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Heroic

Fair
  • Brutalist
  • Identity of Building/Site

Heroic

Credit

over,under

Site overview

The Heroic Project is an eight-year research initiative into the concrete architecture of Boston from 1960 until 1976 led by Chris Grimley, Michael Kubo, and Mark Pasnik. This initiative grew into a wide-reaching advocacy effort that included exhibitions, design studios and research seminars, lectures and interviews, tours, preservation campaigns for landmarking, and culminated in the publication of the acclaimed book Heroic: Concrete Architecture and the New Boston  (Monacelli Press, 2015). 

Heroic

Axonometric diagrams of building facades

Credit

over,under

Site overview

The Heroic Project is an eight-year research initiative into the concrete architecture of Boston from 1960 until 1976 led by Chris Grimley, Michael Kubo, and Mark Pasnik. This initiative grew into a wide-reaching advocacy effort that included exhibitions, design studios and research seminars, lectures and interviews, tours, preservation campaigns for landmarking, and culminated in the publication of the acclaimed book Heroic: Concrete Architecture and the New Boston  (Monacelli Press, 2015). 

Heroic

Carpenter Center for the Visual arts. Le Corbusier with Sert, Jackson & Gourley 1953-63

Site overview

The Heroic Project is an eight-year research initiative into the concrete architecture of Boston from 1960 until 1976 led by Chris Grimley, Michael Kubo, and Mark Pasnik. This initiative grew into a wide-reaching advocacy effort that included exhibitions, design studios and research seminars, lectures and interviews, tours, preservation campaigns for landmarking, and culminated in the publication of the acclaimed book Heroic: Concrete Architecture and the New Boston  (Monacelli Press, 2015). 

Awards

Advocacy

Award of Excellence

Civic

2017

An Advocacy Award of Excellence for is given to the Heroic Project and subsequent book Heroic: Concrete Architecture and the New Boston.

“Through carefully crafted public outreach, engagement and a beautifully designed book, the Heroic Project brings awareness and new appreciation to the significance and beauty of a style that is often demonized. By celebrating the artistry and design of concrete architecture in Boston and beyond, the Heroic Project redefines Brutalist architecture locally, nationally and internationally.”

- Docomomo US Board of Directors
Restoration Team

Heroic Project
Chris Grimley, Michael Kubo, Mark Pasnik

Publication Team
Alan Rapp, Madeleine Compagnon, Michael Vagnetti and Gianfranco Monacelli, Monacelli Press
Reem Kanoo, assistant editor
James Jarzyniecki, axonometric drawings
Ann Lui and Josh Niemiec, researchers

Contributors
Joan Ockman, Elizabeth Cohen, Keith N. Morgan, Douglass Shand-Tucci (essays)
Peter Chermayeff, Henry N. Cobb, Araldo Cossutta, N. Michael McKinnell, Tician Papachristou, Frederick A. “Tad” Stahl, Mary Otis Stevens (interviews)

Additional support
Graham Foundation
Zan Foundation
over,under
pinkcomma gallery
Bruner/Cott Architects and Planners
Simpson Gumpertz & Heger
Esto
Calhess
Students of Wentworth Institute of Technology
Dozens of photographers and archivists who provided access to resources
More than 200 contributors to the Heroic funding campaign

Location

1 City Hall Square
Boston, MA, 02201

Country

US

Case Study House No. 21

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Credit:

over,under

Axonometric diagrams of building facades

Credit:

over,under

Carpenter Center for the Visual arts. Le Corbusier with Sert, Jackson & Gourley 1953-63

Related News

Celebrating the Best of Modernism

Newsletter, Modernism in America

October 12, 2017

Michael McKinnell, in Memoriam

Obituary

March 31, 2020

Related chapter

New England

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