CAPITAL BRUTALISM
Paperback Book Design + Museum Labels
Clients: National Building Museum , Southern Utah Museum of Art'Capital Brutalism’ is a design exhibition co-curated by Dr. Angela Person and architectural photographer Ty Cole. Capital Brutalism explores the history, current state, and future of seven polarizing buildings and the WMATA Metro system in Washington, D.C. The exhibition uses archival documents, drawings, construction photographs, architectural models, and contemporary photographs to provide context and shed light on the buildings’ stories. Selected buildings are reimagined by leading architecture firms, including Studio Gang, Brooks + Scarpa, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Gensler, and BLDUS, along with students from the School of Architecture at University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
When the exhibition moved from the Southern Utah Museum of Art to the National Building Museum in Washington D.C., the bookshop wanted to offer an exhibition catalog that visitors could purchase and take home with them. This was the first exhibition-related book offered in their bookstore, and it exceeded all expectations, selling 1,000+ copies between in-store and online purchases. The exhibition ran at SUMA for 5 months before moving to NBM where it remained for 8 more months.
If you appreciate Brutalist architecture, you can still purchase the book from the National Building Museum here!
Press Recognition for the Exhibition
“At the National Building Museum in Washington D.C., the city’s much maligned concrete beacons of Brutalism are getting a fresh look.”
– CBS Saturday Morning
“…provocative solutions for some of the city’s least-understood buildings.”
– Bloomberg City Lab
“…a fascinating, sometimes tongue-in-cheek look at sites the show calls the past, present and potential future of brutalism in Washington.”
– The Washington Post
“A New Exhibit Asks You to Reconsider How Much You Hate Brutalism.”
– Washingtonian Magazine
“Capital Brutalism” does what an exhibition of recent architecture should do, which is to take something that has become familiar, commonplace and discolored by decades of auto exhaust and help us to see it with fresh eyes.”
– The Wall Street Journal
“…the largest-ever survey of Washington’s Brutalist architecture.”
– Smithsonian Magazine