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.

Shots of China, Bhutan

Monday I was invited for a sail out of the Bristol Yacht Club with Michael Gerhardt, recently the temporary director of the Providence Athenaeum, and his friend Ken Gaus. The day was lovely and the wind was low – at … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture, Architecture History, Books and Culture, Landscape Architecture, Other countries, Photography, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

St. Florian does Parcel 12

Disappointment has generally reigned over the proposal by First Bristol to erect a hotel on Parcel 12 in downtown Providence. It has neither enough traditional chops nor the unabashed modernist ugliness to emerge from the slough of suburban schlock. But … Continue reading

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Lovely N’Awlins proposal

Michael Rouchell, a New Orleans architect who frequently participates in the TradArch conversation, sent this design of his for an apartment building there. In allure, it is far and away beyond anything that has been proposed in Providence for decades. … Continue reading

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“No tears for tankies”

Here, from way out in total left field, is something completely off the radar of this blog. Yet I found it so perversely fascinating that I had to post. Last time I posted on a subject from the Charnel-House blog, … Continue reading

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Modernist GMO architecture

Yesterday evening I had the pleasure of appearing on WPRO’s Coalition Radio with Pat Ford and David Fisher (6 p.m. Saturdays, 630 AM and 99.5 FM). I was preceded on the air by Elizabeth Guardia of Right to Know RI, … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture, Architecture History, Art and design, Books and Culture, Rhode Island | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

See Paris while it lasts

Many years ago I marveled at the Art Deco building that houses La Samaritaine department store along the Seine. And I recall eating at the café behind the giant letters on top. That end of the building will survive, at … Continue reading

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

Xroads for Prov ped bridge?

Pressure to delay or even kill the proposed Providence River pedestrian bridge has reached such a level that news of it has been reported in the Providence Journal. “The oft-delayed pedestrian bridge over the Providence River, to connect the city’s … Continue reading

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Updating Gehry’s Ike again

Roll Call, the newspaper of Capitol Hill, has a detailed report out on the situation facing the proposed memorial for Dwight Eisenhower designed by Frank Gehry. “House Appropriators Call for ‘Reset’ on Eisenhower Memorial Plans” paints a picture of a … Continue reading

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Liberate drones for photos

If an argument is to be made to exempt photography from the gathering global wave of bans on the use of drones for commercial purposes, it is in “Illegal drove photos of the most beautiful places on earth,” a collection … Continue reading

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News flash! Moi on WPRO!

Get me rewrite! I will be a guest on WPRO’s “The Coalition: Radio for Independent Minds” this Saturday at 6. I will be discussing … well, let’s hear it straight from the horse’s mouth: “In our second segment,” reports the … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture, Books and Culture, Development, Providence, Rhode Island, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , | 3 Comments