Category Archives: Art and design

Nuff said at Kennedy Plaza

Posted on February 8, 2015 by David Brussat

Above are the bicycle stands chosen for and installed at the “new” Kennedy Plaza, in Providence. Below are the bicycle stands approved (but not yet funded) for the city of Charleston. Which design represents the more advanced aesthetic?

Posted in Architecture, Art and design, Providence, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , | 7 Comments

Buda + Pest = Budapest x 3

Posted on February 7, 2015 by David Brussat

Here are three videos of Budapest, “Gay and Beautiful Budapest” from 1938 of 10:28 minutes in length; the second a Rick Steves travel TV episode from 2004 of 26:08 minutes; and, finally, from 2014, “AMAZING Walking Tour!!!” of the Hungarian … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Architecture History, Art and design, Blast from past, Other countries, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Online photo credit sourcing

Posted on February 6, 2015 by David Brussat

If readers have braved the less than “Sex and Violence” allure of this post’s headline, they are about to indulge me in some inside online baseball. It has to do with the touchy subject of properly crediting the sources of … Continue reading →

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Better lights for Providence

Posted on February 6, 2015 by David Brussat

Not long after starting to write about architecture in 1990 I would occasionally hector the city fathers in Providence to use sodium vapor bulbs in downtown’s historic lamps, as was and still is done on Benefit Street. That, I thought, … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Art and design, Providence, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , | 22 Comments

Design a living planet

Posted on February 5, 2015 by David Brussat

One of the delights of blogging is the ability to insert a couple of paragraphs from what you’re reading as you go along. So here’s another set, on pages 144-45, from Design for a Living Planet, by Nikos Salingaros and … Continue reading →

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Modernism’s “Deflategate”

Posted on February 1, 2015 by David Brussat

The BBC documentary Vienna: City of Dreams is about as entirely marinated in modernism’s institutional bias as it is possible for a film of an hour and a half to be. And yet it is beautiful in spite of itself. … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Art and design, Books and Culture, Other countries | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

The Mehaffy/Salingaros way

Posted on January 29, 2015 by David Brussat

Here is a set of related passages from my early reading in Design for a Living Planet: Settlement, Science and the Human Future, by Michael Mehaffy and Nikos Salingaros. I will offer a more comprehensive review when I’m done reading … Continue reading →

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Ode to snow in Providence

Posted on January 27, 2015 by David Brussat

Here is a column written in anticipation of what the weatherman assured us would be on the ground in time for its publication in the Journal a week and 15 years ago today: Ode to winter in Providence A FRESH … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Art and design, Blast from past, Providence | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Klaustoon klaustrophobia

Posted on January 23, 2015 by David Brussat

I’ve just put Klaustoons on my “Blogs I Follow” list. Here are two, one about the Walkie-Scorchie by Rafael Viñoly, who did the Birdshitcatcher Building (the Watson Center) on Thayer Street in Providence, and the other about Rem Koolhaas. The … Continue reading →

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A few words about breasts

Posted on January 21, 2015 by David Brussat

It would be shameful if Blaine Brownell’s essay “The Disruptive Nature of Architectural Innovation” in Architect, the voice of the AIA, were the last word on disruption as a strategy of innovation in architecture. He complains that “experimentation in architecture … Continue reading →

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