Author Archives: David Brussat

Unknown's avatar

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.

Klaustoon pricks Pritzkers

Here’s the latest Klaustoon, by Klaus, which heaps ridicule on the Pritzker Prize jury in its moment of crisis when laureate-to-be Frei Otto dies the day before the announcement, three days before the death of Michael Graves, the famous PoMo … Continue reading

Posted in Architects, Architecture, Architecture History, Art and design, Humor | Tagged , , , , , | 9 Comments

More reasons to like PoMo

My headline is ironic, of course, like the column capital in the photo above that accompanies “8 Reasons You Will Also Like Postmodern Architecture in 2016.” The article, by René Boer for the website Failed Architecture, is quite a romp. … Continue reading

Posted in Architects, Architecture, Architecture Education, Architecture History, Art and design, Humor, Urbanism and planning | 2 Comments

Bedford Falls or Pottersville?

I saw George Bailey in Bedford Falls and Pottersville last night. You don’t see It’s a Wonderful Life on television as much as you used to. The film’s copyright lapsed for 20 years beginning in 1974. Last night I saw … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture, Architecture History, Art and design, Book/Film Reviews, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

This year’s icy ice hotel

Some perversity inspires me this morning (Merry Christmas! though it’s in the 60s) to take readers to the Ice Hotel at Jukkasjärvi, 200 miles North of the Arctic Circle. My wife, Victoria, has often expressed a desire to stay there, … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture, Art and design, Development, Humor, Photography, Video | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Form, function and Sullivan

Am plunging into a 1956 softcover copy of Louis Sullivan’s The Autobiography of an Idea, first published in the early ’20s. The introduction to this edition by University of Illinois architecture professor Ralph Marlowe Line, written with the well-known forward … Continue reading

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

Semes on Paris and our cities

Steven Semes, head of the Rome program for the school of Architecture at the University of Notre Dame, and the author of The Future of the Past (one of my bibles) has written a long and, I am sure, brilliant … Continue reading

Posted in Architects, Architecture, Architecture Education, Architecture History, Art and design, Development, Other countries, Preservation, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Christmas card community

Tom Low responded to a request on TradArch from architect Steve Mouzon for comment, thumbs up or down, on a new neighborhood in Bentonville, Ark., featured in Architect magazine, voice of the AIA (which traditionally hates traditional architecture). Low replied … Continue reading

Posted in Architects, Architecture, Architecture Education, Architecture History, Art and design, Development, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Lovely house on N.J. coast

David Rau has sent to TradArch his sketch of a house he has designed along the intercoastal waterway of New Jersey. I am assuming that the grayed-out structures to the left and the rear are the neighbors of the eventual … Continue reading

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

So sue me, Louis, I like it

Matthew Hardy sends to TradArch a video flacking a newly constructed house, said to be the world’s most expensive new house, called Le Château Louis XIV. And it looks like Versailles. And it’s near Paris. And I like it. So … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture, Architecture History, Art and design, Landscape Architecture, Other countries, Video | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

‘Modernism’s back!’ said he!

Here’s a great addition to my collection of articles that damn modernism in its own defense. This one says pretty much the opposite of what the headline says and what the writer, David Hay, wants to believe. “Why Modernism Came … Continue reading

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