Monthly Archives: January 2017

Driehaus prize to Rbt. Adam

Posted on January 20, 2017 by David Brussat

It’s unlikely that Robert Adam will soon match the iconic status of Robert Adam. Two centuries separate the two classical architects. But eventually, maybe he will. With the extant Adam’s winning the Driehaus Prize yesterday, he extends his climb to … Continue reading →

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Hearing on Hope tower(s)

Posted on January 19, 2017 by David Brussat

The I-195 commission gave thumbs up to the Hope Point Tower(s) project yesterday, but its preliminary, Level 1, approval was conditioned in ways that developer Jason Fane might find hard to swallow. They are that the original three-tower concept is … Continue reading →

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A dream book of Venice

Posted on January 17, 2017 by David Brussat

A book of lovely photographs that capture the spirit of Venice was sent to me a while back by its editor, JoAnn Locktov, after I’d reviewed If Venice Dies, by Salvatore Settis, the Italian art historian. In Locktov’s book, Dream … Continue reading →

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Amtrak’s R.I. rural removal

Posted on January 16, 2017 by David Brussat

If the description by two Charlestown, R.I., town council leaders of Amtrak’s plan for an alternate route through that town are accurate, the proposal must be stopped. It is no less than “rural removal,” same as the old “urban removal” … Continue reading →

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Webb and the Zen of craft

Posted on January 13, 2017 by David Brussat

I have been remiss in not having shared with readers, until now, the essays of Patrick Webb, the Charleston-based plaster craftsman and classicist, whom I met a couple of years ago at a TradArch conference hosted by the American College … Continue reading →

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Videos of London, 1927/2014

Posted on January 12, 2017 by David Brussat

Here are two videos side by side of the same scenes in London from 1927 and 2014, courtesy of Big Geek Daddy’s Video of the Day. A week ago I posted “London in 25 hard minutes,” one of Rick Steves’s … Continue reading →

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More music & architecture

Posted on January 11, 2017 by David Brussat

The Future Symphony Institute’s newest fellow, the composer John Borstlap, has written the latest in a string of essays that speak of music in ways that bring to mind architecture. Here is a paragraph from “Classical Modernity“: Is there any … Continue reading →

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Krier on cities’ skyscraperitis

Posted on January 10, 2017 by David Brussat

According to the headline writers at BD magazine, Britain’s leading journal of architecture, the takeaway from Leon Krier’s new essay there is “It doesn’t matter if skyscrapers are designed by world-class architects or hacks – they’re destroying our cities.” I … Continue reading →

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Batman’s Penn Station, etc.

Posted on January 8, 2017 by David Brussat

Here is my Traditional Building blog post from December, inspired by TB editor Martha McDonald’s expression of intrigue regarding an Architecture Here and There blog post I had written about Batman hiring a modernist architect to redesign Penn Station as … Continue reading →

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Rouchell and New Orleans

Posted on January 7, 2017 by David Brussat

My post “Nostalgia in New Orleans?” generated some comment among traditionalists on the TradArch list, including Louisiana architect Michael Rouchell. A couple of years ago, he contributed an excellent counterproposal to help my effort to get Rhode Island’s governor to … Continue reading →

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