Author Archives: David Brussat

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About David Brussat

This blog was begun in 2009 as a feature of the Providence Journal, where I was on the editorial board and wrote a weekly column of architecture criticism for three decades. Architecture Here and There fights the style wars for classical architecture and against modern architecture, no holds barred. History Press asked me to write and in August 2017 published my first book, "Lost Providence." I am now writing my second book. My freelance writing on architecture and other topics addresses issues of design and culture locally and globally. I am a member of the board of the New England chapter of the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art, which bestowed an Arthur Ross Award on me in 2002. I work from Providence, R.I., where I live with my wife Victoria, my son Billy and our cat Gato. If you would like to employ my writing and editing to improve your work, please email me at my consultancy, dbrussat@gmail.com, or call 401.351.0457. Testimonial: "Your work is so wonderful - you now enter my mind and write what I would have written." - Nikos Salingaros, mathematician at the University of Texas, architectural theorist and author of many books.

Paris, in danger, needs you

Here is a video, “SOS Paris: Notre capitale a besoin de nous,” running four and a half minutes of mostly still shots adding up, in a most piquant manner, to the danger facing Paris if its mayor has her way. … Continue reading

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Tom Wolfe and Henry Reed

I have been finishing up my book Lost Providence, girding my loins on the adrenaline rush of Tom Wolfe’s 1981 bestseller From Bauhaus to Our House. How to select a great passage to quote? Well, one way is to quote … Continue reading

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Bodell estate shenanigans

So, a little dip into the tall grass of small development. Question of the day: Where is the line between a major and a minor property subdivision? On Tuesday night there was again no quorum at the City Plan Commission … Continue reading

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No surrender to Gehry Ike

News that the Eisenhower family has been flipped and now supports the design of a proposed memorial to their patriarch by celebrity architect Frank Gehry is depressing, and maybe even predictable, but it’s too early for opponents of the monstrosity … Continue reading

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“We’ll always have Paris”?

Mary Campbell Gallagher is the founder of the International Coalition for the Preservation of Paris (ICPP) and continues to work with SOS Paris to save the City of Light from the barbarians already inside its gate, such as Mayor Hidalgo. … Continue reading

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Bodell subdivide on Tuesday

Just a reminder that the City Plan Commission is scheduled to have the proposed subdivision of the Bodell estate on its agenda this coming Tuesday at 4:45 p.m., at the planning department on 444 Westminster Street. The address of the … Continue reading

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Lovely Rita, meter maid!

Parking meters on blocks of shops in Providence are not only purging business. It seems as if lovely Rita the Meter Maid may be going the way of the Dodo. I hope not. Friday I drove downtown to shoot the … Continue reading

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Milwaukee’s I-195 success

Milwaukee once had a host of beer plants, including Schlitz, Pabst and Blatz, along the Milwaukee River to which hops, malt and other ingredients were shipped in and beer was shipped out by train. The beer factories closed, the Beer … Continue reading

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I-195: Subdivide & conquer

Joel VanderWeele, an architect at Union Studio in downtown Providence, has posted an excellent essay – “The I-195 Land: Subdivide & Conquer” – on the firm’s “unofficial blog.” It is about the development of the vacated Route 195 land on … Continue reading

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Charles to the battlements

With the new mayor of London applauding vigorously in the wings, Prince Charles mounted his steed again, taking on the modernists and challenging architects and developers to make new London neighborhoods with the joy and panache that made the old … Continue reading

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