Category Archives: Architecture

AP fotog in Toyland

Posted on December 30, 2014 by David Brussat

Who would not want to live in this photograph? It is Bern, Switzerland. The photo, shot by Peter Klaunzer for the Associated Press, was published in today’s Providence Journal. Don’t ask me why I’ve taken two lovely city shots from … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Other countries, Photography, Providence | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Quack troops invade capital

Posted on December 28, 2014 by David Brussat

A friend and I drove through the swath of redevelopment land where Route 195 used to be. We wanted to view the new street infrastructure. We were yukking it up over the “art” when we had to stop to review … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Development, Humor, Landscape Architecture, Providence, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Between the lines of the NYT

Posted on December 27, 2014 by David Brussat

Steven Bingler and Martin Pedersen, the architect and the writer who called on architects to pay more attention to public taste, do not seem to realize it, and would probably not admit it, but their essay in the New York … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Architecture Education, Development, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Beautiful seasonal greeting

Posted on December 25, 2014 by David Brussat

The above photograph was featured on the main international news page of the Providence Journal. I send it out as my gift to readers. Beauty can persist even in the heart of darkness. Red Square may not be that place … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Other countries, Photography | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Betsky goes ballistic

Posted on December 23, 2014 by David Brussat

Let the establishment – in this case the New York Times – allow just a single peep against modern architecture, and its enforcers suffer total meltdown of equanimity. Aaron Betsky, the architecture critic for the journal of the American Institute … Continue reading →

Posted in Architects, Architecture, Architecture History | Tagged , , , | 21 Comments

Raise the BAR, Duany

Posted on December 23, 2014 by David Brussat

It is extremely encouraging to read in the Charleston Post and Courier that Andrès Duany has been hired to help advise the city on how to improve its Board of Architectural Review. By approving a provocative modernist Clemson building in … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Development, Preservation, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , | 11 Comments

Existential Candyland

Posted on December 21, 2014 by David Brussat

I play Candyland with my little boy, Billy, age 5. He is very good at it, as the philosophical discourse linked below demonstrates. He occasionally moves his marker to the colored square where the colored card tells him it ought … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Art and design, Humor | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Cuba libre, let us hope

Posted on December 20, 2014 by David Brussat

Other commentators can and will masticate the president’s new Cuba policy, but let me shed a few tears for the Cuba of yesterday known as the Cuba of today that might not last far into the Cuba of tomorrow. Havana … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Architecture History, Other countries, Photography, Preservation, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

“Change” at Chartres

Posted on December 19, 2014 by David Brussat

That change is the only constant is one of my least favorite aphorisms. And it is among the least inimical of lessons to be drawn from the ongoing “restoration” of Chartres Cathedral, off the west coast of France. The job … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Architecture History, Other countries, Preservation | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Blackstone blitzkrieg

Posted on December 17, 2014 by David Brussat

The Granoff proposal to split their land at Blackstone Boulevard and Rochambeau Avenue up into 12 lots (the two largest would include their fine old house built in 1915 and owned by the Granoffs since the ’60s) was rejected by … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Development, Preservation, Providence, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments