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Robert Proctor

@rproctor.bsky.social

1.1K followers 400 following 660 posts

Architectural historian of the twentieth century.

Robert Neel Proctor is an American historian of science and Professor of the History of Science at Stanford University, where he is also Professor by courtesy of Pulmonary Medicine. While a professor of the history of science at Pennsylvania State University in 1999, he became the first historian to testify against the tobacco industry. .. more

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Robert Proctor @rproctor.bsky.social · May 30

My book is finally published! Percy Thomas: Modern Architecture as a National Service. www.uwp.co.uk/book/percy-t...

Percy Thomas | UWP

www.uwp.co.uk

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Robert Proctor @rproctor.bsky.social · 10h

I did some research on Percy Thomas's public baths in Wigan c. 1960, and the public enthusiasm was huge, partly because so many people had no other way to wash in warm water - the baths were literally baths, alongside a swimming pool.

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Robert Proctor @rproctor.bsky.social · 10h

It's very difficult to get students to appreciate this when teaching modern architecture, but it is surely absolutely fundamental to understanding the appeal of modernism.

Glen O'Hara @gsoh31.bsky.social · 11h

Reading this by m'learned colleague, and the nostalgia for 50s Britain is a crock. Much of the country was an exhausted dump. The Potteries were described as 'seven miles of concentrated ugliness and dirt'. Stoke was full of 'old clay working, old coal dumps, canal and industrial waste'. (1/2)

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Robert Proctor @rproctor.bsky.social · 10h

I read an article about Glasgow architecture from around 1900 that said there was no point using different coloured stones for decorative effect because it would all go the same black within a couple of years.

Reposted by Robert Proctor

Glen O'Hara @gsoh31.bsky.social · 11h

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Reposted by Robert Proctor

West Country Modernism @westcountrymodern.bsky.social · 1d

I’ve lots of photos to sort from today but here are a few to be going on with.

Broadmead Baptist Church, Bristol
(Ronald H Sims, 1968)

Access arranged by @themodernist.bsky.social

The interior of a large brutalist concrete church. The walls are clad over the alter with wavy panels of wood, and the ceiling is a zigzag with light streaming in through the glass. The cork flooring is picking up the sunlight, as are the long pine benches.

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Robert Proctor @rproctor.bsky.social · 2d

I discovered Unzoomed and got Kyoto in one.

Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 2d

Has anything great happened in your life because of social media?

Robert Proctor @rproctor.bsky.social · 2d

Le Corbusier: let us return to the platonic volumes, cubes, cylinders, what have you

Asplund: [builds Stockholm Public Library]

Le Corbusier: not like that

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Robert Proctor @rproctor.bsky.social · 2d

Maybe she should have done a degree that involved critical thought. Many to choose from but one might suggest, say, English Literature or Anthropology, for instance.

Robert Proctor @rproctor.bsky.social · 2d

Amazing facts. It's almost as if people like education for reasons other than cash. Apparently this is bad?

From the I newspaper: "A 2020 analysis from the Institute for Fiscal Studies showed that around 30 per cent of both men and women see 'negative total returns' from going to university, and one in five would be financially better off if they skipped higher education".

Reposted by Anna O. Law, Christian Odendahl, David Levinson , and 11 more Anna O. Law, Christian Odendahl, David Levinson, Rafael H. M. Pereira, Elizabeth Stokoe, Richard Waite, Valerie Mueller, Justin Lewis, James Goodwin, Tom Stoppard, Robert Proctor, Brian L. Frye, Nicolai von Ondarza, Nathan P. Kalmoe

Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 2d

Has anything great happened in your life because of social media?

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Robert Proctor @rproctor.bsky.social · 4d

Bath architecture + October sunshine = 💥

Part of the Circus, Bath, 18th century curved terrace of houses with classical orders, a shadow grazing it from the right, an old street lamp in the foreground.

Robert Proctor @rproctor.bsky.social · 6d

Recommend.

Andrew Eberlin @eberlin.co.uk · 6d

We’ve added another tour of Broadmead Baptist Church. The last one sold out rapidly so be quick if you’d like to see inside this recently listed church above the shops.

the-modernist.org/products/bru...

Brutal Bristol : Broadmead Baptist Church Visit 11.30am 9/10/25

A visit to Broadmead Baptist Church

the-modernist.org

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Reposted by Robert Proctor

Andrew Eberlin @eberlin.co.uk · 6d

Brutal Bristol : Broadmead Baptist Church Visit 11.30am 9/10/25

A visit to Broadmead Baptist Church

the-modernist.org

Robert Proctor @rproctor.bsky.social · 7d

Had a fling in New York in the seventies.

Robert Proctor @rproctor.bsky.social · 7d

Starting a campaign to bring back Ecole des Beaux-Arts architectural drawing styles. drawingmatter.org/the-beaux-ar...

The Beaux-Arts Tradition

The following text has been excerpted from Living with Architecture as Art, the recently published catalogue of Peter May’s collection of drawings, models and architectural artefacts. The catalogue is...

drawingmatter.org

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Robert Proctor @rproctor.bsky.social · 7d

It's actually a rook though, isn't it?

Robert Proctor @rproctor.bsky.social · 8d

I mean look, this is marvellous!

Inane and over-polite copilot email reply draft prompted by 'no thanks, it's not my specialism'.

Robert Proctor @rproctor.bsky.social · 8d

No no, I tried it once and it was far more polite than the real me would ever have been, it absolutely loves the small talk.

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Robert Proctor @rproctor.bsky.social · 8d

I hear you can just get some AI to do that now.

Robert Proctor @rproctor.bsky.social · 8d

It's not even economic expediency at any significant level, is it, just a knee-jerk political signal, 'developers, do your worst'.

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