Aaron's Status

7:39 pm

Brutalism

I’m someone who thinks that Boston City Hall is magnificent. I get that it may not be “pretty” to most, but I love its looming, monolithic, mid-century angles and unrelenting mass.

I’ve photographed it, as well as the late Government Center garage, another stunning example of geometry in cement. I even enjoy the term “brutalism.” It sounds like what it means; these structures are neither kind nor deferential, they offer no flourish or subtlety, they are simply brutal, and I love them for that.

Boston is cited as the “most brutalist” city in the United States, and I live right next to it, so it occurred to me that I have this treasure trove of beautiful brutalist structures just sitting there waiting to be photographed.

I called in some help from an architect friend of mine, scoured the many articles written on the subject, and compiled a list of what turns out to be, give or take, about fourteen buildings that I felt were interesting enough to be the subject of some art.

I’m going to head downtown on Saturday and visit a couple, or a few, and see where it takes me. Unless it rains.

Product managers love meetings

Why does this feel like such a truism? That product managers enjoy talking about work more than actually doing it? Why is it always the product manager that has to invite ten people to a meeting for ninety minutes that ends up running past the two-hour mark?

I don’t know the answers to these questions, but if you do, give me a shout.

Still coaching

Yup I’m still doing it. I have only one client right now, but they’ve been working with me for longer than a year, which is much longer than I ever expected that anyone would continue their work with me. It’s probably closer to two years than it is to one at this point.

Surely I enjoy helping people, but what’s rewarding about coaching is how I am able to help people to help themselves, and create lasting change that carries them forward through their future challenges, even if I’m not there.