
Saratoga Avenue Community Center, in Brooklyn (georgeranalli.com)
Visited George Ranalli at his office on West 28th St. in Manhattan this morning. He is famous for the building above [click below], a community center attached to public housing in Brooklyn. It is mainly of brick – masons are considered “villains” by most of the profession of architecture, he says = with elegant design touches that most architects today do not begin to understand. The building has made waves, even winning an award last year from the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art. I like it for suggesting a sort of third way between the dominant modernist ethos and a more traditional way of building. I hope to write more on our meeting when I get back to Providence, but in the meantime I am reassured that Ranalli, who is dean of the School of Architecture at the City College of New York, where my mother was in the acting club with Bernie Schwartz (aka Tony Curtis), really does seek a way out of the current architectural morass.
Anyway, I’d love to hear what folks have to say about the rec center.
[Since the computer in the Doubletree business center wasn’t able to permit the transfer of photographs, try clicking here to see the Saratoga Ave. Community Center.]
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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.
Very creative Classical Architecture design nice
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