Monthly Archives: December 2014

“Modernism in Vienna”

Posted on December 31, 2014 by David Brussat

Here’s the column on my 2005 trip to Vienna linked to in my last post: Modernism in Prague and Vienna June 16, 2005 IN VIENNA AND PRAGUE, built before the divorce of art and architecture, where buildings are encrusted with … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Architecture History, Art and design, Blast from past, Books and Culture, Other countries | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

Ornament and Crimehaus

Posted on December 31, 2014 by David Brussat

Recently, after several contributors to a TradArch discussion of Adolf Loos and his famous building in Vienna, Andres Duany pointed out that the windows in the upper floors don’t align with the building’s ground-floor features. Earlier comments had referred to … Continue reading →

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AP fotog in Toyland

Posted on December 30, 2014 by David Brussat

Who would not want to live in this photograph? It is Bern, Switzerland. The photo, shot by Peter Klaunzer for the Associated Press, was published in today’s Providence Journal. Don’t ask me why I’ve taken two lovely city shots from … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Other countries, Photography, Providence | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Quack troops invade capital

Posted on December 28, 2014 by David Brussat

A friend and I drove through the swath of redevelopment land where Route 195 used to be. We wanted to view the new street infrastructure. We were yukking it up over the “art” when we had to stop to review … Continue reading →

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

Between the lines of the NYT

Posted on December 27, 2014 by David Brussat

Steven Bingler and Martin Pedersen, the architect and the writer who called on architects to pay more attention to public taste, do not seem to realize it, and would probably not admit it, but their essay in the New York … Continue reading →

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Beautiful seasonal greeting

Posted on December 25, 2014 by David Brussat

The above photograph was featured on the main international news page of the Providence Journal. I send it out as my gift to readers. Beauty can persist even in the heart of darkness. Red Square may not be that place … Continue reading →

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Betsky goes ballistic

Posted on December 23, 2014 by David Brussat

Let the establishment – in this case the New York Times – allow just a single peep against modern architecture, and its enforcers suffer total meltdown of equanimity. Aaron Betsky, the architecture critic for the journal of the American Institute … Continue reading →

Posted in Architects, Architecture, Architecture History | Tagged , , , | 9 Comments

Raise the BAR, Duany

Posted on December 23, 2014 by David Brussat

It is extremely encouraging to read in the Charleston Post and Courier that Andrès Duany has been hired to help advise the city on how to improve its Board of Architectural Review. By approving a provocative modernist Clemson building in … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Development, Preservation, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , | 11 Comments

Leon Krier’s tale of post-carbuncle London

Posted on December 22, 2014 by David Brussat

Originally posted on Architecture Here and There:
The dome of St. Paul’s Cathedral takes center stage in this effort to imagine what London must have been like centuries ago. Here is Leon Krier’s piece, “Sustainable Architecture and the Legible City,”…

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Existential Candyland

Posted on December 21, 2014 by David Brussat

I play Candyland with my little boy, Billy, age 5. He is very good at it, as the philosophical discourse linked below demonstrates. He occasionally moves his marker to the colored square where the colored card tells him it ought … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Art and design, Humor | Tagged , , | 1 Comment