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.

Fundamentally insecure

After reading my blog post on the destruction of Mecca, Nikos Salingaros sent me Chapter 9 from his book A Theory of Architecture, in which, writing with Michael Mehaffy, he describes modern architecture as a phenomenon parallel to religious fundamentalism. … Continue reading

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Kismet, but not in Mecca

Kismet. A useful word. Taking a break yesterday from the authorship of a blog post on the destruction of Mecca by modern architecture, I went downstairs, made myself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and turned on the television. I … Continue reading

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The destruction of Mecca

Kudos to Erik Bootsma for posting this New York Times oped to the TradArch list. Written by Ziauddin Sardar, The Destruction of Mecca describes the transformation of Mecca, of all places, into a modernist hellhole – led not by Western … Continue reading

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Steven Semes on Henry Reed

Steven Semes, author of The Future of the Past and the newly appointed chairman of the new graduate preservation program at the architecture school of the University of Notre Dame, was supposed to speak at Saturday’s symposium honoring Henry Hope … Continue reading

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Henry Reed’s Philadelphia II

Here are more shots from Philadelphia, not all of which will be strictly to the taste of Henry Hope Reed, the honoree of a symposium held at the Franklin Inn Club there on Saturday. The photo above shows the late … Continue reading

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Henry Reed’s Philadelphia

Your far-flung correspondent was in Philadelphia (five-hour train ride) to attend, speak at and report on the Henry Hope Reed legacy symposium sponsored by the city’s chapter of the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art. It was a delightful and … Continue reading

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Henry Reed in Providence

Here, as part of this blog’s Blast from the Past feature, is a column from more than a decade ago when Henry Hope Reed visited Providence. The tourmaster got a tour from yours truly. Tomorrow, Philadelphia will host a symposium … Continue reading

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Column: A Henry Hope Reed chrestomathy

One of my favorite books is A Mencken Chrestomathy, H.L. Mencken’s own favorite essays by himself (a chrestomathy being a selection of choice literary passages, often intended to teach a language). Reading Mencken, who wrote for the Baltimore Sun in … Continue reading

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Separated at birth?

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Norman Foster, separated at birth! Just look at them. Nose? Check. Eyes? Check? Chin? Check. A pair of suits with a yen to gesticulate. But on the other hand, maybe not. One was old … Continue reading

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Hawthorne and architecture

In his masterpiece (and my bible) The Golden City (1959), Henry Hope Reed cites a character, Holgrave, from Hawthorne’s House of Seven Gables, in describing early attitudes toward innovation in architecture. He has Holgrave, a daguerrotypist, say to his inamorata, … Continue reading

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