Bowling trophy architecture

Skyscrapers in Dubai. (Courtesy of James Howard Kunstler)

Skyscrapers in Dubai. (Courtesy of James Howard Kunstler)

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 from James Howard Kunstler of the skyscrapers along the main drag in Dubai – a lineup of starchitecture he calls “Bowling trophy architecture.” How apt!

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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.
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