Category Archives: Architects

BIG copies the future!

Posted on June 12, 2015 by David Brussat

It is alleged that Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), the architect selected to design 2 World Trade Center, has engaged in copying the future. Mary Campbell Gallagher, the redoubtable defender of Paris against skyscrapers via SOS Paris, observes that Ingels’s 2 … Continue reading →

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Update on Gehry Ike design

Posted on June 11, 2015 by David Brussat

A press release summarizing the proposed U.S. House of Representatives’ appropriations bill for several departments says it zeros out funding for the Eisenhower Memorial Commission. According to Justin Shubow, president of the National Civic Art Society, Congress has eliminated federal … Continue reading →

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Ungainly BIG steps skyward

Posted on June 10, 2015 by David Brussat

Rumors of BIG’s taking the 2 World Trade Center job from Sir Norman Foster erupted as news today. Silverstein Properties, the owner of the WTC site, has hired Bjarke Ingels Group and has released a video to instruct the rest … Continue reading →

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7 brides for 7 buttheads

Posted on June 5, 2015 by David Brussat

A breathtakingly gargantuan amount of balderdash was published by the New York Times today in “Seven Leading Architects Defend the World’s Most Hated Buildings.” The architects have all talked to Alexandra Lange. The first is the hardest sell – the … Continue reading →

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Allan Greenberg’s classicism

Posted on June 5, 2015 by David Brussat

While the contagion of “global architecture” today dilutes the individual character of our cities, turning them into bland collections of interchangeable buildings, we now have voices offering a fresh choice: classical architecture based on local traditions and ideals. With the … Continue reading →

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Save the Four Seasons!

Posted on May 20, 2015 by David Brussat

The owners of the famous Four Seasons restaurant in the famous Seagram Building want to renovate its Pool Room. No less an eminento than Robert A.M. Stern, America’s only classical starchitect, writes to defend its modern design. His piece is … Continue reading →

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A memorial contest for WWI

Posted on May 16, 2015 by David Brussat

An international competition will be held to design a memorial for World War I – the only major U.S. conflict without a national monument on the Mall. The memorial would not be federally funded. The $20 million or so cost … Continue reading →

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“Why is Boston so ugly?”

Posted on May 15, 2015 by David Brussat

That’s the question asked by Rachel Slade in Boston magazine. Her answer is that developers don’t hire enough Thom Maynes or Renzo Pianos. The real answer is that developers hire too many Thom Mayne and Renzo Piano wannabes, and that … Continue reading →

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The Fountainhead of Youth

Posted on May 7, 2015 by David Brussat

Padriac Steinschneider, honcho of the New York chapter of the Congress of the New Urbanism, was as miffed as I was by the reflections of the Dallas Morning News architecture critic Mark Lamster on the CNU proceedings at Dallas last … Continue reading →

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BIG kicks Foster off 2 WTC?

Posted on May 5, 2015 by David Brussat

The idea that the developers of the 2 WTC megalith – the last major skyscraper of the World Trade Center rebuild – might send Sir Norman Foster packing delights me. The idea of booting the architect even as his tower … Continue reading →

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