Category Archives: Architecture

Streamline? No. Steamroll

Posted on June 4, 2019 by David Brussat

Senate President Dominick Ruggerio will hold a meeting later today – 4 p.m. in Room 313 – on his legislation to “streamline” the development process for projects on state land in every city and town in Rhode Island. This is … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Development | Tagged , , , , , | 5 Comments

Nightmare on Smith Hill

Posted on June 1, 2019 by David Brussat

Last night I had a dream so disturbing that I woke up, got out of bed, and sat at my computer to memorialize it. This was about 5:30 a.m. With minor clarifications and omissions, my memo reads: Dreamed I was … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

‘Spirit of the age’ bugaboo

Posted on May 29, 2019 by David Brussat

Among the most inane of modern architecture’s founding conceits is that buildings reflect the spirit of the age. If a building truly reflects the spirit of the age rather than, as most people would expect, its architect’s desire to express … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Architecture History | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

A thrilling week of classicism

Posted on May 26, 2019 by David Brussat

I am still coming down from the high honor of attending the Arthur Ross Awards, of the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art, as guest of James Stevens Curl, author of Making Dystopia and, for that, winner of the 2019 … Continue reading →

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How to break into Fort Knox

Posted on May 24, 2019 by David Brussat

Fort Knox, officially the United States Bullion Depository, in Fort Knox, Kentucky, holds a large portion of the U.S. gold reserves. Designed by the architect Louis Simon in the Art Deco style, it received its first gold shipment in 1937. … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture | Tagged , , , , | 6 Comments

Make Mr. Highways smile

Posted on May 21, 2019 by David Brussat

The late George Henderson, of Rumford, is the engineer who designed the Henderson Bridge across the Seekonk River, replacing upstream the old Red Bridge between Providence and East Providence. Known as “Mr. Highways,” he must have been a pretty popular … Continue reading →

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I. M. Pei, rest in peace

Posted on May 19, 2019 by David Brussat

The Chinese-American architect Ieoh Ming Pei died last week at age 102 after a career designing modernist buildings, many of them now famous. Since it is poor manners to speak ill of the dead, I will say only that most … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 13 Comments

Andreozzi’s Shingle on acid

Posted on May 16, 2019 by David Brussat

Not long ago, during an online conversation about whether traditional architects can steal back the world “modern” from modernist architects, Rhode Island architect David Andreozzi, who is president of the New England chapter of the Institute of Classical Architecture & … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

While Our Lady is restored

Posted on May 14, 2019 by David Brussat

The as yet officially unannounced international design competition on how to repair Notre-Dame de Paris after her extensive damage by fire has already spawned a number of predictably ridiculous proposals. One would replace the roof with a swimming pool intended, … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Preservation | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 10 Comments

The foreboding of H.H. Reed

Posted on May 12, 2019 by David Brussat

Here’s a passage from “Warning to the Architectural Avant-Garde,” in the May 1959 issue of the journal L’Architettura, by Bruno Zevi, as translated in a collection of essays called Architecture in America: A Battle of Styles, edited by William A. … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments