Sturdy Workhorses of UMass: A Walking Tour Through Brutalist History
Written by Chloe Borgida
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On Saturday, October 11, Dr. Timothy Rohan, associate professor and chair of the Department of the History of Art & Architecture, will lead his annual tour of Brutalist architecture at the university, offering a deep dive into the rich history behind the distinctive buildings on the UMass Amherst campus.
Dr. Rohan is a founder of UMassBRUT, “a campaign designed to educate and advocate for the conservation, renovation, and reuse of Brutalist architecture throughout the UMass higher education state-wide community.” The tour provides attendees with detailed insights into the creation of campus buildings, the design philosophies behind them, and the evolving intentions for campus space.
Rohan notes that the term "Brutalism" has a long and complex history but only became more widespread in the digital age. When the campus was rebuilt in the 1960s and 1970s, people usually called the buildings “modern.”
“Until the 1950s, the campus was an agricultural college. But when it was reestablished as a university, people got very ambitious for what it could be and they wanted to make it modern. All of America and the world wanted to be progressive and that meant modern architecture. They wanted to build accommodating, large buildings that were landmarks for the campus. The new buildings of the 1960s and 1970s would be sturdy workhorses that would stand up to a pounding by thousands of students for generations to come, and that’s what they did.”
Architects helped reimagine this new campus for a new university.
“They reimagined the campus as this place where a lot of people could flow through, live and be taught, and meet each other. It also was envisioned as a place of outreach to the community and to the region. The Bromery Center for the Arts is a regional community center. People from Amherst and beyond attend the performances. There are a lot of students, but there are a lot of people from around here who regularly visit the Bromery’s theaters, performance halls and museum.”
In the 1960s, the campus’s new master plan focused it upon a central mall, designed to showcase new iconic structures: the Bromery Center for the Arts, the W.E.B. Du Bois Library, the tallest academic library in the world, and the Murray D. Lincoln Campus Center, the heart of student life.
President John W. Lederle championed this ambitious transformation, bringing in renowned architects to realize the vision.
“He brought in all these people with their finger on the pulse of what was happening in the architectural world. He realized that the other universities, Yale, MIT, the major universities were all going modern. If UMass, was going to be a world class university, it could not be left behind architecturally. Modern was the way to go.”
Many buildings on campus are named after notable alumni. The Murray D. Lincoln Campus Center, for example, honors an alumnus who was born on a farm and became an insurance executive and a figure in the Kennedy administration. He was involved with the president’s “Food for Peace” initiative, the Peace Corps and the humanitarian organization, CARE.
The campus center was designed by Marcel Breuer, a celebrated modernist architect. A refugee from Nazi Germany and a Bauhaus-trained designer, Breuer was instrumental in shaping post-war American architecture. His buildings are adaptable and being reimagined for the present. His other works include the Pirelli Tire Building (now a boutique hotel) in New Haven and the former Whitney Museum of American Art on Madison Avenue in New York (now an auction house). The W.E.B. Du Bois Library was designed by Edward Durell Stone, one of the most prominent architects of his time. His notable projects include the General Motors Building in New York (home to the Apple Store and FAO Schwarz). The Bromery Center for the Arts was designed by Kevin Roche and John Dinkeloo, whose firm was also responsible for the Ford Foundation Building, the Metropolitan Museum of Art expansions, the Oakland Museum of California, and the United Nations Plaza. The entire campus plan was envisioned by Hideo Sasaki, a Japanese American landscape architect known globally for his contributions to urban and environmental design. “These are important people of the post-war period; they had been through a lot. They're more varied and interesting than you may think. They have histories.” As highlighted on the tour, those histories are embedded in the very structures that shape campus life.
One such building is Herter Hall, which Rohan calls out during the tour:
“Herter is the unsung workhorse of the campus; it takes a beating from heavy usage. It never complains, just goes forward, massive and strong, like a Clydesdale, yet elegantly planned. It deserves a thoughtful renovation.”
Still, even well-planned buildings are subject to the needs of a changing student body.
“In the 1960s, they did not foresee that students would be hanging out everywhere on their phones. Nobody could have seen that coming. When I came here, people did not socialize in these buildings 20 years ago. So we have to change the buildings to accommodate what's happening next.”
Rohan emphasizes that adaptation doesn’t mean demolition. While the U.S. often opts to tear down old buildings, other places, such as Europe, find ways to reimagine existing structures. This is especially critical in the context of climate change.
“The campus has goals for lowering carbon emissions. We don’t want to contribute to the problem. UMassBRUT raises awareness of the value of these buildings and helps solve problems.”
As for what’s ahead, Rohan is optimistic about the future of architecture at UMass:
“There's a real potential here to amplify a sense of place, that could ground students and alumni in UMass’s history, and that would be a responsible, ethical place as well, in terms of renovations and energy-usage. We’re making progress in those ways already.”
UMassBRUTs Walking Campus Tour is part of the Docomomo-US Tour Day, a national event hosted by the international modernist architecture advocacy group. This will be UMass BRUT’s sixth year participating. This year’s Docomomo theme is “Architecture as Sanctuary”, and Rohan reflects on how that applies to Amherst campus: “This time we’re thinking about how these buildings often provide an oasis in the campus, such as the courtyard of the DuBois Library.”
To complement the tour, a student-designed PDF map is available for attendees to download from the UMassBRUT website. UMassBRUT also offers buttons, brochures, and more.
The conversation doesn’t stop with the tour. On Friday, October 24, UMassBRUT organized a symposium at UMass Boston titled “The Brutalist Library: Rereading Its Legacy and Reimagining the Future.” The event will explore the design, preservation, and adaptation of modernist libraries. It will be a chance for all the chapters of UMassBRUT to get together. “We are unique in that we are one of a few campus organizations that involve all the different campuses in the UMass system,” says Rohan.
In Amherst, UMassBRUT’s Walking Campus Tour will take place on Saturday, October 11th, starting at 2:00 p.m. in the Lincoln Campus Center Lower Level / Concourse Lobby. Please visit UMass Brut’s website to learn more.