In the 1960s and early 1970s, UMass Amherst commissioned some of the world's most renowned architects — including Marcel Breuer and Kevin Roche — to design buildings that embodied the progressive spirit of the era. Brutalism soon fell out of favor, and these structures with it.

In 2021, I was hired by UMass to create the Brutalist Campus Guide — a foldable, illustrated map and directory featuring 28 Brutalist buildings on campus. The guide includes illustrated depictions of each building, architect biographies and portraits, and descriptions of significant architectural features. The cover pattern is derived from the fenestration of Breuer's 1969 Lincoln Campus Center, an abstraction that reappears on a black band that slides over the guide to keep it folded.

Now in its fifth printing, the guide has been distributed to campus tour guides, administrators, state legislators, and prominent architects. It was featured on Dezeen in 2022.

Pictured: UMass student with the Brutalist Campus Guide. Photo: John Solem.