Monthly Archives: February 2019

Cameron’s Penn Sta. pitch

Posted on February 27, 2019 by David Brussat

Richard Cameron, who spearheads the plan to have New York’s Pennsylvania Station rebuilt much as it was when it opened in 1910, pitched his proposal in Boston yesterday. Before a large audience at the Boston Design Center, he described how … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Development | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Review: Ruggles on beauty

Posted on February 25, 2019 by David Brussat

Beauty, Neuroscience & Architecture, by Denver architect Donald Ruggles, reflects the ancient desire to find the key to the puzzle, in this case the puzzle of architecture. Why are some buildings beautiful and others not? Find the answer and bottle … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Art and design | Tagged , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

REX wrecks Brown PAC Rx

Posted on February 22, 2019 by David Brussat

The newly released design for Brown’s proposed performing arts center by the New York firm REX, led by Rem Koolhaas OMA alumnus Joshua Prince-Ramus, can’t be accused of wrecking a swath of campus. That’s already been accomplished. But it can … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture | Tagged , , , , , , | 13 Comments

Needless fold on Blackstone

Posted on February 19, 2019 by David Brussat

It looks as if the mansion and the even lovelier caretaker’s cottage at the Beresford-Nicholson estate on Blackstone Boulevard may be coming down. The developer, the Bilotti Group, brought to Tuesday afternoon’s meeting, as requested, a concept to subdivide the … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Development, Providence | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Rich building, poor building

Posted on February 17, 2019 by David Brussat

Before retiring the subject of Witold Rybczynski’s review of James Stevens Curl’s new book Making Dystopia, let me return to the critic’s remarks about the failures of modern architecture. One modest observation said so much in so few words, and … Continue reading →

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

Rybczynski reviews Dystopia

Posted on February 14, 2019 by David Brussat

“Witold Rybczynski on architectural PTSD and what James Stevens Curl gets wrong (and right) in his controversial new book” is the sub-headline of Rybczynski’s review of Making Dystopia, the magisterial history of modern architecture by Britain’s most accomplished architectural historian. … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Book/Film Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Carl Laubin wins Reed award

Posted on February 12, 2019 by David Brussat

The British-American painter Carl Laubin specializes in classical buildings assembled en masse on canvas. I first came face to face with one of his works at the celebration, in 2013, of the Richard H. Driehaus Prize for architect Thomas Beeby … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

“Modern” or “modernist”?

Posted on February 10, 2019 by David Brussat

Occasionally I am urged to stop using “modern architecture” and use “modernist architecture” instead. The complaint, which issues from some of architecture’s top thinkers and makes considerable sense, is that the word modern normally means “of today” or “up to … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture | Tagged , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Uses of classical architecture

Posted on February 7, 2019 by David Brussat

Construction workers were renovating the brickwork of the Sundance West apartments in downtown Fort Worth, Texas, when scaffolding collapsed, leaving one worker hanging five floors up on the six-story building. “… That safety harness keep[s] the worker from falling to … Continue reading →

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

Save the Chartres Cathedral

Posted on February 5, 2019 by David Brussat

In my 2014 blog post “Change at Chartres” I discussed New York Review of Books critic Martin Filler’s “Scandalous Makeover at Chartres,” a critique of the interior restoration work at the famous cathedral about 60 miles to the southwest of … Continue reading →

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