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.

Dupre’s 1 WTC on 9/11 15th

Today is the 15th anniversary of 9/11. The nation has handled poorly both the rebuilding of Ground Zero and the memorialization of the attack, its victims, its brave first responders, and the nation’s anguish, which has barely abated, or so … Continue reading

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Build the boulevard anyway

Governor Raimondo has stepped into the debate here in Providence over how to rebuild the aging 6-10 Connector, which carries traffic into downtown from parts west. The state originally wanted to build a complex version of Boston’s Big Dig, but … Continue reading

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Rethinking Homs’s future

Last April, Roger Scruton wrote an essay on an architect in Syria who hopes to help plan her wrecked hometown’s future. I posted Scruton’s essay on my blog, titled “Scruton, Haussmann, Syria.” The reference to Haussmann, who is responsible for … Continue reading

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Mixing work with pleasure

It is Labor Day, so permit me to combine work with pleasure. What follows are lines from the experience of the bastard London bookbinder Hyacinth Robinson, who has just signed on to a vague role in a hazy future socialist … Continue reading

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The saga of plaster casts

Andrew Reed, nephew of the late, esteemed Henry Hope Reed, the nation’s first bare-knuckled (yet elegant and erudite) opponent of “the Modern,” has sent in some remarks regarding a story in the New York Times, “Move Over Marble: Plaster Gets … Continue reading

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Krier on the people’s choice

Leon Krier argues that people should be permitted to prefer architecture they like, and dismisses modernists who browbeat the public for the alleged ignorance it expresses in disliking their work. His latest piece in BD, Britain’s building design journal, is … Continue reading

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J&W’s engineering error

Johnson & Wales University is about to open up its new engineering facility, named for its chancellor, John Bowen. It will be the first building on land vacated by the relocation of Route 195 to the south of downtown. Providence … Continue reading

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Decent guys as architects

Rural Studio is an architectural outfit in Alabama that strives to produce houses for $20,000. The website Misfits’ Architecture posted on Rural Studio recently, listing the small, affordable houses by major firms and architects that cost more, often much, much … Continue reading

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“Rear Window” trailer trash

Here is a marvelous set of factoids from the website Mental Floss, called “12 Thrilling Facts about ‘Rear Window,” the 1954 movie starring Jimmy Stewart and Grace Kelly, who investigate a murder through his rear window. And I will assure … Continue reading

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Hellblog: To quoin a frieze

I am about to place a new blog on my “Blogs I Follow” list. It is the blog of the British architectural cartoonist Louis Hellman, called “Hellblog,” and comes to me from Malcolm Millais, the irrepressible author of Exploding the … Continue reading

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