Monthly Archives: March 2016

Indian classical dance Monday morning at Brown

Posted on March 11, 2016 by David Brussat

This Monday at 10:30 a.m., Sophia Salingaros will perform classical Indian dance at Brown’s Lyman Hall. She is the daughter of architectural theorist and University of Texas mathematician Nikos Salingaros, whose thoughts have appeared here often, with and without attribution. … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Architecture Education, Art and design, Video | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Didn’t quite get Gaudi

Posted on March 9, 2016 by David Brussat

Ayesha Khan’s essay on the Spanish Catalan Antoni Gaudí (1852-1926) in the Wall Street Journal, “How a Gaudi Building Won Over a Strict Minimalist,” doesn’t quite live up to the headline. It is not clear that she really likes Gaudí … Continue reading →

Posted in Architects, Architecture, Architecture Education, Architecture History, Art and design, Other countries | Tagged , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Fallen Rome, fallen moderns

Posted on March 8, 2016 by David Brussat

Passages from Stephen Greenblatt’s The Swerve: How the World Became Modern evoke a Rome in the 15th century fallen from its imperial glory: The population of Rome, a small fragment of what it had once been, lived in detached settlements, … Continue reading →

Posted in Architects, Architecture, Architecture Education, Architecture History, Art and design, Books and Culture, Landscape Architecture, Other countries, Preservation, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

How to square the square

Posted on March 7, 2016 by David Brussat

Seventeen years ago, Providence Place mall opened up downtown, in the Capital Center District, where an exit ramp from Route 95 meets Francis Street and continues on as Memorial Boulevard. Ever since then, too many pedestrians have endangered their lives … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Art and design, Development, Providence, Providence Journal, Rhode Island, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , | 6 Comments

More AIA “first issues”

Posted on March 6, 2016 by David Brussat

My friend Steve “The Philatecstatic” Mields has sent me more “First Issue” envelopes, this time celebrating the 100th anniversary of the American Institute of Architects. They are not as funny as the first-issue envelopes of the American Planning Association, with … Continue reading →

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Roots of the classical revival

Posted on March 5, 2016 by David Brussat

Here’s a passage from The Swerve, a 2011 book by Stephen Greenblatt on how the discovery of the lost poem “On the Nature of Things” by Lucretius helped spark the Renaissance. The passage has to do with handwriting, not architecture, … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Architecture History, Art and design, Book/Film Reviews, Books and Culture, Video | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Reflect the Pan-Am Building

Posted on March 5, 2016 by David Brussat

Few things are, I believe, more ridiculous than the frequent claim that glass buildings “reflect their context” by mirroring their neighborhoods in their glass façades. It does not happen, or even seem to happen, except when the sun is just … Continue reading →

Posted in Architects, Architecture, Architecture Education, Architecture History, Art and design, Development, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Archaeology at Penn Station

Posted on March 4, 2016 by David Brussat

The website Untapped Cities has apparently been sending people out (or at least receiving reports from disparate individuals and then signing them up) to find parts of the old and beloved Penn Station in the bowels of the new and … Continue reading →

Posted in Architects, Architecture, Architecture Education, Architecture History, Art and design, Blast from past, Development, Interior Design, Preservation, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Craco, abandoned in 1963

Posted on March 3, 2016 by David Brussat

This haunting film depicts Craco, Italy, abandoned in 1963 after landslides rendered it uninhabitable. Ancient ruins are, well, ancient ruins, and their mysteries pull on different chords of our hearts. Craco is a city – granted, an ancient one – … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Architecture History, Art and design, Landscape Architecture, Preservation, Urbanism and planning, Video | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Froma Harrop: Don’t bury our cities in megatowers

Posted on March 2, 2016 by David Brussat

An excellent rattling of sabres at megatowers was published in Sunday’s Providence Journal by Froma Harrop, my former colleague on the paper’s editorial board. Froma writes a twice-weekly syndicated column for Creators Syndicate on the full panoply of issues in … Continue reading →

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