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.

Froma Harrop: Don’t bury our cities in megatowers

An excellent rattling of sabres at megatowers was published in Sunday’s Providence Journal by Froma Harrop, my former colleague on the paper’s editorial board. Froma writes a twice-weekly syndicated column for Creators Syndicate on the full panoply of issues in … Continue reading

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

Buildings that kill people

I didn’t want to be the first to say this. Thankfully now Lance Hosey, chief sustainability officer and a principal of the design firm Perkins Eastman, has written “Buildings That Kill.” His piece ran yesterday on CommonEdge.org. He is identified … Continue reading

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

Slice of Camelot lost to fire

Last Thursday, Newport’s famous Bellevue Avenue lost its Stoner Lodge, across from Château-sur-Mer, to a fire probably caused by an accident resulting from its ongoing extensive renovation. The lodge was sold by the daughter of socialite Noreen Drexel in 2012. … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture, Architecture History, Art and design, Preservation | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Glide over St. Petersburg

This astonishing video, posted on Kuriositas, of Russia’s capital under the czars is called “If You Never Wanted to Visit St. Petersburg, You Will After Watching This.” St. Petersburg recently celebrated its 300th anniversary as a city – it is … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture, Architecture History, Art and design, Other countries, Photography, Urbanism and planning, Video | Tagged , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Glide through Angkor Wat

The website Kuriositas has a five-minute film of Angkor Wat, the Hindu-turned-Buddhist temple ruins in Cambodia. Filmmaker Tyler Fairbank, based in New York, shot the film using glidecam technology. The ruins seen in “The Temples of Angkor” and originally built … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture, Architecture Education, Architecture History, Art and design, Blast from past, Other countries, Urbanism and planning, Video | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Nice public comfort stations

Paris always had great places to take a leak. New York’s public restrooms at Bryant Park, outside of the New York Public Library, also astonish us (today) that so much effort was made to celebrate the accomplishment of our most … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture, Architecture History, Art and design, Other countries, Photography, Preservation, Providence, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Tip me over! Faster! Faster!

A proposed new megatower is planned in China’s Pearl River delta. The city is not named in either the Curbed or the Building Design & Construction articles, perhaps because the city will not exist until the building is finished. It … Continue reading

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Calatrava’s dinosaur

Next week, starchitect Santiago Calatrava’s dinosaur of a transportation hub will open at Ground Zero in Lower Manhattan. The cost, mostly in federal dollars, was $4 billion for the station and its Oculus, a sculptural – or, really, sepulchral – … Continue reading

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Renovating Castle Lyndon

Here is a set of passages from William Makepeace Thackeray’s Barry Lyndon, which I am reading for the first time after seeing the movie, directed by Stanley Kubrick in a sort of cinematic slo-mo. The novel is an extended exercise … Continue reading

Posted in Architects, Architecture, Architecture Education, Architecture History, Art and design, Book/Film Reviews, Books and Culture, Humor, Interior Design, Preservation | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Oh, to be in, um, China!

It seems the People’s Republic of China has finally followed through on its maximum leader’s threat a year and a half ago to bar goofiness from its architecture. I penned a post, “Xi a Chinese visionary?” expressing my pleasure, or … Continue reading

Posted in Architects, Architecture, Architecture Education, Architecture History, Art and design, Development, Humor, Other countries, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment