Category Archives: Architecture History

Love at Providence Place

Posted on January 3, 2016 by David Brussat

The evening of New Year’s Day, after seeing The Force Awakens at Providence Place with Victoria, Billy and friend Maria, all the shops were closed as we descended the escalator to the third level and strolled down the concourse, at … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Architecture History, Art and design, Development, Photography, Preservation, Providence, Providence Journal, Rhode Island, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Still, his buildings were fine

Posted on January 2, 2016 by David Brussat

Reaching the end of Louis Sullivan’s Autobiography of an Idea, I could only wish that his place in architectural history was judged more by his buildings and less by what he wrote about architecture. Most of the book consists of … Continue reading →

Posted in Architects, Architecture, Architecture Education, Architecture History, Art and design, Books and Culture, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

More on form and function

Posted on December 31, 2015 by David Brussat

Here is the first lengthy passage in which Louis Sullivan, writing in his Autobiography of an Idea, unpacks “form follows function,” which has become a mantra of the modernist movement. It had to be misinterpreted for that to occur. So … Continue reading →

Posted in Architects, Architecture, Architecture Education, Architecture History, Art and design, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Brutalism’s heroic ugliness

Posted on December 30, 2015 by David Brussat

Hats off to Jo-Anne Peck for sending to TradArch this amazing article, “In Memoriam: Important Buildings We Lost in 2015,” by Kriston Capps, a staff writer for CityLab. Quoth Peck: “I don’t see any I would miss.” Right on, Jo-Anne! … Continue reading →

Posted in Architects, Architecture, Architecture Education, Architecture History, Art and design, Preservation, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Sullivan on the classical

Posted on December 29, 2015 by David Brussat

About halfway through his Autobiography of an Idea, Louis Sullivan begins to discuss architecture. He is at MIT, circa 1872. He writes in the third person. Here he receives the received wisdom on classicism: Louis had gone at his studies … Continue reading →

Posted in Architects, Architecture, Architecture Education, Architecture History, Art and design, Books and Culture | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

“Suburbia!” – the game!

Posted on December 28, 2015 by David Brussat

I added both exclamation points, with full ironic intent. The game Suburbia? How about let’s play another game, Traffic Jam! (exclamation added). There are city-building games already, so why in heaven’s name a suburbia-building game? Maybe it’s a sort of … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Architecture Education, Architecture History, Art and design, Books and Culture, Development, Landscape Architecture, Preservation, Urbanism and planning, Video | Tagged , , , , , | 5 Comments

Klaustoon pricks Pritzkers

Posted on December 27, 2015 by David Brussat

Here’s the latest Klaustoon, by Klaus, which heaps ridicule on the Pritzker Prize jury in its moment of crisis when laureate-to-be Frei Otto dies the day before the announcement, three days before the death of Michael Graves, the famous PoMo … Continue reading →

Posted in Architects, Architecture, Architecture History, Art and design, Humor | Tagged , , , , , | 9 Comments

More reasons to like PoMo

Posted on December 26, 2015 by David Brussat

My headline is ironic, of course, like the column capital in the photo above that accompanies “8 Reasons You Will Also Like Postmodern Architecture in 2016.” The article, by René Boer for the website Failed Architecture, is quite a romp. … Continue reading →

Posted in Architects, Architecture, Architecture Education, Architecture History, Art and design, Humor, Urbanism and planning | 2 Comments

Bedford Falls or Pottersville?

Posted on December 26, 2015 by David Brussat

I saw George Bailey in Bedford Falls and Pottersville last night. You don’t see It’s a Wonderful Life on television as much as you used to. The film’s copyright lapsed for 20 years beginning in 1974. Last night I saw … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Architecture History, Art and design, Book/Film Reviews, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Form, function and Sullivan

Posted on December 24, 2015 by David Brussat

Am plunging into a 1956 softcover copy of Louis Sullivan’s The Autobiography of an Idea, first published in the early ’20s. The introduction to this edition by University of Illinois architecture professor Ralph Marlowe Line, written with the well-known forward … Continue reading →

Posted in Architects, Architecture, Architecture Education, Architecture History, Art and design, Preservation, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment