[rlmorel]

You are spot on, Ann Archy! Personally, I have never cared for the "brutalist" label as it obviously, by its nature is negative and is inappropriately and indiscriminately applied to many types of architecture that I feel are undeserving of the label, but...it can also be accurately applied to many that are-as you have done here! To me, "Obama's Folly" is the perfect application of that adjective "Brutalist".

I do think "Brutalist" is sometimes incorrectly applied to things that are quite beautiful (and NOT "brutalist") such as The Gropius House in Lincoln, MA which is an odd tourist magnet for people all over the world:

My wife and I took a tour of it, and our tour group included a bunch of architects from Germany who had come just to see that house. (The use of space in that little house is astonishing, and the setting is quite beautiful, but when it was built in 1937, the people of Lincoln, MA were in an uproar at the "ugly" house being built in their town!)

I have even seen "brutalist" inappropriately applied to the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright, which is not only NOT "brutalist", but is sleek and appealing to me.

However, I see the label applied to things like THIS, Boston City Hall, which is an eyesore and FULLY deserving of the "Brutalist" appellation:

Not only is building itself butt-ugly, but the horrible "landscaping" around it of red brick is an abomination. I have been there many times, and it reminds me of a scarred and sterile battlefield of red brick.

This is right up there with "Obama's Folly"!

[MinorityRepublican]

I like Brutalist style.

People say it's ugly. I think it's pretty.

[Ann Archy]

I don’t like the label “FOLLY” because Seward’s FOLLY , ALASKA, was a FABULOUS PURCHASE!