Category Archives: Architecture

900 pages on WTC rebuild

Posted on December 2, 2016 by David Brussat

I am remiss in not having been aware, until yesterday, of Columbia University emerita professor Lynne Sagalyn’s 900-page book on the politics and economics of rebuilding the World Trade Center after 9/11. It is called  Power at Ground Zero: Politics, … Continue reading →

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Helsinki art stinker junked!

Posted on December 1, 2016 by David Brussat

The proposed Guggenheim Helsinki just went belly up, glug, glug, glug, after a five-hour meeting of the Finnish capital’s city council, which put the kibosh on a project one opponent called “a McDonald’s of art.” Britain’s Guardian newspaper reported the … Continue reading →

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“Three towers of evil”?

Posted on November 30, 2016 by David Brussat

A critic of the three towers proposed for the Jewelry District in Providence, city council president Luis Aponte, calls them the “three towers of evil.” Well, that’s a little much. “Foe dubs proposed Providence high-rises ‘towers of evil,’” by Associated … Continue reading →

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Review: 1 WTC’s biography

Posted on November 28, 2016 by David Brussat

The new World Trade Center reflects what was worst about the old WTC towers and their brethren demolished by terrorists on 9/11. The Twin Towers were sterile, inhumane structures that epitomized the crushing brutality of urbanism at its worst in … Continue reading →

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Unbuilt New York (Whew!)

Posted on November 27, 2016 by David Brussat

The architectural writer Alexandra Lange reviews Never Built New York in The New Yorker: Her piece is called “The New York that Could Have Been,” a title that suggests she yearns for it. The book, written and compiled by Greg … Continue reading →

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Porto beauty trumps video

Posted on November 23, 2016 by David Brussat

Last night I posted a Kuriositas video of Madrid that, using time-lapse and hyper-lapse videography caught the beauty of Spain’s capital. It was by by Kirill Neiezhmakov. I visited his website and found a video, “A Day in Porto,” Portugal’s … Continue reading →

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Madrid time- & hyperlapse

Posted on November 22, 2016 by David Brussat

I’ve never been to Madrid, personally or, really, photographically, until this evening. The video on Kuriositas, “Madrid Timelapse & Hyperlapse,” by Kirill Neiezhmakov, brings the beauties of the capital city of Spain before our eyes, most delightfully, though Neiezhmakov could … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Video | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

Jane Jacobs at Ada Books

Posted on November 21, 2016 by David Brussat

The photo shows the late Jane Jacobs sitting on a stool at the White Horse Tavern, in Greenwich Village. On Saturday evening, I saw Jane Jacobs sitting on a table at Ada Books. She was in the form of a … Continue reading →

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Tower with, not against Prov

Posted on November 20, 2016 by David Brussat

Unsurprisingly, the Providence Journal editorialized today in favor of the three residential towers, dubbed Hope Point Towers, proposed by New York developer Jason Fane. On the same day, in “Man behind Providence high-rise proposal has gotten well connected,” ace reporter … Continue reading →

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Ruskin’s “Two Paths” speech

Posted on November 19, 2016 by David Brussat

Among the platitudes of architecture these days is the modernist credo that innovation is the chief merit of the building arts. Innovation is important, but modernists have a narrow definition of the term that limits their vision. John Ruskin, the … Continue reading →

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