University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, Claire T. Carney Library Dartmouth, Mass. DesignLAB Architects with Austin Architects

摘要

Though much loved by design enthusiasts, Brutalist buildings of the 1960s and '70s pose unique challenges to the cities and institutions that have inherited them, and few buildings of the period are so unique (or so challenging) as the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth's Claire T. Carney Library. Designed by Paul Rudolph and completed in 1972, the library is a massive complex of tiered concrete cantilevers-a muscular, sculptural ensemble such as only Rudolph could deliver. It has also long been in need of a serious upgrade, a dicey task that Boston-based DesignLAB Architects, working with Cambridge, Mass.-based Austin Architects, has carried off with aplomb.