Category Archives: Architecture

Chinese Gordon’s Khartoum

Posted on March 8, 2018 by David Brussat

I have just completed Lytton Strachey’s Eminent Victorians without finding much if anything to quote about architecture beyond what I conveyed in my post “The special beauty of decay.” Strachey contemplates four Victorians – Cardinal Manning, Florence Nightingale, Thomas Arnold … Continue reading →

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Mighty pen on Penn Station

Posted on March 5, 2018 by David Brussat

In “Mighty Penn,” The New Criterion has a brilliant extended reflection on the idea of rebuilding Pennsylvania Station, in New York City, as it was originally designed in 1903 by Charles Follen McKim of McKim Mead & White. Many facts … Continue reading →

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See ‘Lost Prov’ in Barrington

Posted on March 2, 2018 by David Brussat

Next Tuesday at 6:30 p.m., the Barrington Public Library will host what may turn out to be my final public lecture about my book, Lost Providence. Only private talks have been scheduled for now from here on out, but at … Continue reading →

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Ha ha ha ha! Seriously?

Posted on March 1, 2018 by David Brussat

Kristen Richards’s ArchNewsNow for today has several surprises. One is in an article by Beth Dunlop for American Way magazine, “Light Fantastic,” which is about the celebrated modernist architect Richard Meier. It has a line that shivered the marrow of … Continue reading →

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Millais on rebuilding Berlin

Posted on February 28, 2018 by David Brussat

Malcolm Millais, author of Le Corbusier, the Dishonest Architect and Exploding the Myths of Modern Architecture, recently visited Berlin, in part to investigate four examples of how Germans have reconstructed historic buildings damaged by Allied bombs in World War II. … Continue reading →

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The special beauty of decay

Posted on February 26, 2018 by David Brussat

I’ve been trying to decide whether to post the only passage I thought worth quoting from the section on Cardinal Manning in Lytton Strachey’s Eminent Victorians, recently read by your peripatetic couch-potato. When I discovered it was not a quote … Continue reading →

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Berlinski: Sacking of Paris

Posted on February 25, 2018 by David Brussat

Claire Berlinski’s masterful summary of the sad situation in Paris is out in the latest City Journal under the title, “The Architectural Sacking of Paris.” I am looking also for Joe Queenan’s no doubt hilarious essay “London Beats Paris in … Continue reading →

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Johnston, we hardly knew ye

Posted on February 23, 2018 by David Brussat

Fifteen years ago I wrote about Johnston, R.I., as part of a series that ran monthly (or at far longer intervals eventually) under the kicker “Outside Providence.” Each month, proceeding in alphabetical order, I’d visit a city or town outside … Continue reading →

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Fit Brown’s hall into the Hill

Posted on February 22, 2018 by David Brussat

Brown University pleased many by rethinking its plan to demolish four old buildings on its campus to make way for an ugly concert hall. Now it plans to build an ugly concert hall without demolishing any old buildings. The surprising … Continue reading →

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Brown shifts, saves 5 houses

Posted on February 20, 2018 by David Brussat

Breaking news! Brown has just issued an announcement that it will shift its proposed performing arts center a block north, saving four historic buildings from demolition. The new site, between Angell and Olive streets rather than Waterman and Angell, requires … Continue reading →

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