Monthly Archives: May 2015

A memorial contest for WWI

Posted on May 16, 2015 by David Brussat

An international competition will be held to design a memorial for World War I – the only major U.S. conflict without a national monument on the Mall. The memorial would not be federally funded. The $20 million or so cost … Continue reading →

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Your computer’s architecture

Posted on May 15, 2015 by David Brussat

I have a difficult time finding user-friendly architecture to write about, so let me write about the user-friendliness of computer word programs. In fact, the writing has already been done, not for me but by me, back in 1988, the … Continue reading →

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“Why is Boston so ugly?”

Posted on May 15, 2015 by David Brussat

That’s the question asked by Rachel Slade in Boston magazine. Her answer is that developers don’t hire enough Thom Maynes or Renzo Pianos. The real answer is that developers hire too many Thom Mayne and Renzo Piano wannabes, and that … Continue reading →

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Naked Times Square, cont.

Posted on May 14, 2015 by David Brussat

This blog, bloviating before its vacation, wondered whether anyone could tell what is underneath the electronic billboards of Times Square. Close examination suggests that few if any buildings there warrant exposure from billboard removal. The clear fact is that the … Continue reading →

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Times Sq. billboards at risk?

Posted on May 10, 2015 by David Brussat

Leave it to Kristen Richards and ArchNewsNow.com to post an article relevent to my own personal agenda – in this case, my trip down to New York City on Amtrak, starting in two hours and 26 minutes. That’s when our … Continue reading →

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Style in words and buildings

Posted on May 9, 2015 by David Brussat

Andres Duany in his treatise Heterodoxia Architectonica engages the concept of classicism’s relation to language. Umberto Eco, in his On Literature, engages the concept of language’s relation to style. This blog is about the “style wars” of classicism versus modernism. In … Continue reading →

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“The People vs. Modernism”

Posted on May 8, 2015 by David Brussat

Malcolm Millais has sent me another video, this one entitled “The People vs. Modernism.” What a glorious compiliation! Beneath a score of ominous music selected from the depths of the minor key, its creators, who refer to themselves as ArchitectureMMXII, … Continue reading →

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Preservation hits the bottom

Posted on May 8, 2015 by David Brussat

The New York Landmarks Preservation Commission has almost hit rock bottom. It has approved a restoration project that preserves a building – and its graffiti. The website New York YIMBY reports the ruling in “Landmarks Approves Restoration and Conversion of … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Architecture History, Development, Humor, Preservation | Tagged , , , , , | 9 Comments

Why is modern art so bad?

Posted on May 8, 2015 by David Brussat

Malcolm Millais, author of Exploding the Myths of Modern Architecture and an upcoming book correcting the record on Le Corbusier, sent me a video of an artist, Robert Florczak, at Prager University, explaining the erosion of standards in the art world … Continue reading →

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The Fountainhead of Youth

Posted on May 7, 2015 by David Brussat

Padriac Steinschneider, honcho of the New York chapter of the Congress of the New Urbanism, was as miffed as I was by the reflections of the Dallas Morning News architecture critic Mark Lamster on the CNU proceedings at Dallas last … Continue reading →

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