Monthly Archives: February 2016

Two agin transforming Prov.

Here are two columns I wrote long ago about the “Transforming Providence” symposium held at RISD Auditorium in November 2000. The first ran before the event, the second after the event. They represent my occasional effort to promote some sort … Continue reading

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“Reinvent” (destroy) Paris

Here is the Reinventing Paris video displaying, in quick succession, the 23 finalists for 23 development sites in a contest sponsored by the municipality under Mayor Anne Hidalgo. The text is in French, and I cannot therefore reconcile why it refers … Continue reading

Posted in Architects, Architecture, Architecture Education, Architecture History, Art and design, Development, Preservation, Providence, Urbanism and planning, Video | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Bevan’s “modest revival”

Last week, in “Zaha Hadid gets RIBA medal,” I wrote that Hadid complained about “a tilt toward tradition in London architecture that only she is able to perceive.” I was wrong. The British critic Robert Bevan sees it, too: a … Continue reading

Posted in Architects, Architecture, Architecture Education, Architecture History, Art and design, Development, Other countries, Providence, Rhode Island, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Heinrich Kley’s “Road Rage”

The sketch above, “Gasoline Stallion,” which these days might be renamed “Road Rage,” is one of my favorites by Heinrich Kley (1863-1945), the German illustrator. It was probably drawn early in the 20th century, when automobiles were beginning to overtake … Continue reading

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Built in major & minor keys

David Mayernik, who teaches at Notre Dame’s school of architecture and has designed the campus at The American School in Switzerland, overlooking Lake Lugano, recently presented his views on the language of architecture and definitions of the classical and traditional … Continue reading

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Zaha Hadid gets RIBA medal

The Iraqi-born architect Zaha Hadid has received the Gold Medal for Architecture from the Royal Institute of British Architects. She spoke to RIBA upon receiving the award and launched a tirade against tradition. Notwithstanding her complaints, London, where she set … Continue reading

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Photographs of Lviv, Ukraine

David Mittell, whose essay “Why I love Lviv” ran here on January 26, has sent some photographs to illustrate the various conditions of architecture in Lviv, which he characterizes – truly – as one of Europe’s most beautiful unknown cities. … Continue reading

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Schumacher’s Pritzker feint

Patrik Schumacher, who runs Zaha Hadid’s office and involves himself in the modernist discourse, has used his Facebook page to criticize the Pritzker jury’s choice of Chilean architect Alejandro Aravena. His critique mimics his recent, widely condemned, critique of the … Continue reading

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Comedia della postal mod

The humorist and fenestration cleanliness engineer Stevenson Hugh Mields has sent along another First Issue envelope with an engraving of not one but two proposed modernist plans, which he has named “Optical Illusion,” and which I have placed for readers’ … Continue reading

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Scott Merrill’s Driehaus

Scott Merrill, an architect best known for his work in Seaside and other New Urbanist communities, has won this year’s Driehaus Prize, annually awarded by the school of architecture at the University of Notre Dame. Named for Chicago philanthropist and … Continue reading

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