Author Archives: David Brussat

Unknown's avatar

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.

One of Fallows’s small cities?

James Fallows, a longtime writer for The Atlantic, gave the keynote address at today’s Power of Place Summit, held every couple of years by Grow Smart Rhode Island, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary. With wife Deborah, Fallows has written … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

James on Ruskin’s Venice

In addition to narratives of place in his novels, Henry James wrote much about his personal travels, including visits to Venice, to which I’ve had the pleasure of a single blissful visit. The excerpts I’ve taken from his writing on … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Mittell on Smith’s Bulfinch

My old friend and former Journal colleague David A. (“D.A.”) Mittell Jr. has written an account of the Duxbury, Massachusetts, firm of Campbell Smith Architects, which won a Bulfinch in the category of residential construction under 5,000 square feet in … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The 2018 Bulfinch winners

Winners of the eighth annual Charles Bulfinch awards include the new residential colleges at Yale designed by Robert Stern Architects. That is the most significant project of classical architecture in America in recent years, and possibly for years to come. … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Fane tower versus beauty

Charles Denby is a Barrington doctor who has allied himself with the push for more art and sculpture in Providence. He doesn’t see why Providence should not have some major iconic work of art such as The Little Mermaid in … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture, Development | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Roman Forum, live, at night

Above is how the Roman Forum might look at night today if it had never degenerated into ruins since the empire, or if it had been reconstructed as it was at the apogee of its ancient fame. The work, by … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Krier: Ruins and discontents

Since we are still on our reconstruction roll, here is an excellent essay by Leon Krier, architectural theorist and master planner of Prince Charles’s new town of Poundbury. It was originally intended as an introduction to The Roman Forum: A … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture, Preservation | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Zoo’s next stop: Houston

“Next stop: the Amazon” reads the headline on today’s front-page story in the Providence Journal about the new South American Rainforest exhibit and its clichéd design, so out of step with the historical character of the zoo and its host, … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture, Video | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Rebuild Aristotle’s Lyceum

In 1996, as construction workers cleared a site in downtown Athens for the foundations of a new Museum of Modern Art, they found traces of a large structure sitting on the bedrock. A building had occupied this same spot some … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Rebuild the Roman Forum

Last October I described a master’s thesis on how to plan for a restoration of the Roman Forum – center of civic life in the capital of the Roman empire. The author, Eric Stalheim, was the first graduate of the … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture, Preservation, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 15 Comments