Mick Hartley

Brutalism in Washington, from architectural photographer Ty Cole.

Largely built in the 1960s and 70s as the federal government expanded, Washington DC has numerous brutalist buildings built by leading architects including Marcel Breuer.

Cole photographed the most prominent ones as part of the Capital Brutalism exhibition at the National Building Museum in Washington DC, which he co-curated with University of Oklahoma professor Angela Person.

"I'm a huge fan of both modernist buildings and the architects that built and designed them," said Cole. "Brutalism is essentially sculptural and it photographs beautifully."

Robert C Weaver Federal Building by Marcel Breuer (1968)

Hirshhorn Museum, by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (1974)

Hubert H Humphrey Building by Marcel Breuer (1977)

James V Forrestal Building by Curtis and Davis Architects and Engineers (1969)

DC Metro Stations
[Photos: Ty Cole]

The brutalist contingent is only a small part of Washington's architecture, of course. The overwhelmingly dominant style, round the White House and the Capitol and the National Mall, is neo-classical. Very neo-classical. It was meant to echo the Republican virtues of Ancient Greece and Rome, but nowadays it's not hard to see the more bombastic side, with, well, echoes of a more fascist aesthetic.