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.

Monsters at gates of Paris

A riveting photo essay about public housing primarily for immigrants to France, based on an exhibit of the photography of Laurent Kronental, brings to mind the damage to the world done by founding modernist Le Corbusier. “A poetic vision of … Continue reading

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

More on WWI competition

Aram Bakshian Jr., a White House speechwriter for Richard Nixon and brother of my old friend Doug – a globetrotting freelance journalist – has written on the World War I memorial design competition. His piece, “A War Memorial Design Competition … Continue reading

Posted in Architects, Architecture, Architecture Education, Architecture History, Art and design | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Goldberger on Newport

Here is the column from 1997 about Paul Goldberger’s lecture in Newport that I refer to in my blog “Botching history in Newport.” The illustration above, which went viral online, is from an recent exhibit at the Newport Historical Society. … Continue reading

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

Botching history in Newport

In 1997, the Newport Historical Society hired Paul Goldberger, architecture critic for the New York Times at the time and then the author of The New Yorker’s storied “The Sky Line” column (and today the critic at Vanity Fair), to … Continue reading

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

Critic Moore on Zaha Hadid

Rowan Moore, the powerful British architecture critic of the powerful Guardian newspaper in Britain, has done a profile of Zaha Hadid and her life’s work thus far. Moore is not impressed, and his profile is a catalogue of the many … Continue reading

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Bizarre algorithmic design

Writing in Wired, Margaret Rhodes opines in “The Bizarre, Bony-Looking Future of Algorithmic Design” that not only titanium face implants (above) and swingarms for motorcycles but buildings will be grist for the algorithmic mill. This is called “generative design,” as … Continue reading

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Rachleff programming notes

Victoria and I attended last night’s Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra performance at Veterans Memorial Auditorium. It was a wonderful concert even though – perhaps because – we left during intermission. Not that we wanted to miss Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring,” … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture, Art and design, Books and Culture, Development, Providence, Rhode Island | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Canoe canoe, Canada?

“Canoe Canoe?” Remember that jingle from the ad for cologne back in, what, the 1970s or ’80s? Get it? Can you canoe! It rushed to mind with news that the design competition for a relocated Canadian Canoe Museum, in Peterborough, … Continue reading

Posted in Architects, Architecture, Architecture History, Art and design, Development, Urbanism and planning, Video | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Zaha bolts BBC interview

And who can blame her? Zaha Hadid was asked to explain the deaths of construction workers at the site of her vagina-like stadium in Qatar for the 2022 World Soccer Cup. At the time the charge of hundreds of deaths … Continue reading

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Architecture and friendliness

My friend Cliff Vanover just sent me a link to Travel & Leisure’s new survey on the 266 places that made it onto its list of World’s Unfriendliest Cities. The unfriendliest was Moscow. A hint of political bias, perhaps? How … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture, Art and design, Books and Culture, Other countries, Photography, Providence, Rhode Island, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment