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.

House of (52,000) Cards

Here’s something from CBS Evening News involving architecture – a Harvard grad named Bryan Berg who builds houses of cards. He may not have (as he admits) a full deck but he certainly uses more than one of them to … Continue reading

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Costly design in Pyongyang

It appears that the architect of Terminal 2 of North Korea’s international airport, Ma Won Chun, was executed because the Dear Leader failed to appreciate the design. This according to “Kim Jong Un EXECUTES airport architect because he did not … Continue reading

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Cellini: Pearls before duchess

In the Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini (1500-1572) he discusses fighting and money a lot. Designing the settings for jewelry – his craft as a goldsmith and sometime sculptor – is the topic to which, after fighting and money, he has … Continue reading

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Helsinki Gugg goes glug glug

After all that jumping up and down, with 1,715 entries from around the world, the competition to design Guggenheim Helsinki has coughed up a winner, by Paris-based Moreau Kusunoki Architectes, of decidedly modest design, “an indistinct jumble of pavilions faced … Continue reading

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Ugly Belgian House blog!

I just spent some good quality time with the Ugly Belgian Houses blog. Its originator, who self-identifies only as “@hannes_BHC,” has only this to say to explain the blog: “Because most Belgian houses suck. Even mine. Seriously. My English sucks … Continue reading

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A Pritzker for Graves?

A curious piece in ArchDaily.com wonders “Why Michael Graves Should Have Won the Pritzker.” After reading it I felt so whipsawed back and forth that I had to read it again to see if it really said what I thought … Continue reading

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Klaustoon: Pimp my Warsaw

It looks like Warsaw, which during Poland’s communist era restored the beauty of central Warsaw after the wreckage left by the Nazis, is selling itself the rope with which to hang itself. Is this what Poland jettisoned communism for? At … Continue reading

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“Now that’s resiliency!”

Michael Mehaffy, an architectural theorist from Portland, Ore., who often collaborates with mathematician and fellow theorist Nikos Salingaros on treatises combining issues of design with those of science, has sent a lovely photograph he just snapped yesterday of the tallest … Continue reading

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Newport and its discontents

The Providence Journal has published an AP story called “Spat over Newport’s Vanderbilt family mansion, The Breakers, gets public and nasty.” The story concerns a proposed welcome center at The Breakers, but is really about how the Preservation Society of … Continue reading

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How to make cities better

I spent the early morning hours today wondering what I could do to make cities more beautiful. Then I got up, went to my computer, and found this marvelous video of 14 minutes, “How to Make an Attractive City,” made, … Continue reading

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