Monthly Archives: May 2020

Christo, homage to a life

Posted on May 31, 2020 by David Brussat

The artist Christo has died. One must not, they say, speak ill of the dead. I am not speaking ill of the dead man but of his art. Those who bruise easily may stop reading here, but Christo’s death will … Continue reading →

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Trad and not so trad, cont.

Posted on May 29, 2020 by David Brussat

In light of my recent review of Beauty Memory Unity (2019), by Steve Bass, I offer a long post from 2017 that urges classicists to criticize bad trad more gently if they seek a classical revival. Bass describes strict methodologies … Continue reading →

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Bass: ‘Beauty Memory Unity’

Posted on May 25, 2020 by David Brussat

New York architect Steve Bass, long associated with the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art as a teacher of classical theory, recently wrote a book, Beauty Memory Unity, on his favorite subject of architectural proportion. Proportion has long been a … Continue reading →

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Talk the talk on buildings

Posted on May 21, 2020 by David Brussat

Here is a post of mine from Feb. 7, 2018, “Talk the talk on buildings,” about the incoherence of architectural language. It was originally illustrated by a map of the 1901 McMillan Plan for the National Mall, a fine example … Continue reading →

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“In the Wake of the Willows”

Posted on May 17, 2020 by David Brussat

Nightly over several recent weeks – interrupted by a bout of Bell’s palsy – I read to my 11-year-old boy (and his mother) an enchanting children’s book called In the Wake of the Willows, by Frederick Gorham Thurber and lovingly … Continue reading →

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Krier on living communities

Posted on May 14, 2020 by David Brussat

The other day, after I’d posted on an official Chinese edict against copycat architecture, “China bans novel archivirus,” I received an email from the great architect and theorist Leon Krier, a native of Luxembourg and master planner of Prince Charles’s … Continue reading →

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Duo vs. the “style wars”

Posted on May 11, 2020 by David Brussat

Maybe I am a rascal, or maybe I’m going batty in coronaprison, or maybe I would really just like to foster an amicable agreement, among architects, that an architecture that worked for thousands of years is preferable to – and … Continue reading →

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China bans novel archivirus

Posted on May 8, 2020 by David Brussat

The People’s Republic of China, taking time off from other matters, has issued a decree banning copies of foreign design in its architecture. The decree, as described in the BBC’s “China ‘copycat’ buildings: Government clamps down on foreign imitations,” also … Continue reading →

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Plečnik capitals you can see

Posted on May 4, 2020 by David Brussat

Jože Plečnik may perhaps be deemed the Antoni Gaudi of Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. Or vice versa. Both shifted the character of their principal cities (Barcelona in Gaudi’s case) toward a more animated, innovative and yet entirely classical character. … Continue reading →

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“Building Notre Dame”

Posted on May 1, 2020 by David Brussat

PBS has broadcast a brilliant documentary, “Building Notre-Dame,” on the construction, over some 800 years, of the cathedral in Paris. We all know that the building arose as the cutting edge of architecture in the Middle Ages, and that a … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Video | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments