Main Street in Warren at the state preservation agency’s conference in the rain. (Photo by David Brussat)
Ocean State preservationists gathered on Saturday in Warren to celebrate pride in preservation, the theme of the 29th annual conference of the Rhode Island Historical Preservation & Heritage Commission. It rained on their parade but not on Warren’s robust sense of pride.
Even wet, Warren’s grace and beauty shone all the brighter. The best gifts come in small packages. True in general and true of Warren. “The smallest town in the smallest county in the smallest state in the union” is how the conference brochure describes Warren.
And yet Warren is a gift not because of its size but because of its beauty. It is walkable because it is small, but it is worth walking because it is beautiful. And it is beautiful largely because modern architecture here is rare.
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About David Brussat
This blog was begun in 2009 as a feature of the Providence Journal, where I was on the editorial board and wrote a weekly column of architecture criticism for three decades. Architecture Here and There fights the style wars for classical architecture and against modern architecture, no holds barred.
History Press asked me to write and in August 2017 published my first book, "Lost Providence." I am now writing my second book.
My freelance writing on architecture and other topics addresses issues of design and culture locally and globally.
I am a member of the board of the New England chapter of the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art, which bestowed an Arthur Ross Award on me in 2002.
I work from Providence, R.I., where I live with my wife Victoria, my son Billy and our cat Gato.
If you would like to employ my writing and editing to improve your work, please email me at my consultancy, dbrussat@gmail.com, or call 401.351.0457.
Testimonial: "Your work is so wonderful - you now enter my mind and write what I
would have written."
- Nikos Salingaros, mathematician at the University of Texas, architectural theorist and author of many books.
Architecture Here and There 