Campus Walking Tour to Traverse Brutalist Heritage and History at UMass Amherst on Oct. 13

Timothy Rohan, associate professor and chair of the history of art and architecture department, and UMass Brut will host a walking tour for the UMass Amherst community highlighting campus structures built during the university’s ambitious post-World War II building campaign on Friday, Oct. 13.

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Guests will meet in the lobby of the Lincoln Campus Center (Marcel Breuer, 1970) and the tour – led by Rohan with assistance from Ludmilla Pavlova-Gillham, senior campus planner – will depart at 2 p.m. and last approximately one hour.

After World War II, UMass Amherst embarked upon one of the most ambitious academic building programs in the United States. Following a 1963 master plan by renowned landscape architect Hideo Sasaki, UMass employed some of the most distinguished architects of the time, including Marcel Breuer, Kevin Roche, and Edward Durell Stone. The tour will investigate their distinctive Brutalist buildings and how they are now being reimagined after serving generations of students.

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The tour will include viewing buildings such as the Randolph W. Bromery Center for the Arts (Kevin Roche, 1973) and its newly renovated Arts Bridge, Herter Hall (Coletti Brothers, 1968), Whitmore Hall (Campbell & Aldrich, 1967), Tobin Hall (Coletti Brothers, 1972) and the iconic W.E.B. DuBois Library (Edward Durell Stone, 1972).

Other events include an art walk, joy of art after party with Laudable Productions and UMass Student Life pond fire. The tour and events are held in partnership with the Docomomo Tour Day U.S.A. program, an international group that advocates for the preservation of modernist buildings, especially through educational events, such as tour days and conferences.

UMass Brut is a collaborative advocacy group of faculty, staff and students from UMass Amherst and UMass Dartmouth dedicated to celebrating, preserving and reimagining their campuses’ Brutalist architecture. During the tour, UMass Brut invites guests to view their new “Breuer Window” installation on the Bromery Center’s plaza.