Monthly Archives: December 2021

Best trad buildings of 2021

Posted on December 30, 2021 by David Brussat

This year’s meagre selection of new buildings designed in traditional styles came close to cancellation, not the first event to suffer that fate lately. It is depressing this year, as it was last year, to contemplate the listlessness of the … Continue reading →

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Presto! Windows and doors!

Posted on December 23, 2021 by David Brussat

On Monday, Dec. 20, the Providence Historic District Commission met for a second time on the proposal for a new house at 67 Williams St. They were to consider conceptual approval that was delayed on Nov. 22, after the developer, … Continue reading →

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Garden of House of Mirth

Posted on December 17, 2021 by David Brussat

My last quotation from Edith Wharton’s 1905 novel The House of Mirth offered one minor character’s thoughts on several fancy row houses of Fifth Avenue, including one or two owned by families friendly to Mr. Van Alstyne and his partner … Continue reading →

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Albany-on-Hudson again?

Posted on December 13, 2021 by David Brussat

The capital of the Empire State hopes to do what many cities have done: rip up urban highways inflicted upon them in the 1960s and ’70s. Albany expects soon to remove its elevated eyesore, Interstate 787, which squats between the … Continue reading →

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The hegemony of architecture

Posted on December 7, 2021 by David Brussat

Architecture may be suffering from a hegemonic conundrum that afflicts the major institutions of the whole world. It is not just hegemon vs. hegemon anymore, according to analyst Richard Fernandez in his recent essay “There Is Something Wrong with our … Continue reading →

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Wharton’s “House of Mirth”

Posted on December 2, 2021 by David Brussat

Being about two-thirds through Edith Wharton’s 1905 novel, I am still not quite sure I’ve actually encountered the “house of mirth” she gives as its title. What follows is a passage in which a secondary character, Van Alstyne, in Wharton’s … Continue reading →

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