Monthly Archives: March 2020

How the coronavirus fools us

Posted on March 31, 2020 by David Brussat

Citizens worldwide are wondering how the coronavirus behaves after entry into the human body. How does it get past our immune system? Scientific antiviral studies report that the coronavirus, once inside its host, does not continue to look like a … Continue reading →

Posted in Humor | Tagged , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Sports ban play-by-play

Posted on March 30, 2020 by David Brussat

Survive the shutdown of life, including the sportin’ life, amid the coronavirus pandemic by watching out-of-work British rugby broadcaster Nick Heath’s hilarious play-by-play for a string of everyday events in London. From the market-bargaining regional qualifier (top photo) to the … Continue reading →

Posted in Humor, Video | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments

The foreboding of H.H. Reed

Posted on March 27, 2020 by David Brussat

I reprint this post less than a year after its publication last May because, for the first time in modern architectural history, there is a chance that the Modern Movement might get its come-uppance. The proposed executive order to shift … Continue reading →

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

A deliriously lovely chapter

Posted on March 24, 2020 by David Brussat

One of the most beautiful passages in contemporary literary history will surely be, when it is published on May 5, chapter 20, “Sunlight on the Furniture,” in Villa of Delirium, by the French author Adrien Goetz. Its English translation by … Continue reading →

Posted in Art and design, Books and Culture | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Canonicus Square betrayed?

Posted on March 22, 2020 by David Brussat

Hoyle Square, in Providence’s West End, where Cranston St. branches off Westminster, was renamed for Canonicus, the Narragansett sachem who in 1636 gave tribal land to Roger Williams for Providence Plantations. I could not learn the year the square’s name … Continue reading →

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

Tale of a Greek villa rebuilt

Posted on March 20, 2020 by David Brussat

I was recently sent a novel, Villa of Delirium, about the lives of the historical inhabitants of a villa on the Côte d’Azur built at the turn of the last century as a copy of a palace in ancient Greece. … Continue reading →

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

Deconstructing the church

Posted on March 17, 2020 by David Brussat

I’ve just finished reading a curious and compelling book called Living Machines: Modern Architecture and the Rationalization of Sexual Misbehavior, by E. Michael Jones. It makes a strong case for what has become a notable cliché: that modern architecture symbolizes … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture | Tagged , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

A few minutes in Stockholm

Posted on March 13, 2020 by David Brussat

This eight-minute tourism video of Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, is part of an excellent series of such films produced by Expedia, the booking agency. For some reason, modernists seem infatuated by Stockholm, even though very little modern architecture appears, … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Video | Tagged , , , , , , | 12 Comments

Comparing Italy and Britain

Posted on March 11, 2020 by David Brussat

What makes a good society? Part of the answer is good architecture. Yet the good that is done by good architecture reaches well beyond beauty. Good architecture does much to create the conditions in which health, prosperity and happiness grow. … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

New England’s “Windy City”

Posted on March 9, 2020 by David Brussat

Boston is the Windy City of New England partly because of its proximity to the North Atlantic but also its funnels of street gusts caused by its dreadfully metastasizing skyscrapers. Wind tunnels are raising eyebrows (and skirts) in the Hub, … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments