Category Archives: Architecture

Cameron on Penn Station

Posted on May 21, 2015 by David Brussat

Richard Cameron, of the Brooklyn firm of Atelier & Co., went on Brian Lehrer’s TV interview show yesterday to discuss the great proposal to rebuild Penn Station. Lehrer leads Cameron through the thickets of how and why Penn Station can … Continue reading →

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Shubow shellacks Lamster

Posted on May 21, 2015 by David Brussat

The latest piece by National Civic Art Society president Justin Shubow for Forbes.com, “Why Can’t the New Urbanists Get a Fair Shake?,” is less a defense of the New Urbanism than an attack on Dallas Morning News architecture critic Mark … Continue reading →

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The Skeffingtonian legacy?

Posted on May 19, 2015 by David Brussat

Sunday, during a jog, the chief new owner of the Pawtucket Red Sox had a heart attack. Jim Skeffington’s death – may he rest in peace – thrusts his plan to move the PawSox to Providence into deep shadow. The … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Art and design, Development, Providence, Rhode Island | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Speer’s Berlin described

Posted on May 18, 2015 by David Brussat

Here is another passage from Fatherland, a novel whose plot unfolds almost two decades after Germany has won World War II in 1946. The Fatherland stretches east of Moscow; most of Western Europe that is not part of the new … Continue reading →

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Michael Palin on London

Posted on May 17, 2015 by David Brussat

Here’s another passage, this one from Diaries, 1969-1979: The Python Years, about development trends in London. Sadly, this is from 43 years ago. I wonder what Palin would think about the same subject today. Friday, Oct. 27, 1972. From the … Continue reading →

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Ghosts at a school for girls

Posted on May 17, 2015 by David Brussat

Reading a novel by Robert Harris called Fatherland, published in 1992, about a Berlin detective who gets caught up in crimes, circa 1964, arising from the protection of deep secrets in a Germany that had not lost World War II, … 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 →

Posted in Architects, Architecture, Art and design, Development | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

Your computer’s architecture

Posted on May 15, 2015 by David Brussat

I have a difficult time finding user-friendly architecture to write about, so let me write about the user-friendliness of computer word programs. In fact, the writing has already been done, not for me but by me, back in 1988, the … 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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Naked Times Square, cont.

Posted on May 14, 2015 by David Brussat

This blog, bloviating before its vacation, wondered whether anyone could tell what is underneath the electronic billboards of Times Square. Close examination suggests that few if any buildings there warrant exposure from billboard removal. The clear fact is that the … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Architecture History, Art and design, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , | 2 Comments