Brutalist buildings are easy to hate. Because they often look alike, it's too easy to conflate all of them and cast them as a bad habit of architects from the 60's and 70's. However, not all buildings are the same and some of the loveliest, most usable buildings I've ever seen would be considered brutalist. Think about Louis Kahn or the unique housing projects by Jean Renaudie all across France.
The St. Lawrence Center for the Arts is facing the same dilemma as many custodian of brutalists buildings before them: to demolish and rebuild or to renovate and expand?
Given the proposal by uber-talented architects at SOCA to go for the latter, my mind is made up.
Read Alex Bozikovic's piece on the proposal to get all the details. I think Bozikovic asks all the right questions and the building's custodians should be questioned on their decision to demolish without even considering a refurbishment/extension. This is just plain lazy and it's easy to be lazy when one spends other people's money.