Category Archives: Art and design

Boogie nights in Providence

Posted on June 15, 2015 by David Brussat

Saturday night saw the culmination of the first annual Providence International Arts Festival, and your roving correspondent was there. With son Billy and superbuddy Maria Ruggieri, we parked and set off down wild Washington Street on our way to WaterFire. … Continue reading →

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Cellini’s stab at Turk daggers

Posted on June 14, 2015 by David Brussat

I recently began to read the famous autobiography of the goldsmith Cellini (1500-1571), which he wrote from age 58 but concluded about a dozen years before his death. From the pages of the rambunctious Florentine artist we get perhaps the … Continue reading →

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Propriety of prose and vase

Posted on June 13, 2015 by David Brussat

Laura Heery sent me a few pages from Essays on the Nature and Principles of Taste, by Archibald Allison, published in 1832. Her communication arose from a discussion on Pro-Urb last month over the relationship of style to character in … Continue reading →

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BIG copies the future!

Posted on June 12, 2015 by David Brussat

It is alleged that Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), the architect selected to design 2 World Trade Center, has engaged in copying the future. Mary Campbell Gallagher, the redoubtable defender of Paris against skyscrapers via SOS Paris, observes that Ingels’s 2 … Continue reading →

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Update on Gehry Ike design

Posted on June 11, 2015 by David Brussat

A press release summarizing the proposed U.S. House of Representatives’ appropriations bill for several departments says it zeros out funding for the Eisenhower Memorial Commission. According to Justin Shubow, president of the National Civic Art Society, Congress has eliminated federal … Continue reading →

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Ungainly BIG steps skyward

Posted on June 10, 2015 by David Brussat

Rumors of BIG’s taking the 2 World Trade Center job from Sir Norman Foster erupted as news today. Silverstein Properties, the owner of the WTC site, has hired Bjarke Ingels Group and has released a video to instruct the rest … Continue reading →

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Kimmelman warns on Frick

Posted on June 9, 2015 by David Brussat

Michael Kimmelman, in his “Critic’s Notebook,” has a generally sensible response to the question of what next for the Frick now that its proposed classical expansion has been withdrawn. After wandering around for a while and making some sensible suggestions, … Continue reading →

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What’s next for the Frick?

Posted on June 8, 2015 by David Brussat

The news reported by the New York Times’s architecture writer, Robin Pogebrin (“Frick Museum Abandons Contested Renovation Plan“), leaves me with mixed emotions. Over time, my skepticism grew regarding the traditional addition proposed for the Frick. The house was designed … Continue reading →

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A tale of two trophies

Posted on June 6, 2015 by David Brussat

American Pharoah won the Triple Crown today, the first horse in 37 years to sweep the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness and the Belmont Stakes, and only the 12th to do so in the history of the Sport of Kings. What, … Continue reading →

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Lisbon’s coach catastrophe

Posted on June 6, 2015 by David Brussat

Malcolm Millais, author of the explosive Exploding the Myths of Modern Architecture (2009) sends sad news from Portugal. Lisbon’s delightful and elegant Coach Museum, long the nation’s most popular museum, had been housed in a perfectly lovely building of impeccable … Continue reading →

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