Category Archives: Architecture

Our “Homes Sweet Homes”

Posted on September 16, 2018 by David Brussat

In his remarkable new book Making Dystopia, James Stevens Curl keeps quoting someone called Osbert Lancaster, who is cited 20 times in the book’s extensive index. Who is Osbert Lancaster? Well, it turns out my friend David Mittell, of Jamaica … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Interior Design | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Hewitt on Yale’s new colleges

Posted on September 14, 2018 by David Brussat

Yale University’s two new academic residences have received much praise (and much of its opposite) from critics, and its designers at Robert A.M. Stern Architects have won a host of architectural awards from organizations that favor traditional design. Classical architect … Continue reading →

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TB blog: “Making Dystopia”

Posted on September 12, 2018 by David Brussat

Here is my Traditional Building blog post from last month, shortly after I received a review copy of Making Dystopia. *** I’ve only just received a review copy of Making Dystopia: The Strange Rise and Survival of Architectural Barbarism, by … Continue reading →

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

Boothden and St. Columba

Posted on September 10, 2018 by David Brussat

Some 30 or 40 attended Sunday’s tour, in Middletown, R.I., of the St. Columba chapel, seemingly transported bodily from the English countryside of the 1880s, or even the 1680s, and Boothden, the “cottage” designed by Calvert Vaux (of Central Park … Continue reading →

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Getting used to Fane tower

Posted on September 9, 2018 by David Brussat

In “Once It Was a New Building,” my former editor and longtime friend Robert Whitcomb defended the proposed 600-foot Fane tower in this morning’s GoLocalProv. He writes: GoLocal’s mock editorial last week headlined “Dateline 1924: Don’t Let Them Build That … Continue reading →

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

Andres Duany: Downcity adios

Posted on September 6, 2018 by David Brussat

The following is a guest column written by Andrés Duany, a founder of the New Urbanism movement whose planning and design firm, Duany Plater-Zyberk, has been deeply involved in revitalizing downtown Providence since the early 1990s. He writes in opposition … Continue reading →

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Fane tower vote is tomorrow

Posted on September 5, 2018 by David Brussat

Tomorrow the Providence City Council will vote on whether the height limit on vacant land in the Jewelry District should be raised by a factor of six on behalf of the proposed 600-foot Fane Tower. It should not. People who … Continue reading →

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Aslet on classicism’s future

Posted on September 4, 2018 by David Brussat

Clive Aslet, longtime editor of Britain’s tony Country Life magazine, has written a rosy assessment of prospects for the classical revival – that is, the return to prominence of traditional architecture after more than half a century of its suppression … Continue reading →

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Tour Boothden next Sunday

Posted on September 3, 2018 by David Brussat

Remember Edwin Booth, the actor? Perhaps not. Not the Booth who shot Abraham Lincoln, John Wilkes Booth, but his brother, who had a summer home in Middletown, R.I., designed for him by Calvert Vaux, best known as the designer, with … Continue reading →

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Mies edits van der Rohe

Posted on August 31, 2018 by David Brussat

Most people know that one of the three world-historical founders of modern architecture, Charles-Édouard Jeanneret-Gris, changed his name at age 33 to Le Corbusier (the crow). Not until I got to page 126 in James Stevens Curl’s Making Dystopia did … Continue reading →

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