DEMOLITION OF the John E. Fogarty Memorial Building began this week to make way for a Marriott Residence Inn. / PBN PHOTO/NICOLE DOTZENROD
The John E. Fogarty Building. 1968-2017. A procession of kazoo-playing mourners gathered in front of the Rhode Island Convention Center on Friday to honor not a person – but the John E. Fogarty Memorial Building, which is being demolished to make way for a hotel. As Shawmut Design and Construction crew members locked up the…
Much credit to my public humanities colleagues Marissa Angell Brown and Caroline Stevens for their creativity in this event.
I wish I could say I was a fan, but my wake memories would share the sudden unwelcome drop in temperature on wintry days upon entering the portico of the building… and before walking into that space I always felt a need to fortify my courage as it was rather scary as a woman to move from the public sidewalk into the darker, less visible from the street portico.
I’m reminded of the story of the long-time English teacher at the other Brutalist monster Classical High School recounting the day he met the school’s architect. His one question to the designer: WHAT WERE YOU THINKING!!??
Buildings that perhaps worked on paper, but not for the people who worked or studied in them.
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Much credit to my public humanities colleagues Marissa Angell Brown and Caroline Stevens for their creativity in this event.
I wish I could say I was a fan, but my wake memories would share the sudden unwelcome drop in temperature on wintry days upon entering the portico of the building… and before walking into that space I always felt a need to fortify my courage as it was rather scary as a woman to move from the public sidewalk into the darker, less visible from the street portico.
I’m reminded of the story of the long-time English teacher at the other Brutalist monster Classical High School recounting the day he met the school’s architect. His one question to the designer: WHAT WERE YOU THINKING!!??
Buildings that perhaps worked on paper, but not for the people who worked or studied in them.