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Author Archives: David Brussat
Needless fold on Blackstone
It looks as if the mansion and the even lovelier caretaker’s cottage at the Beresford-Nicholson estate on Blackstone Boulevard may be coming down. The developer, the Bilotti Group, brought to this afternoon’s meeting, as requested, a concept to subdivide the … Continue reading
Rich building, poor building
Before retiring the subject of Witold Rybczynski’s review of James Stevens Curl’s new book Making Dystopia, let me return to the critic’s remarks about the failures of modern architecture. One modest observation said so much in so few words, and … Continue reading
Rybczynski reviews Dystopia
“Witold Rybczynski on architectural PTSD and what James Stevens Curl gets wrong (and right) in his controversial new book” is the sub-headline of Rybczynski’s review of Making Dystopia, the magisterial history of modern architecture by Britain’s most accomplished architectural historian. … Continue reading
Carl Laubin wins Reed award
The British-American painter Carl Laubin specializes in classical buildings assembled en masse on canvas. I first came face to face with one of his works at the celebration, in 2013, of the Richard H. Driehaus Prize for architect Thomas Beeby … Continue reading
“Modern” or “modernist”?
Occasionally I am urged to stop using “modern architecture” and use “modernist architecture” instead. The complaint, which issues from some of architecture’s top thinkers and makes considerable sense, is that the word modern normally means “of today” or “up to … Continue reading
Posted in Architecture
Tagged Calder Loth, Henry Hope Reed, Jetsons, Language, Leon Krier, Modern, modernism, Rhetroic
6 Comments
Uses of classical architecture
Construction workers were renovating the brickwork of the Sundance West apartments in downtown Fort Worth, Texas, when scaffolding collapsed, leaving one worker hanging five floors up on the six-story building. “… That safety harness keep[s] the worker from falling to … Continue reading
Save the Chartres Cathedral
In my 2014 blog post “Change at Chartres” I discussed New York Review of Books critic Martin Filler’s “Scandalous Makeover at Chartres,” a critique of the interior restoration work at the famous cathedral about 60 miles to the southwest of … Continue reading
If modernists ran the NFL
To rev ourselves up for the Patriots and the Rams in the Super Bowl this weekend, here is what the game of football might be like if it were run by modernists. In “Driehaus prize goes to Culot” I noted … Continue reading
Posted in Architecture, Humor, Uncategorized
Tagged Football, Football Regulations, Mercedes Benz Stadium, Super Bowl, Women in Football
5 Comments
The mods’ survival explained
They cut the feedback loop. Nobody has done a better job of explaining the persistence of modern architecture than does Roger Scruton in his review of James Stevens Curl’s new book, Making Dystopia. In his review, Scruton sums up with … Continue reading
