I stumbled, as I often do, on a Brutalist masterpiece the other day. I was in Toronto, minding my own business, walking through the University of Toronto campus toward the Ontario Royal Museum, when I encountered the striated ornamental edifice of the Medical Sciences Building (MSB).
The building is slated for a $40M modernization, as this disparaging article notes. The building interior, with the warrens of rooms that are inconducive to human collaboration, will be re-done. God bless them.
Here’s a complete set of photos and a closer look, below.
It’s a strikingly attractive facade with Autumn leaves.
And can turn foreboding when placed behind the twigs of winter.
The veins of gone ivy evoke gothic architecture fantasies.
This alcove is covered with signs indicating that smoking is forbidden. The signs are ignored, since it is perfectly designed for the activity.
The alcove is tucked in the back of an utterly univiting courtyard.
These bumps appear to have been designed to delight. They do not.
The courtyard ends abruptly, and overlooks a loading space that seems leftover, like it fell off the drafting board.
To be clear, I love this building, for the simple fact of it keeps right on going on, a sort of human statement, “erasing traces, enabling hope for a new world that would survive its enemies”.
Keep going.