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.

Just stumbled on this …

Just stumbled on this, which I really gotta love! I thought he was going to somehow hoist me on my own petard, but he ends up … waving my flag? At least I think so. You decide. [Several readers have noted … Continue reading

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Can’t find/afford an old house? Try this

This article by Dale Hrabi in the Wall Street Journal called to mind my dear old neighborhood in D.C. and our friends the van der Taks (three sons, Steven, Derek and Laurens, whose ages closely matched those of me and … Continue reading

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Vandalism at Corbu’s Ronchamp

How could they tell? Seriously, the Chapel of Notre-Dame du Haut at Ronchamp, with its rough texture and swoopy lines, may be the least objectionable of Le Corbusier’s buildings. Although William J.R. Curtis has more respect for the chapel than … Continue reading

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Column: World roses and raspberries for 2013

Here, from around the globe, are roses and raspberries for buildings, people and events that moved the world as we know it closer to or further from the world as we’d like it to be: • A raspberry to Lisbon … Continue reading

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See sequestered salacious montage here!

An anonymous donor responded to a challenge in an earlier post about the Chinese newspaper headquarters and the proposed soccer stadium (read it here), and sent me the above image, exclaiming that the challenge was “too easy.” The image is … Continue reading

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Save NYC’s Rizzoli bookstore

I don’t see many petitions I’m inclined to sign but I signed one just a few moments ago. It was a petition to save the building that houses the publisher Rizzoli’s flagship store in a glorious old building on West … Continue reading

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Curse of the ‘Creative Capital’

The rebranding of the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation (RIEDC) as the Rhode Island Commerce Corporation (RICC) is complete, and a complete dud. This is the government agency that’s supposed to get the state economy growing again to produce jobs … Continue reading

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“The Monster-Builder” – A play

Nikos Salingaros, the University of Texas mathematician and architectural philosopher whose most trenchant book is Anti-Architecture and Deconstruction, has sent me news of a new play by Amy Freed called “The Monster-Builder,” a play (on words) of Ibsen’s “The Master-Builder.” … Continue reading

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Blast from past: Middle way in architecture?

I here inaugurate a “Blast from the past” feature based on my newly discovered ability to find posts from my lapsed Providence Journal blog, also called Architecture Here and There. I have created a page called Archives From My Old … Continue reading

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A kiss is just a kiss … right?

One of the late Cy Twombly’s untitled paintings, a canvas entirely white, was kissed by French artist Sam Rindy, 30, leaving on the work the red imprint of her lips – the only arguably artistic thing about the painting, which … Continue reading

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