Category Archives: Architecture History

A day at the dragon races!

Posted on September 6, 2015 by David Brussat

For three years running we had just missed the dragon-boat races at the annual Pawtucket Arts Festival. This year we made it, and boy did we have fun! We saw contestants slam their cheeks pink in a watermelon-face-splat contest. We … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Architecture History, Art and design, Development, Landscape Architecture, Preservation, Rhode Island, Urbanism and planning, Video | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Google belly flops logo test

Posted on September 5, 2015 by David Brussat

Andres Duany asked TradArch listers why they “hate” Google’s new logo, assuming that most list members consider it to have been a bad move. I do not hate it. A logo change is not worthy of hatred. I dislike it, … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Architecture Education, Architecture History, Art and design | Tagged , , , , , , , | 13 Comments

Carbuncle Cup antidote

Posted on September 2, 2015 by David Brussat

Here are some photos taken just days ago by Michael Gerhardt, former interim director of the Providence Athenaeum and longtime skipper of the Pandion, anchored in Bristol. He and his wife just returned from a holiday in London and sent … Continue reading →

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Carbuncle Cup conundrum

Posted on September 2, 2015 by David Brussat

In Britain the Carbuncle Cup goes to the ugliest building of the year. The name recalls Prince Charles’s famous and much-beloved line, “a monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much-beloved and elegant friend,” that he applied to a proposed … Continue reading →

Posted in Architects, Architecture, Architecture Education, Architecture History, Art and design, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Artful restraint in Hartford

Posted on September 1, 2015 by David Brussat

This New York Times headline – “A New Look for the Wadsworth Atheneum” – had my neck hairs leaping to attention when I saw it in Paul Ranogajek’s email to the TradArch list yesterday. (Hats off to him!) A “new … Continue reading →

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Hurricane season thoughts

Posted on August 31, 2015 by David Brussat

As we remember Hurricane Katrina, sigh in relief at Tropical Storm Erika, which took lives in the Caribbean before dissipating south of Florida, worry about Hurricane Fred as it threatens Cape Verde in the Atlantic, and ponder the three hurricanes … Continue reading →

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The Salon des Refuses

Posted on August 30, 2015 by David Brussat

The topic has come up of a “Salon des refusés” for the classical entries that did not make it into the first two rounds of the competition for a national memorial to World War I. More than 350 entries were … Continue reading →

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Catesby Leigh’s WWI faves

Posted on August 29, 2015 by David Brussat

The Washington critic Catesby Leigh has an excellent write-up of the World War I memorial designs in the National Review, “National World War I Memorial: The Judges Got It Wrong.” He mentions two proposals that were entered but for various … Continue reading →

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Behead the Islamic State

Posted on August 29, 2015 by David Brussat

It may have been the beheading of Khalid al-Asaad, known as Mr. Palmyra, a retired professor and protector of antiquities at Palmyra, that pushed me over the edge a few days ago, and I’ve been mulling the idea with further … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Architecture History, Books and Culture, Other countries, Video | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Why we fall back on parks

Posted on August 26, 2015 by David Brussat

My post yesterday after the debate in Providence between proponents of a park or a ballpark along the Providence River, even though the waterfront is “festooned” with parks, elicited this eye-opening response from James Howard Kunstler, the celebrated critic of … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Architecture History, Art and design, Development, Landscape Architecture, Providence, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment