Monthly Archives: October 2014

Spookitecture! Oh my!

Posted on October 31, 2014 by David Brussat

Today is the perfect day to post images of more than 1,700 entries for the proposed Guggenheim Helsinki museum, generated by an international competition, that have been released to the public. The exercise reminds me of a phenomenon that goes … Continue reading →

Posted in Architects, Architecture | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Traditional or modernist?

Posted on October 31, 2014 by David Brussat

A reader has sent me an article called “Before and After: A Charred Wood Cottage on a $45k budget,” by Michelle Slatalla, from Issue 42 of the online journal Dark Shadows. My correspondent, who enjoys claiming that my usual modernist … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Humor, Other countries | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Cutting myself to fit

Posted on October 30, 2014 by David Brussat

This is to notify readers that the attempt to maintain the weekly online version of the late, lamented Providence Journal column has fallen prey to the constraints imposed by the need to produce a new weekly column. The new column, … Continue reading →

Posted in Art and design | 4 Comments

Bowling trophy architecture

Posted on October 29, 2014 by David Brussat

Read “Top Seven Reasons Behind the Shanghaiing of New York (#Dubai-on-Hudson),” architect and urban designer John Massengale’s astute analysis of the linkage between Big Finance and Big Architecture. His assessment is depressing, because it looks impregnable. He uses an illustration … Continue reading →

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Potemkin justice for Russia?

Posted on October 29, 2014 by David Brussat

Far be it from me to endorse anything proposed by the regime of Vladimir Putin, but permit me to embrace the classical judicial complex to be built in St. Petersburg. As the blogger Andrew Cusack points out, the Russian architect … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Development, Other countries, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Hard to build unnatural park

Posted on October 28, 2014 by David Brussat

The parks committee of the Route 195 Redevelopment District Commission met yesterday afternoon to hear WaterFire generalissimo Barnaby Evans urge, late in the design process, that the western end of the proposed pedestrian bridge be raised to let the river … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Development, Landscape Architecture, Providence, Rhode Island, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

A landscape urbanism primer

Posted on October 28, 2014 by David Brussat

Architect Marc Szarkowski, responding to news that the so-called landscape urbanists are helping to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the famous British gardener Lancelot “Capability” Brown (1716-1783), offers this chart on how to design a park from the landscape-urbanist perspective. … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Architecture History, Humor, Landscape Architecture | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

The fickle finger of Frank

Posted on October 27, 2014 by David Brussat

The greatest architect in the world flipped the bird at a journalist last week during a press conference in Spain. He later apologized. The best photo of the event is above, from The Guardian, but the best story is by … Continue reading →

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Landscape styles at war

Posted on October 24, 2014 by David Brussat

” ‘Now there’ said he, pointing his finger, ‘I make a comma, and there’ pointing to another spot, ‘where a more decided turn is proper, I make a colon; at another part, where an interruption is desirable to break the … Continue reading →

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Column: Yes, alas, we have modernism in R.I.

Posted on October 23, 2014 by David Brussat

“God will provide,” my editor Bob Whitcomb used to say. This morning, as I struggled to find a column topic, He placed one right before my eyes, occupying the very space where my regular Thursday column in the Providence Journal … Continue reading →

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