Category Archives: Architecture History

Gehry’s Ike vs. the nation

The New York Times’s editorial “Battle Over Eisenhower in Washington” falsely poses the debate over Frank Gehry’s proposed memorial for Dwight Eisenhower as pitting Ike’s grandchildren against World War II veterans. This is not so. The Gehry design is at … Continue reading

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Save Europe’s oldest street

I blogged on the fate of Winchester, England, Europe’s oldest main street – home of the Winchester Cathedral made famous in song – several years ago. Since then the activist group Winchester Deserves Better has been fighting the scheme (they … Continue reading

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Lincoln Center blowback

New York’s mammoth Lincoln Center has in recent years seen the demise of the New York City Opera – after its director cancelled a season of popular operas and replaced it with “modern” operas – and the near demise of … Continue reading

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We dodge a Gmail spanking

Help! One click can let your tech-challenged correspondent keep sending these Architecture Here And There posts to you. You need not don the above Rube Goldberg device. That is my job. Your job: Hit “Follow,” the button just to the … Continue reading

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More grace in glass additions

In researching glass additions worthy of downtown Providence’s Grace Episcopal Church, I came across the image above of the Royal Opera House (formerly Covent Garden), designed by Edward Middleton Barry and completed in 1858, with its elegant glass addition followed … Continue reading

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On Coalition Radio again

Your roving correspondent has been asked to appear on WPRO’s Coaltion Radio once again this Saturday at 6 p.m. Also scheduled to appear is Pawtucket Mayor Donald Grebian. Two weeks ago, in my first appearance on PRO (which you can … Continue reading

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At cross purposes in R.I

What is wrong with this picture? The Providence Journal published a front-page story, “R.I. pursues the perfect pitch.” State officials seek a “‘top notch’ marketing team to set Rhode Island apart, encourage more visitors and convince people that the Ocean … Continue reading

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Housing the founding fathers

Here are some sketches of the houses of the founding fathers. George Washington’s Mount Vernon occupies, of course, pride of place. Benjamin Franklin’s house does not remain, alas, not unlike houses of some of the other founders, but at least … Continue reading

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Klaustoon: Pimp my Warsaw

It looks like Warsaw, which during Poland’s communist era restored the beauty of central Warsaw after the wreckage left by the Nazis, is selling itself the rope with which to hang itself. Is this what Poland jettisoned communism for? At … Continue reading

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“Now that’s resiliency!”

Michael Mehaffy, an architectural theorist from Portland, Ore., who often collaborates with mathematician and fellow theorist Nikos Salingaros on treatises combining issues of design with those of science, has sent a lovely photograph he just snapped yesterday of the tallest … Continue reading

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