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.

Long shots of Providence

Everyone’s filling out their wuddayacallits, the basketball thingies. President Obama did it. Well, Providence is hosting the regional NCAA semifinals, or did so this past weekend, whatever. I’m not sure how the Friars made out, but here are some even … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture, Architecture History, Art and design, Landscape Architecture, Photography, Preservation, Providence, Rhode Island, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Silence for S.W. Pavilion

For about an hour tomorrow afternoon may be spent in silence for a good cause – sitting mute at a meeting to save the Southwest Pavilion. This is the oldest survivor from the day when Rhode Island Hospital looked like … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture, Architecture History, Art and design, Development, Preservation, Providence, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Mehaffy on why we rebuild

A retrograde opinion by a thinker of apparently native good sense can generate a cavalcade of truths from another thinker in response. Thus we have Michael Mehaffy’s response to Duo Dickinson’s curious “Sprinting to the Past,” against the idea of … Continue reading

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

Froma vs. NYT on towers

The irrepressible Froma Harrop, my former colleague at the Providence Journal who has started a news/culture website, Silk Stocking, for Manhattan’s Upper East Side, has taken on the New York Times. Taking aim at its editorial of March 11, “Saving … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture, Art and design, Development, Preservation, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

VidSmartRI on Providence

Grow Smart Rhode Island has produced a short video, “PVD: Personality. Vitality. Distinction,” about the charms of the Ocean State’s capital city. It begins looking downriver along the Providence from an abandoned water taxi stop near the new Crawford Street … Continue reading

Posted in Architects, Architecture, Architecture History, Art and design, Development, I-195 Redevelopment District, Providence, Rhode Island, Urbanism and planning, Video | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Please hit ‘follow’ for blog

The gatekeepers are still trying to frog-march my blog out of your inbox. I have not sent forth this reminder for a while. Until my email server quits intercepting my bulk posts under the (false) suspicion that they are spam, … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture, Humor | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Breuer Whitney/Met Breuer

The Met Breuer opened today. It is the Brutalist building that the Whitney Museum of American Art left before moving last year into a building designed for it by Renzo Piano in New York’s Meatpacking District. The Metropolitan Museum of … Continue reading

Posted in Architects, Architecture, Architecture Education, Architecture History, Art and design, Development, Preservation, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Gird Penn Station’s rebuild

Connecticut architect Duo Dickinson, who writes regularly on architecture, often critical of modernism, has just written “Sprinting to the Past” in Common/Edge. He rails against Brooklyn architect Richard Cameron’s proposal to rebuild Penn Station as Charles Follen McKim designed it in … Continue reading

Posted in Architects, Architecture, Architecture Education, Architecture History, Art and design, Development, Preservation, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Video: ‘Windy City Nights’

This splendid video from Vimeo by Max Wilson of chicagotimelapse.org, called “Chicago: Windy City Nights,” shows off Chicago in much (if not all) of its glory. Chicago is the city of my birth and is considered a mecca amongst architects, … Continue reading

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What in blazes is that!?

My friend and mapmeister Cliff Vanover sent me the above photo of … heck if I know! He says it sits in Little Compton – Little Compton! – just west of Route 77 near the entrance to the Sakonnet Vineyards, … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture, Art and design, Development, Humor, Landscape Architecture | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments