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.

Tour the national classical

I grew up in Washington, D.C., and credit its robust and abundant classical and traditional architecture – the buildings themselves, not my upbringing among them – for my own taste in the architecture of civic beauty. I have no idea … Continue reading

Posted in Architects, Architecture, Architecture Education, Architecture History, Art and design, Preservation, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Inside ProvModPedBridge

The Rhode Island Department of Transportation has announced a slight advance in the schedule for getting design, bidding and construction of the modernist pedestrian bridge that will (?) link two parks and the east and west parcels of development land … Continue reading

Posted in Architects, Architecture, Art and design, Development, Landscape Architecture, Providence, Providence Journal, Rhode Island, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Scalia rules on Mudd Hall

As if from the grave, the late Antonin Scalia has reached out to rule against the late Mudd Hall, at Washington University in St. Louis, replaced 19 years ago by a beautiful new law school building. Not unrelatedly, today would … Continue reading

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Better ideas not worse, pls!

Yesterday I sent in my monthly blog post for Traditional Building magazine, and today I’m thinking, well, I left out some really important stuff. My TB post was a reply to TB’s Forum in which the architectural historian Paul A. … Continue reading

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Walking in Zaha’s shoes

Here is my monthly blog post from the last issue of Traditional Building. The post was written shortly after the passing of Dame Zaha Hadid, one of my least favorite architects. “Walking in modernist shoes: Zaha Hadid” was my attempt … Continue reading

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My Jane Jacobs river tour

Wednesday would be the 100th birthday of Jane Jacobs if she had not died in 2006. Saturday at 1 p.m. is my third tour of Providence’s new riverfront for Jane’s Walk, the international conspiracy to spread her urbanist wisdom around … Continue reading

Posted in Architects, Architecture, Architecture Education, Architecture History, Books and Culture, Development, Landscape Architecture, Preservation, Providence, Providence Journal, Rhode Island, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Trump’s towering penis envy

Trump – the Donald, that is, our president wannabe – owns several tall buildings. I will not attempt here to say how tall or how many. His website shows quite a number, but other sources make it more clear that … Continue reading

Posted in Architects, Architecture, Architecture History, Art and design, Development, Humor, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , | 7 Comments

Hart’s humanist architecture

The Lincoln Memorial – The dignity humanity, and success of a man framed in classical virtue, reminding us of how much we’ve forgotten about building monuments. [Sketches by Albrecht Pichler] Robert Lamb Hart has sent me A New Look at … Continue reading

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Epiphany in Stuttgart

My brother, his wife Sabrina and her two sons stayed a stretch in Germany for treatment of the two sons’ Lyme disease – successful treatment, by the way. They were in Stuttgart when Tony, a noted philosopher of the mind/body/nature continuum, … Continue reading

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Scruton, Haussmann, Syria

The British philosopher and architectural theorist Roger Scruton, whose 1995 book The Classical Vernacular is one of my bibles, has recently written “Rebuilding a new Syria without the divisions” for The Times of London. Syria’s history as a French protectorate … Continue reading

Posted in Architects, Architecture, Architecture Education, Architecture History, Art and design, Book/Film Reviews, Books and Culture, Development, Other countries, Preservation, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment