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Monthly Archives: December 2017
Best trad buildings of 2017
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
Stuart Little, Gramercy Park
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
Posted in Architecture
Tagged Cities, E.B. White, Garth Williams, Gramercy Park, Manhattan, New York, Stuart Little, Urban Sociology
3 Comments
Stuart Little’s aerie in NYC
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
Posted in Architecture
Tagged Aprtment Buildings, E.B. White, Garth Williams, Manhattan, New York City, Penthouses, Providence RI, Smith Building, Stuart Little
2 Comments
More worst buildings of 2017
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
Posted in Architecture
Tagged Artsy.net, KieranTimberlake, Modern Architecture, U.S. Embassy London, Year-End Roundup
5 Comments
Best worst buildings of 2017
‘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
Posted in Architecture
Tagged ArchDaily, Beirut, Design Contests, France, Herzog & de Meuron, Mexico, Modern Architecture, Snohetta, traditional architecture
3 Comments
Lost Ro Dyland, annotated
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
Frank Gehry’s H.M.S. Foggy
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
Posted in Art and design, Humor, Uncategorized
Tagged Boats, Esquire, Frank Gehry, Sailboats, WaterFire, Yachts, Zaha Hadid
5 Comments
Unmocking mockup at Yale
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
Posted in Architecture
Tagged Classical Revival, Construction, James Gamble Rogers, Mockup, New Haven CT, RAMSA, Robert A.M. Stern, Yale University
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Assault on history at Brown
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
Trad and not so trad, cont.
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
Posted in Architecture, Art and design
Tagged Architecture Education, Bad Trad, classical architecture, CVS, Modern Architecture, Skopje, Style Wars
2 Comments
