My earliest memory of St James' Park was walking up the narrow cobbled street opposite the Strawberry before being amazed by the brutalist concrete East Stand with its rippled concrete columns supporting the giant cantilever roof.
Incidentally, Faulkner Browns Architects used the rippling concrete effect to "soften" the brutalism.
Personally, I think it does the opposite.
Instead of clean smooth lines we have bites taken out, not just brutal but rough. Awe inspiring architecture to an eight year old.
The beautiful Georgian buildings adjacent were nowhere near as impressive. The city centre was full of classical sandstone buildings with much greater gravitas.

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