Category Archives: Architecture

Fine wrinkles on Alexander

Posted on May 6, 2018 by David Brussat

Some very interesting commenters have responded to my post “Chris Alexander’s cosmos.” The title of Alexander’s most celebrated book, A Pattern Language, spoke so directly in a mere three words to my nascent views on architecture long, long ago that … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

Chris Alexander’s cosmos

Posted on May 4, 2018 by David Brussat

Christopher Alexander has been an enigma to me for a long time. He is famous not just for his architectural theories but for his work in computer technology, and how its patterns resemble the patterns of biological life. Common/Edge, the … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture | Tagged , , , , | 22 Comments

Why 15 CPW makes moola

Posted on May 2, 2018 by David Brussat

“Why Copies of 15 Central Park West Are Taking Over Manhattan,” by James Tarmy in Bloomberg Businessweek, exaggerates the phenomenon of a “takeover” and doesn’t even answer his own question. The answer is obvious: 15 Central Park West, designed by … Continue reading →

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My Jane’s Walk this Saturday

Posted on April 30, 2018 by David Brussat

My fourth Jane’s Walk tour of the waterfront along the Providence River takes place at 4 p.m. this Saturday, May 5. We will meet at the Crawford Street Bridge near Hemenways in the Rubik’s Cube and stroll north, heading west … Continue reading →

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Partying with the Bulfinches

Posted on April 29, 2018 by David Brussat

On Saturday evening the region’s classicists held a big bash at the Harvard Club of Boston, after two lectures by eminent classicists that morning and afternoon. The lectures will soon go onto the website of the New England chapter of … Continue reading →

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Wee wow for Bauwauhauses

Posted on April 27, 2018 by David Brussat

“Mutts-have: Architects create luxury kennels for charity auction” is the headline of this story by Guardian critic Oliver Wainwright. “Mutts-have”? … I’m sorry, that really does not cut the mustard. Mutts-have ≠ must-have. And if you glide down the complement of … Continue reading →

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Fane’s Copycat Point Tower

Posted on April 25, 2018 by David Brussat

The new design for Jason Fane’s Hope Point Tower might be separated at birth from MAD Architects’ Absolute Towers, outside Toronto. But it’s not really a separated-at-birth shot but a before-and-after shot – two buildings in a heightened state of … Continue reading →

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The rest of Banham’s Wolfe

Posted on April 24, 2018 by David Brussat

Here is a link to the rest of Reyner Banham’s review of Tom Wolfe’s From Bauhaus to Our House, in the London Review of Books. Readers may pick up where they left off in Banham’s “The Scandalous Story of Architecture … Continue reading →

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Architecture and gossip

Posted on April 23, 2018 by David Brussat

Gossip makes the world go round, nowhere more so than in the world of architecture. The arrival of #MeToo into architecture by way of modernist Richard Meier brings to mind the classicist Stanford White, who in 1906 was murdered in … Continue reading →

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Don’t make it blight, Brad!

Posted on April 22, 2018 by David Brussat

Actor Brad Pitt’s Make It Right foundation erected several score of goofy homes in the Ninth Ward of New Orleans – poor, depopulated and hardest hit by Katrina in 2005. Pitt brought in squads of modern architects to teach the … Continue reading →

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