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.

Wherefore art thou, Corbuseo?

Correspondent Malcolm Millais, author of Exploding the Myths of Modern Architecture (2009) has sent me a 29-minute BBC clip of a radio show, “Great Lives,” starring the modernist Sir David Chipperfield rattling on about Le Corbusier, one of, no, perhaps … Continue reading

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Helluva Helvetica

Helvetica is a 2007 documentary about the Helvetica typeface that is brutally honest about its subject. After half an hour drooling over its simplicity and how it took over the world in just a couple of minutes after its introduction … Continue reading

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The birth of classical architecture

Theories of how classical architecture sprang from a wood hut seem plausible enough. Some gradual progression was obviously involved. But somehow, when rendered in the form of a step-by-step history, however evocatively illustrated, it seems to lose all plausibility, elucidating … Continue reading

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April 7, 2005: Architecture and haute couture

A comment from Thomas Hayes about my last post, “‘Wrong Way’ Corrigan Public Library,” called to mind that I’d once compared, in my Providence Journal column, architecture and fashion design. Here, as a “Blast from the Past,” is that column, … Continue reading

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“Wrong Way” Corrigan Public Library

Dale Thompson has retired after 25 years as executive director of the Providence Public Library. I make no comment on her accomplishments, except to note that over that span she – and the library’s board – oversaw the renovation of … Continue reading

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Julius Shulman shot modernism

Don’t I wish! The architectural photographer in fact probably did more to promote and then to revive modern architecture than anyone after it was briefly sidetracked by postmodernism. Above is perhaps Shulman’s most iconic photograph, of the Stahl House overlooking … Continue reading

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FLW on Corbu – Let’s you and him fight!

Here’s Frank Lloyd Wright taking a poke at Le Corbusier. Much fun, with the Great Man’s insecurities, if that is what they were, exposed. But still no cape. Maybe Corbu swiped it. Here’s the vid on YouTube. Hey, what’s Ludwig … Continue reading

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No style war at the North Pole!

A stroll, or troll, on the Internet in search of imagery depicting Santa’s workshop at the North Pole dredged up a host of theories, some of the mind, some of the commercial imagination. The commander in chief is away this … Continue reading

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Bad Mad Men

See them (the bad mad men) lurking in the background? Please don’t remove the foreground (the bad mad, often angry, women)! So here’s Dan Bishop, production designer for Mad Men, describing (I think in Dwell magazine, as my source seems … Continue reading

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Illustrations for “Paradise Planned” column

Here are illustrations for today’s column, published earlier, called “Garden suburbs as ‘Paradise Planned.’ ” Eventually they will appear with the Journal’s online version of the column as they once did with my old blog, and will be linked weekly … Continue reading

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