07-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
Trump targets brutalism: A wrecking ball for architecture
First
Trump's contempt for brutalism — a
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'These buildings are a target of Trump's ire precisely because they represent the institutions of government and civil society that Trump so despises,' said Mark Pasnik, an architect and
In 'The Brutalist,' Brody plays the fictional László Tóth, an exiled student of the influential Bauhaus school of modern architecture in Germany, which was shut down as subversive by the Nazis in the 1930s. Tóth's wealthy patron uses his power and money to possess him and his creative genius, much in the way Trump wants to control the national culture.
Trump's architecture decree is of a piece with his
Opponents of brutalism in Trump's circle like to note how unpopular it is among average Americans. Certainly, many buildings of the period — the
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The critic Justin Shubow, president of the National Civic Art Society, is making the rounds of conservative talk shows to support Trump's order.
I'm no architect, but I love City Hall. I also love the Beaux-Arts wing of the Boston Public Library in Copley Square. People with open minds can embrace classical music and jazz, or classical architecture and brutalism, at the same time. The civic realm is only enhanced by (dare I say it) diversity.
Renée Loth's column appears regularly in the Globe.
