America’s Least Favorite Architectural Style? Brutal!

  Before getting back to the 1880s, bear with me for a short detour to the late 1960s. It’s a rare day when I feel that Santa Cruz has anything in common with either the FBI or Washington, D.C. - however, this story on NPR caught my eye last week. It begins with:

”The nation's capital has been undergoing something of a building boom. Dozens of construction cranes dot the Washington, D.C., skyline. So it comes as no surprise that the federal government is hoping to take advantage of the real estate values and unload what's seen by many as an eyesore on Pennsylvania Avenue: the J. Edgar Hoover Building, headquarters of the FBI.”

What does this story have to do with Santa Cruz? Read on and you’ll find that the architectural style of the FBI building is called “brutalism”. Most observers would probably agree that the label is apt – there’s little nuance or subtlety to the design. Santa Cruz has its own relic of this briefly-fashionable style – the County Government Center (CGC). Built in 1968, I think most people would agree that it’s not an attractive building.

From a little further on in the NPR story: “The FBI essentially agrees with Leigh [architecture critic], calling the Hoover building, completed in 1974, ‘obsolete, inefficient and expensive’ ". Those adjectives could also be applied to our CGC. The best thing you can say about the place is that – unless you have to do business there - it’s easy to ignore.

I accidentally found verification of that opinion on Google Earth. One of the many fun features of GE is that it allows users to post photos at the spots on the globe where they were taken. This feature is naturally most popular with visitors, as a way to document a trip or let folks back home see what you’re up to.

Santa Cruz is a fairly popular destination for visitors and, if you zoom in on Pacific Avenue or the beach in GE, you’ll find dozens of photos. Pan over to the CGC, however, and you’ll find... zero – not a single photo. I was hoping to save time by grabbing a photo of the building online, but eventually gave up and made a trip over there to shoot some for myself.

When I got there, I discovered why I couldn’t find any photos of the CGC - you can’t see much of it from any one spot. Apparently, city landscapers’ long-time policy toward the building has been that old adage, “if you can’t design it – landscape it”. The tall 45-year-old trees screening the CGC from view are very attractive. I settled for one shot of a semi-exposed building corner.
 
The CGC is, as far as I know, the only prominent example of “brutalist” design in town, but it’s not the only unpopular building dating from that time. In fact, the late 60s to early 70s were, in my humble opinion, the nadir of architectural design in Santa Cruz. Among others, the period gave us the high blank walls of the Sentinel Building (many thanks to Cruzio for giving it some much-needed TLC last year), the uninspiring downtown main library (preceded by the needless destruction of the handsome 1904 library designed by William Weeks), and the “ice-cube-tray” tower of the Dream Inn.

Now, the CGC is 45 years old and it’s time for something new and better. Yes, I know – tight budgets and all that. Hopefully, that won’t always be true, and it’s not too soon to start thinking about what a new CGC might look like. After all, the building will be 50 years old in 2018, which will qualify it as “historic” by County standards. We’d better get it torn down before then, or someone might decide it should be preserved and we’ll be stuck with it forever.