Monthly Archives: September 2020

Inking “Old Curiosity Shop”

Posted on September 28, 2020 by David Brussat

In recent days I’ve received a veritable flood of emails of about architectural drafting and illustration, the first regretting the disappearance of the tools of that trade, the others a succession of excellent examples. I’m not sure all of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Art and design | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

Deplatform Beethoven’s 5th?

Posted on September 23, 2020 by David Brussat

As I write I am listening to Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, played by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. Of all his symphonies, including even my favorite, the Ninth, the Fifth seems to ring most true to Goethe’s description of architecture as “frozen … Continue reading →

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

It’s truly a beautiful world

Posted on September 20, 2020 by David Brussat

Like everyone else, people I know send me stuff online that they get from people they know. Lee Juskalian, who used to work on development in Providence until moving to California a couple of decades ago, occasionally sends me photographs, … Continue reading →

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

They don’t get Carnegie Hall

Posted on September 18, 2020 by David Brussat

Here is another edition of Timesman Michael Kimmelman’s virtual tours through Manhattan’s neighborhoods accompanied by celebrity architects, in this case Midtown’s Carnegie Hall area with Billie Tsien and Tod Williams, who once lived in a Carnegie Hall studio (they are, … Continue reading →

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More pause please, Newport

Posted on September 14, 2020 by David Brussat

Faced with a development proposal to replace the Newport Grand casino, the City by the Sea recently placed a moratorium on development in order to suck its elegant thumb about its development guidelines. Bloomberg CityLab published a lengthy article, “History … Continue reading →

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

New and old on Westminster

Posted on September 11, 2020 by David Brussat

Several years in the making, renovations on downtown’s Westminster Street between Union and Mathewson are almost done. It will take more time, and possibly the extirpation of coronavirus “and stuff” (as my son puts it), for the buildings to be … Continue reading →

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Disrupt architecture now!

Posted on September 6, 2020 by David Brussat

So proclaims Pittsburgh architect Anne Chen in “Let’s Change the Language of Buildings for the Future,” in Architect magazine. Huh? I thought that’s what architects have been doing for the last century. Here is her thesis: As a nation, we … Continue reading →

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Animal spirits of the E.O.

Posted on September 3, 2020 by David Brussat

The General Services Administration, which designs, builds and maintains all federal buildings, has issued a pair of RFQs (Request for Qualifications) for architects to design two federal courthouses, one in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., and another in Huntsville, Ala., in a … Continue reading →

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