Category Archives: Architecture

Mont Saint-Michel of old

Posted on September 8, 2015 by David Brussat

On my bucket list is a visit to Mont Saint-Michel, a monestary surrounded by a village on an island just over half a mile off the coast of Lower Normandy, in France. It originated as a fort in ancient times … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Architecture History, Art and design, Books and Culture, Landscape Architecture, Other countries, Photography | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

First critique in Pawtucket

Posted on September 6, 2015 by David Brussat

Here is one of my earliest columns about a design competition, in this case to renovate an old department store into a visitors center for the City of Pawtucket. *** Promoting a Peerless Pawtucket December 4, 1992 IN PAWTUCKET, the … Continue reading →

Posted in Architects, Architecture, Architecture History, Art and design, Blast from past, Development, Preservation, Rhode Island, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

A day at the dragon races!

Posted on September 6, 2015 by David Brussat

For three years running we had just missed the dragon-boat races at the annual Pawtucket Arts Festival. This year we made it, and boy did we have fun! We saw contestants slam their cheeks pink in a watermelon-face-splat contest. We … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Architecture History, Art and design, Development, Landscape Architecture, Preservation, Rhode Island, Urbanism and planning, Video | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Google belly flops logo test

Posted on September 5, 2015 by David Brussat

Andres Duany asked TradArch listers why they “hate” Google’s new logo, assuming that most list members consider it to have been a bad move. I do not hate it. A logo change is not worthy of hatred. I dislike it, … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Architecture Education, Architecture History, Art and design | Tagged , , , , , , , | 13 Comments

Inside Kyla Coburn’s Prov

Posted on September 4, 2015 by David Brussat

Anyone who writes for a living regrets that certain topics escape him, that he fails, with no good excuse, to write about them. For me, one is the Central Falls interior designer Kyla Coburn (Kyla Coburn Designs). I’ve been familiar … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Art and design, Providence | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Betsky bags Times Square

Posted on September 3, 2015 by David Brussat

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio has stirred a crisis by suggesting that he might remove the seating from Times Square and give it back to automotive traffic. The problem is that ladies with the breasts painted fabulous colors parade … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Art and design, Development, Landscape Architecture, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Carbuncle Cup antidote

Posted on September 2, 2015 by David Brussat

Here are some photos taken just days ago by Michael Gerhardt, former interim director of the Providence Athenaeum and longtime skipper of the Pandion, anchored in Bristol. He and his wife just returned from a holiday in London and sent … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Architecture History, Other countries, Photography, Preservation, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Carbuncle Cup conundrum

Posted on September 2, 2015 by David Brussat

In Britain the Carbuncle Cup goes to the ugliest building of the year. The name recalls Prince Charles’s famous and much-beloved line, “a monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much-beloved and elegant friend,” that he applied to a proposed … Continue reading →

Posted in Architects, Architecture, Architecture Education, Architecture History, Art and design, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Artful restraint in Hartford

Posted on September 1, 2015 by David Brussat

This New York Times headline – “A New Look for the Wadsworth Atheneum” – had my neck hairs leaping to attention when I saw it in Paul Ranogajek’s email to the TradArch list yesterday. (Hats off to him!) A “new … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Architecture History, Art and design, Books and Culture, Development | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Hurricane season thoughts

Posted on August 31, 2015 by David Brussat

As we remember Hurricane Katrina, sigh in relief at Tropical Storm Erika, which took lives in the Caribbean before dissipating south of Florida, worry about Hurricane Fred as it threatens Cape Verde in the Atlantic, and ponder the three hurricanes … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Architecture Education, Architecture History, Development, Urbanism and planning, Video | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment