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.

Column: Bill Warner, due diligence and history

The Rhode Island Senate has passed legislation, Senate Bill No. 2255, to rename State Bridge No. 1181 — known as the Providence River Bridge — as the William D. Warner Memorial Bridge. Perhaps, in the waning days of this session … Continue reading

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What young people want

Jenny Bevan, of the Charleston, S.C., architecture firm Bevan & Liberatos, has written a brilliant critique of the proposed new building for the Clemson University school of architecture in the historic section of Charleston. Bevan is a graduate of both … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture, Architecture Education, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Cayalá coming along

Here’s a detailed report from INTBAU, the International Network for Traditional Building, Architecture & Urbanism, on Cayalá, the new traditional town in Guatemala. Its master plan was the work of Lèon Krier and the major civic building, its Athenaeum, was designed … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture, Development, Other countries, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Renzo Piano, constrained

A friend sent me from HuffPost this image of a new “building” in Paris by starchitect Renzo Piano (what a name!), sure that it would raise my dander sky high. But while the structure certainly confirms the stupidity of modern architecture, … Continue reading

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Human scale in Providence

Tonight I saw the documentary The Human Scale, about the work of Jan Gehl, a Dane who has sought, as I put it in last night’s post, to undo some of the damage done by modernism to the space between … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture, Blast from past, Providence, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

The Providence conference

Here is an e-mail I posted just now to the TradArch and Pro-Urb listservs, discussion groups that have for three or four days now been chewing on my last column, “Modernism invades New Urbanism,” along with architect David Rau’s cri … Continue reading

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See ‘The Human Scale’

That is a documentary film about the work of Jan Gehl, a Danish architect whose idea of “Life Between Buildings” encapsulates his desire, apparently, to undo some of the harm that modern planning and design have done to cities over … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture Education, Development, Providence, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Column: Modernism invades New Urbanism

The New Urbanism is really the old urbanism guided by principles of human scale, residential density, proximity and walkability. Before World War II, cities, towns and villages got built and grew over time with few rules. Builders used forms and … Continue reading

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The Frick’s future

Plans emerged yesterday for an expansion of the Frick Collection. an addition reverent, it seems, in its devotion to the sensibility of the mansion built in 1913-14 for Henry Clay Frick by Carrere & Hastings, expanded by John Russell Pope … Continue reading

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Blast: Memories of Seaside

Here is a column I did after visiting Seaside, Fla., the first showcase project of the Congress for the New Urbanism: If only we could clone Seaside December 13, 2001 SEASIDE, Fla. JAMES KUNSTLER writes of approaching Seaside, on Florida’s … Continue reading

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