Monthly Archives: December 2017

Best trad buildings of 2017

Posted on December 31, 2017 by

It has taken me a couple of days to round up the best traditional buildings of 2017 – not, I hope, because there are so few. Winners of design contests generally anoint selections from entries for buildings completed as many … Continue reading →

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Stuart Little, Gramercy Park

Posted on December 30, 2017 by

Here is another sketch by Garth Williams from E.B. White’s Stuart Little.  The lovelorn mouse is about to leave the Little residence in search of Margalo, a lady bird who has fled. A pigeon (“the weird pigeon,” my little boy … Continue reading →

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Stuart Little’s aerie in NYC

Posted on December 29, 2017 by

Reading E.B. White’s 1945 masterpiece, Stuart Little, to my little boy, Billy, at bedtime brought the illustration above to my attention last night for the first time in, um, shall we say, several decades. The artist, Garth Williams, drew the … Continue reading →

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More worst buildings of 2017

Posted on December 28, 2017 by

While awaiting my promised post “Best traditional buildings of 2017,” here is “From Manila to Manhattan, These New Buildings Will Define Architecture in 2017,” written by Anna Kats for Artsy, a website dedicated to … well, we’ll let that ride. … Continue reading →

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Best worst buildings of 2017

Posted on December 26, 2017 by

‘Tis the season to wax mirthful about the architecture of the previous year. Here are the favorites of ArchDaily.com, “The Best Architecture of the Year: Most Viewed Projects,” summarized and presumably selected according to popularity among its readership, and then … Continue reading →

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Lost Ro Dyland, annotated

Posted on December 25, 2017 by

On the front page of yesterday’s Providence Journal, under a delightful illustration by Tom Murphy, was “Saint Nick Sails a Retro Route,” a poem by longtime South County editor (ret.) Gerry Goldstein, typically droll and deft of touch. Read it … Continue reading →

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Frank Gehry’s H.M.S. Foggy

Posted on December 23, 2017 by

Not sure why I’ve decided to inflict on readers this old post from October 2015 on the day before the day before Christmas. It came to mind after a reader, intent on humoring me or torturing me, sent me a … Continue reading →

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Unmocking mockup at Yale

Posted on December 22, 2017 by

The other day the U.S. Mail produced for me a gift from RAMSA – Robert A.M. Stern Architects. The New Residential Colleges at Yale: A Conversation Across Time came with an inscription to me from the great architect himself: “To … Continue reading →

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Assault on history at Brown

Posted on December 19, 2017 by

This afternoon, Providence’s City Plan Commission heard Brown University officials propose to move one and raze four historic buildings to make way for a new performing arts center with a concert hall rumored large enough to swallow the nearby Granoff … Continue reading →

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Trad and not so trad, cont.

Posted on December 17, 2017 by

Classicism over thousands of years has developed an architectural language that modernism has not even sought to construct. A language would suggest a reliance on precedent. Among those who have criticized my admiration for Stan Weiss’s interior decor, Eric Daum … Continue reading →

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