The Alan Sondheim Mail Archive

Brutalism

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misspelling, forgarty/fogarty, forged, forgotten, forsaken

"Fogarty Building RIP, 1968-2017"

From the Providence Journal: "The Downtown Design Review
Committee unanimously approved a series of requests Monday that
officially cleared the way for the Procaccianti Group Inc. to
start tearing down the old John E. Fogarty Building on Fountain
Street, possibly within three months."

And "One of its icons was the distinctive Fountain Street
building named for former congressman John E. Fogarty, who
served 26 years in Washington and was a nationally recognized
leader in health care legislation. The building, opened in 1967
as office space for the city's social services department, was a
proud architectural symbol of the Great Society's faith in
government. But 50 years later, the nation has not only lost
faith in that big-government philosophy but has even turned
against the architectural style that came to symbolize it."

[] "The nearly 50-year-old Fogarty building is one of downtowns
most striking examples of the post-war Brutalist style of
architecture. Formerly owned by the city, it has been vacant for
more than a decade and has been the target of significant
vandalism. Residents and business people in the area have
repeatedly claimed its only apparent purpose in recent years has
been to attract undesirable people to the neighborhood,
especially after dark."

We went to photograph the building, and found, on the top floor,
evidence of an early childhood school; the window paintings are
still there. The walls were torn down for the most part on one
side; I photographed from two sides, and reversed the images so
that the paintings are readable. There's something unutterably
sad about their delicacy in relation to the style of the
building and its sad demise. Recent Providence architecture is
mediocre, I think, standard hotel-style; this building stood
out. Most notable architecture in the city seems to be federal/
colonial, victorian, 19th-century; it would have been wonderful
if this building could have been saved. (In my current state of
mind, this ruin seems unutterably sad; by the time you read
this, the paintings will be gone.)

The edited text-cull of 'brutal':

"... and in sleep I am tortured, molested, hit repeatedly. I
call transgression become a matter, not only of criminality, but
also of brutality, It's brutal; it catalyzes behavioral
repertoires - states jump brutal flash, cutting, cauterizing
polluted organs. Look, seems like this: deserve to die, our
cruelty is our exaltation, our holy brutality, our exaltation,
our holy brutality, our one-another death, dear god, religious,
ethnic, geographic, historic etc.; brutality terest in
virtuality; night refuses hir corruption at the brutal hands of

"It was writing that bypassed hope and hopelessness. It was the
brutal, religious, ethnic, geographic, historic etc.; brutality
assuagement, entertainment - a delay like that before brutal
orgasm - then

"is not brutal & death is inconceivable & death has no
attributes & wanting with unspoken clarity in moments like these
to die; dull brutal blueblack sky ahead of me; dull brutal black
sky behind me; dismal un- most brutal and vulgar scale dominates
our thinking. Never mind we are the value of life. i'm lost in a
brutal world. goes. i see brutal mountains. no vegetation.
behind beneath blasted bleak bloody brutal buildings, But
cauterizing brutal flash, cutting, cauterizing polluted organs.

"of strangulation, scattering its remains in 17 brutal pieces
across god the world in the creation of your own insanity,
brutal and stupid, you when thine feet were cut by brutal
assassination, how valiant! by cut brutal by assassination,
brutal how assassination, valiant! nations other wars will
reduced to mute and brutal silence as screens flicker out silent
mute screens and brutal silence out the new language. we learn
that brutality comes out of nowhere and returns - in fact it
makes no difference whatsoever - things remain brutally tied
uncanny brutality in the United States, based on a combination
of paranoia one that sees the brutal realities of conflict, ever
feels that war is resistance - i'm not up to that - we're unused
to the brutality of our own beauty? Nothing was certain in the
brutal ruins of a nation mp when ! thine ! feet ! were ! cut !
by ! brutal ! assassination ! how brutal seizures of power, the
most brutal tortures and slaughter. our brutalized our
accessible things our things of infinite desire accordingly, and
brutally. It is too late to glimpse anything but the deserve to
die, our cruelty is our exaltation, our holy brutality, our
exaltation, our holy brutality, our one-another death, dear god,
pure community/communication - construct - plays out against the
brutal praxis. Theoretical efficacy or a lien on truth?

"theoretical efficacy lien truth brutality makes visavis gaming
pure community/communication - construct - plays out against the
brutal raphy, poetics, brutality and war. As the back cover
says, this is "the know what a mess that is - even our speech is
brutal - we're so drunk with brutality we don't recognize it -
it's not in front of us, or what we slaughtering animals is just
a testament to mans brutality it condemns and spiritual
superiority justify the brutal slaughter of millions believe in
no death & there is no passage & death is not brutal & death is
assuagement, entertainment - a delay like that before brutal
ORGASM - then the brutal melody of death and mourning brutal
silence as screens flicker out and others other as wars screens
brutal hands abandonedplications davila spectacular inversion
cyberbodies the brutal melody of death and mourning ... shafts,
brutality. i am fearful of death, of its families bodies brutal
seizures power, most tortures buffer-cache table downhillthen
shifters dwelling (butchering) testament mans brutality brutal
seizures of power, the most brutal tortures and slaughter.
slaughtering animals is just a testament to mans brutality it
condemns and spiritual superiority justify the brutal slaughter
of millions believe in my own brutality.

"words filling space with own brutality. their souls time
arrogance I've broken my language down into brutality. Clara's
brutally emptied sockets were the last she knew of life, blood,
religious, ethnic, geographic, historic etc.; brutality while
we're writing this, people are being killed, brutally, people
are brutally killing - accordingly, and brutally. It is too late
to glimpse anything but the pure community/communication -
construct - plays out against the brutal praxis. Theoretical
efficacy or a lien on truth? The brutality makes no know what a
mess that is - even our speech is brutal - we're so drunk with
brutality we don't recognize it - it's not in front of us, or
what we call our beauty? Nothing was certain in the brutal ruins
of a nation we're around all through the brutality of this
period brutality, it's the fury body, the splayed body, the
spread, it's stuff with the maw of brutality, it's the fury
body, the */brutal stupidity on my part w/ dead-end ideas/* Sand
like a carapace, uncomfortable, brutal, razing the soles, not
brutal in me, i flat more this place. to america;  the police
arrest them. The police are brutal and the evidence a brutal and
painful skin; it's brutal violence against the state in favor of
a parasitic ships held fast, moving only as objects collapsing
in the brutal beauty? Nothing was certain in the brutal ruins of
a nation
"

Providence Journal: "The Fogarty building is downtown's most
visible example of Brutalism, a latter 20th-century
architectural style that shunned ornate decoration in favor of
angles, curves and exposed concrete. The word Brutalism comes
from "beton brut," French for bare concrete."