Monthly Archives: June 2017

News for preservationists

Posted on June 28, 2017 by David Brussat

The author of one of my bibles, The Future of the Past, is Steven Semes, the Notre Dame scholar whose thinking pops up on this blog a lot. In 2014, he was named chairman of the new graduate program in … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Preservation | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Our pushy American tongue

Posted on June 27, 2017 by David Brussat

As a proud owner of one of the several editions of H.L. Mencken’s The American Language, I was tickled to see him cited in an essay about how, after a battle of centuries, American English has conquered English English. The … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Books and Culture | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Lovely Venice, lovely video

Posted on June 26, 2017 by David Brussat

I want to go back. To Venice. Ahhh. And to a degree, this Expedia video provides the cheapest, fastest and perhaps the most intensely beautiful way to go. Not that being there is not the best. It is. But few … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Video | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Tragic London tower lesson

Posted on June 25, 2017 by David Brussat

The Grenfell Tower that burned in London, costing several score of lives, offers lessons that we can and will again fail to heed. No building can be perfectly fireproof, and no ladder truck can reach beyond 20 stories anyhow. If … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture | Tagged , , , , , | 9 Comments

Mozart, music, architecture

Posted on June 23, 2017 by David Brussat

I’m reading a biography of Mozart by Marcia Davenport, published in 1932. It is excellently written. Of course, Mozart is famous for writing the most enchanting music without crossing out notation on his manuscripts in the least. That is because … Continue reading →

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

Westminister Street daze

Posted on June 22, 2017 by David Brussat

Channel 12 News reported last night that Westminster Street is spelled Westminister Street on a couple of signs in downtown Providence, one of them at the corner of Empire Street. And that it has been that way for years. And … Continue reading →

Posted in Books and Culture | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Too late to squash-bust it

Posted on June 21, 2017 by David Brussat

The alien spaceship being erected on the Moses Brown School campus facing Hope Street telegraphs its strangeness to everyone who passes along that stretch of Hope. Two sets of angled girders thrust akimbo toward Hope, like the wings of a … Continue reading →

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WaterFire’s ribbon-de-fe

Posted on June 20, 2017 by David Brussat

At the end of my tour of the WaterFire Arts Center on Sunday (“WaterFire’s crib opens today,”), Waterfire creator Barnaby Evans told me to look out for “a surprise” at the next day’s ribbon-cutting. Well, I have it on video. … Continue reading →

Posted in Art and design, Providence | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

WaterFire crib opens today

Posted on June 19, 2017 by David Brussat

Barnaby Evans, the creator of WaterFire Providence, toured me through the new WaterFire Arts Center yesterday, mere hours before its ribbon-cutting scheduled for 10:30 this morning. The sun played hide and seek with the clouds at 4 yesterday, finally letting … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Preservation | Tagged , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Market town, New Zealand

Posted on June 18, 2017 by David Brussat

Not so long ago, I wrote a blog post and received a comment in reply from “leveveg.” (I am not sure that’s his name, or even whether he’s a he.) Anyway, I visited his Norway-based website, dedicated to sensible urbanism, … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments