on the architectural facades. Participants discussed Brutalist architecture, both history and design, and explored the issues of preservation and adaption unique to these modernist concrete structures. Both campuses contain extensive examples of mid-century Brutalist concrete architecture by world-renowned modernist architects including Paul Rudolph, Marcel Breuer, Kevin Roche, Hugh Stubbins and Edward Durell Stone.

Keynote presentations included Chandler McCoy and Ana Paula Arato Gonçalves of the Getty Conservation Institute’s Conserving Modern Architecture Initiative. Speakers included faculty from UMass and visiting faculty from Brown, Harvard, Roger Williams, Rutgers, Columbia and the University of South Carolina. Other speakers include distinguished professionals from the fields of architecture, historic preservation, engineering, construction, lighting, graphic, interior design and professional staff from UMass and the Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance.

The symposium was sponsored by Suffolk Construction, Finegold Alexander Architects, Dimeo Construction Co., Goody Clancy, JCJ Architecture, Stantec and Docomomo US/New England and through generous grants from UMass Dartmouth and UMass Amherst colleges and departments.