Monthly Archives: October 2016

Review: “If Venice Dies”

Posted on October 29, 2016 by David Brussat

By the time I was half finished reading If Venice Dies, I was proclaiming its virtues to anyone who would listen. It was to be another of my bibles. But, although the book, by Italian art historian Salvatore Settis, starts … Continue reading →

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Symposium: Why preserve?

Posted on October 28, 2016 by David Brussat

The Providence Preservation Society will be hosting a symposium on Thursday and Friday, Nov. 3-4, on the whys and wherefores of historic preservation. The focus will be, to some degree, on the empty Industrial Trust Bank Building, where the symposium … Continue reading →

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More on Poundbury alive

Posted on October 27, 2016 by David Brussat

A few days ago, in “Poundbury a tourist mecca?,” I posted on Sophie Campbell’s brave article in the Telegraph. I applauded a piece written by someone disinclined to like Prince Charles’s idea of a town, but who found it largely … Continue reading →

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“If Venice Dies” at Brown

Posted on October 25, 2016 by David Brussat

I went to hear the author of If Venice Dies, Salvatore Settis, at Brown this evening. On the way I took the picture above. During his lecture Settis noted that the world is spotted with copies of the Venice Campanile … Continue reading →

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Venice author today, Brown

Posted on October 25, 2016 by David Brussat

Salvatore Settis, the author of If Venice Dies, will speak at 7 p.m. today at Brown University’s Rhode Island Hall. That’s the stucco Greek Revival building facing the main campus green from just south of University Hall. I am about … Continue reading →

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Raymond Hood’s Providence

Posted on October 24, 2016 by David Brussat

Above is a photo of a photo of a microfilm copy from a front-page story in the March 19, 1916, edition of the Providence Sunday Journal. It shows a proposed new municipal building designed by architect Raymond Hood, who was … Continue reading →

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Alexander’s classical tent

Posted on October 23, 2016 by David Brussat

Christopher Alexander – well known for his Pattern Language, his four-volume The Nature of Order, and for his research on the natural creation of form in architecture and digital technology – wrote an excellent open letter to members of the … Continue reading →

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Poundbury a tourist mecca?

Posted on October 22, 2016 by David Brussat

A day or so ago there were comments on my post about Venice having too many tourists, which led to the question of whether tourists would press a bit less on places like Venice and Paris if new places were … Continue reading →

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Henry James’s Roman ruins

Posted on October 21, 2016 by David Brussat

As we saw in his novel The Princess Casamassima, Henry James indulges himself in his descriptions of cities. In Daisy Miller, he describes the ruin of the Palace of the Caesars, and the Colosseum, in Rome: A few days after … Continue reading →

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Coming up: ‘If Venice Dies’

Posted on October 20, 2016 by David Brussat

My colleague from my days as a dictationist (1978-81) at the Washington bureau of the Associated Press, Michael Wise, who was a D.C. metro reporter there, is now a publisher, the co-founder, with Ross Ufberg, of New Vessel Press. Wise … Continue reading →

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