Category Archives: Art and design

Easy street to civic beauty

Posted on July 31, 2015 by David Brussat

Even though there may be two, three or more street lamps for every building on a city street, street lamps are far less expensive than buildings. Lining a city block with elegant lampposts is a cheap, fast, easy road to … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Art and design, Development, Landscape Architecture, Providence, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Mission impossible in R.I.?

Posted on July 30, 2015 by David Brussat

Here is a 10-story Marriott hotel scheduled for October groundbreaking in downtown Spartanburg, S.C. It is lovely, and it is being proposed, designed and built by people quite as human as those who do such work in downtown Providence, R.I., … Continue reading →

Posted in Architects, Architecture, Art and design, Development | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Top classical WWI entries

Posted on July 28, 2015 by David Brussat

Here, courtesy of the organization sponsoring the design competition for a monument to commemorate the First World War, are links to some if not all of the classical entries. These are considered “the best” from among a couple of dozen … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Art and design, Landscape Architecture, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , | 11 Comments

Design for a WWI memorial

Posted on July 28, 2015 by David Brussat

Not long ago I wrote of an open competition for a national monument for World War I to be built at Pershing Square. The square has honored Gen. John “Black Jack” Perhsing, commander of U.S. forces in Europe, for decades. … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Architecture Education, Architecture History, Art and design, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , | 6 Comments

The satisfactions of Satie

Posted on July 27, 2015 by David Brussat

Erik Satie is a French composer of whom I know little, but am very familiar with one of his pieces, the first of his three “Gnossiennes,” which I suspect most readers will recognize as well. It is the first video … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Art and design, Books and Culture, Video | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

The dark caverns of history

Posted on July 26, 2015 by David Brussat

About halfway through Umberto Eco’s The Prague Cemetery I have not stumbled, so far, upon the travelogue sequences I promised to record for readers. But the book has brought us down into the darkest caverns of history, spiced further by … Continue reading →

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Hypocrisy of the modernists

Posted on July 25, 2015 by David Brussat

A good friend who is also, by turns, a modernist sent me an old critique of his from when the Ruane Center for the Humanities, at Providence College, was dedicated. I referred to the center in a post today, “Take … Continue reading →

Posted in Architects, Architecture, Architecture Education, Architecture History, Art and design, Providence | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Take modernist bull by horns

Posted on July 25, 2015 by David Brussat

The recent announcement of the Palladio Awards reminds me of how rare it is to find an active pursuit of self-interest, let alone boldness, in carrying out the classical revival since the death, in 2013, of Henry Hope Reed Jr. … Continue reading →

Posted in Architects, Architecture Education, Architecture History, Art and design, Development, Providence, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Des “passages” de Paris

Posted on July 23, 2015 by David Brussat

In the late 1800s, long after Baron Haussmann supposedly transformed the Paris of rabbit warrens into a Paris of bowling alleys for cannoneers, the protagonist (if you can call him that) of Umberto Eco’s novel The Prague Cemetery (2010) – … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Architecture History, Art and design, Other countries, Preservation, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Eyesore vs. eyesore

Posted on July 23, 2015 by David Brussat

The Providence Journal ran an editorial yesterday, “Activity vs. eyesore,” that takes a conventional attitude toward economic development that could ensure that Providence’s economy will never be as robust as it ought to be. The editorial supports razing the city-owned … Continue reading →

Posted in Architects, Architecture, Architecture History, Art and design, Development, Preservation, Providence, Rhode Island, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments