Brackets and Braces in Mid Century Modernism

Fifty years ago, when I fist saw the First Missouri Bank on Olive Road in Creve Coeur MO, I thought that the decorative elements on the sides were like the Gothic Flying Buttress. 

       First Bank. 11901 Olive Boulevard, Creve
       Coeur Missouri, 1967.

People told me I was suffering from an overactive imagination. There was no internet at that time, to search for images for comparison.

A more post modern version is at a Sports Center in Alora Spain.

     Culver Federal Savings and Loan Association
     (now Chase Bank), Manhattan Beach CA, 1965.

 Washington Dulles International Airport, 

 Eero Saarinen, 1962

Saarinen was influenced by le Corbusier's brutalist Chandigarh Capitol Complex in India that was started almost a decade earlier.  

Capitol Complex, Chandigarh India, le Corbusier, c.1953-1968.

The additions to the Mayo Civic Center in Rochester Minnesota have striking similarities to Dulles International and Corbusier's Capitol Complex.

Mayo Civic Center, Rochester MN 

Brackets and braces were very common during the New Formalism style of Mid Century Modernism.

Saint Louis, Missouri

                           Kennedy Memorial, 1966, Jerusalem 

               Coachella Valley Savings and Loan Association 

               Building #2,Palm Springs CA, 1961

Open Bible Colleges, Des Moines IA

San Mateo, California

Long Beach, California

Usually the brackets are on smaller buildings. Sometime they can be on high rise towers.

          Tucson, Arizona

                  Tucson, Arizona

   Creve Coeur, Missouri. 1980

          Wake County Court House

          Raleigh NC

          1970

5775 Campus Pkwy, Hazelwood, MO 63042

Formerly Boeing 270 Building

1973

Brackets can be found in the Brutalist style of Modernism. Large brackets supporting a waffle slab can be seen at Galbraith Hall of the University of California San Diego. The waffle slab uses considerably less cement than a solid slab without losing strength. The waffle slab is solid on the top and waffled on the lower side. The edible waffle has the pattern on both sides.

Galbraith Hall, UCSD, 1964. The first library at UCSD was renovated in 2013. Layers of dated remodel work were removed to expose the building’s concrete structure, especially the beautiful waffle slab. 

There are over 30 stations in the Washington DC Metro with large waffle slabs.

U Street Station, Washington Metro, Harry Mohr Weese, 1976,

Washington, D.C.

There are several waffle slabs here at the Meramec Campus. This is another reason why I say Meramec has Brutalist features. The campus also has New Formalist features. However, there is a lot of brick work, which is not typical of either style.

                   Saint Louis Community College, Meramec 
                   Campus. Kirkwood, Missouri, c 1969,
                   Harry Mohr Weese, 

The term brutalist is derived from the French term beton brut which means unfinished cement. In French, the word brut has a much wider and different meaning than the English word brutal.  

                    pétrole brut    crude oil 
                    salaire brut    gross salary
                    sucre brut      unrefined sugar
                    produit  national brut     gross national product
                    diamants bruts      uncut diamonds, rough diamonds
                    émotion brute        raw emotion



William James Hall at Harvard University, designed by Minoru Yamasaki, and built in 1964, has the flying butress type of brace and the Brutalist feature of exposed aggregate cement.

                       William James Hall, Harvard University, 

                       Cambridge MA, Minoru Yamasaki,1964.