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.

“Unfinished New York”

The journal Places has a long and fascinating essay by Belmont Freeman (a New York name for you!) called “Unfinished New York.” He is a columnist for Places and an architect in private practice in the city, no doubt a … Continue reading

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

Will Stirling quote Wren?

Take all the nominees for the Carbuncle Cup – a British contest for the year’s worst architecture – and all the nominees for the Pritzker Prize and its British equivalent, the Sterling Prize. Mix thoroughly. Now separate the buildings to … Continue reading

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“Never fear, Prov. is here!”

Apropos of apparently nothing in particular beyond the sheer deliciousness of it, the Providence Journal’s longtime food critic Gail Ciampa wrote a piece in today’s paper on movies where Rhode Island scenery shines. “Check it out: Five Hollywood movies that … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture, Architecture History, Art and design, Blast from past, Book/Film Reviews, Humor, Providence, Providence Journal, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Names of feelings we’ve felt

The article “23 Emotions We all Feel But Don’t Know the Names of” is a list of made-up words for inchoate or unsettling thoughts we’ve all had (mostly). It is quite interesting, more in the feelings author Bobby Popovic identifies … Continue reading

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Fie on a million years!

For his latest piece in CityLab, “Making the Case for Symmetrical Cities,” peripatetic architecture critic Anthony Flint, housed at the Lincoln Institute in Cambridge, does a very nice job adding up the evidence for the superiority of classical and traditional … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture, Architecture Education, Architecture History, Art and design, Books and Culture, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Architect, bury your mistake

Yesterday I ran some passages from the late critic Lewis Mumford and thought I recalled having written a column on him years ago after reading a biography. I cannot find it. But here is one column from June 1994 in … Continue reading

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Mumford’s words of warning

Here is a passage from Lewis Mumford’s essay “The Case Against ‘Modern Architecture’” in the April 1962 issue of Architectural Record: In so far as modern architecture has succeeded in expressing modern life, it has done better in calling attention … Continue reading

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

Downtown living tour, 2015

This year’s Downtown Living Tour, operated genially, as usual, by Joelle Kanter of the Providence Foundation, is on Saturday, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. By shuttle and pedicab – Sol Chariots have become a delightful fixture locally – you can … Continue reading

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Portland’s imposing Old Port

Portland’s Old Port Exchange district was bustling with tourists on Sunday morning as Billy and I drove up and down its streets in search of parking. Finding no place, we ended up touring Congress Street on foot instead, taking too … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture, Architecture History, Art and design, Blast from past, Development, I-195 Redevelopment District, Photography, Preservation, Providence, Urbanism and planning, Video | Leave a comment

Portland’s revival booms

Two decades after my first visit to Portland in 1994, its enviable vitality seems to defy comparison with that of Providence. Portland is not its state capital anymore – not since 1832, when, 12 years after achieving statehood, the capital … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture, Architecture History, Art and design, Development, Photography, Preservation, Providence, Rhode Island, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments