Monthly Archives: September 2021

Two rotten eggs and a peach

Posted on September 29, 2021 by David Brussat

The I-195 District Redevelopment Commission, at its Sept. 20 meeting, looked at three proposals for mixed-use apartment complexes on former highway land east of the Providence River. One proposal exceeds the other two in appearance. That should be the primary … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Development | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 10 Comments

Review: “Pollak’s Arm”

Posted on September 25, 2021 by David Brussat

Pollak’s Arm, a historical novel by Hans von Trotha, is not about Pollak’s arm but about the arm his protagonist, art collector Ludwig Pollak, found, which had been missing for centuries from the shoulder of Laocoön (pronounced lay-o-coo-on), the central … Continue reading →

Posted in Art and design, Book/Film Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

See how form follows fiasco

Posted on September 21, 2021 by David Brussat

I’ve just started rereading the late Peter Blake’s slender 1960 hagiography of French architect Le Corbusier, born Charles-Édouard Jeanneret in Switzerland. A far better book on Corbu, as he is known by his many deluded admirers, is Le Corbusier: The … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Books and Culture | Tagged , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

A lexicon of modern facades

Posted on September 17, 2021 by David Brussat

Among the many differences between modern architecture and traditional or classical architecture is that modernist buildings, which often do not look like buildings at all, receive what I call derisive monikers from members of the public. Traditional and classical design, … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture | Tagged , , , | 12 Comments

9/11: Peering into the abyss

Posted on September 13, 2021 by David Brussat

My last post quoted briefly my Oct. 4, 2001, column in the Providence Journal called “Peering into the towering abyss,” but the link seems to take readers to a sign-up sheet for the Journal archives instead of the text of … Continue reading →

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

9/11 revisited, 20 years on

Posted on September 11, 2021 by David Brussat

I saw 9/11 as it was happening on a TV screen through one of the large windows of URI’s Providence campus (the Shepard Building) facing Union Street. I was on my way to work at the Journal – two blocks … Continue reading →

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

Telosa: The next BIG thing

Posted on September 8, 2021 by David Brussat

Men have sought to establish utopias for centuries in the mind and even on land. Plato posited his “Republic” long before Sir Thomas More coined “utopia,” but More considered his Utopia (1516) a satire. The founders of successive attempts at … Continue reading →

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

WaterFire back in Providence

Posted on September 5, 2021 by David Brussat

Providence has gone two years, since the fall of 2019, without WaterFire, the capital city’s signature work of art, a blessing to citizens of Rhode Island and visitors from much farther afield since 1994. It is the event’s usual crowds … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment