Category Archives: Architecture

Each state’s “ne plus ugly”

Posted on January 22, 2018 by David Brussat

Architecture is a form of art. When a city constructs a new building, it should add beauty to its streetscape. The above quote, unattributed, introduces an article in MSN.com’s Business Insider entitled “The Ugliest Building in Every US State, According … Continue reading →

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Reed award honors Dresden

Posted on January 20, 2018 by David Brussat

Henry Hope Reed, one of my heroes, the original classical revivalist, lives on in the Henry Hope Reed Award handed out in association with the Richard H. Driehaus Prize. The Driehaus, rewarding achievement over a lifetime by classical architects, comes … Continue reading →

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Driehaus for the Breitmans

Posted on January 19, 2018 by David Brussat

The annual Driehaus Prize, named for Chicago philanthropist Richard H. Driehaus and administered by the School of Architecture at the University of Notre Dame, recognizes the career of work in the classical style by living architects. It has been handed … Continue reading →

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Q. of Scots takes Edinburgh

Posted on January 17, 2018 by David Brussat

Here is Margaret, Queen of Scots, entering Edinburgh in 1503, riding with new husband James of Scotland, as seen through the lens of historical novelist Philippa Gregory in her Three Sisters, Three Queens (2016): The day of our entry into … Continue reading →

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NYC, drawn from memory

Posted on January 16, 2018 by David Brussat

Stephen Wiltshire’s remarkable ability to draw a city from memory came to my attention several years ago in a segment on 60 Minutes or some such show. A British citizen, he was diagnosed with autism at age 3, but his … Continue reading →

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Even Soviets hated mods!

Posted on January 14, 2018 by David Brussat

Ann Sussman, the architect/scientist whose neurobiological research has pinned down mental illness as a factor in modern architecture, sent me a video by a Russian cartoonist in 1976. It shows that even amid the official dominance of modernism under Stalin, … Continue reading →

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The uses of preservation

Posted on January 12, 2018 by David Brussat

“The Uses of Corruption” is an essay by Theodore Dalrymple published in the Summer 2001 issue of City Journal, the quarterly of the Manhattan Institute. Dalrymple is a British sociologist and commentator who argues that Italy is more prosperous and … Continue reading →

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Save Chicago’s Jackson Park

Posted on January 11, 2018 by David Brussat

The 543 acres of Chicago’s Jackson Park, site of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, are not existentially threatened by plans to slice off 22 of its acres for Barack Obama’s presidential center. However, this park was designed by Frederick Law … Continue reading →

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Update on Carpionato plan

Posted on January 10, 2018 by David Brussat

My intention today was to run images of both the 2013 and the 2018 proposals by the Carpionato Group for a development that was originally proposed four or five years ago. But Carpionato politely asked me to withhold the 2018 … Continue reading →

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Today: Carpionato’s 195 plan

Posted on January 9, 2018 by David Brussat

Here is a column I wrote after the Carpionato Group had proposed a magnificent plan for a project in the Route 195 Corridor, taking up three development parcels east of the Providence River. Then the project sort of went away. … Continue reading →

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