Category Archives: Blast from past

Better lights for Providence

Posted on October 17, 2022 by David Brussat

Getting into the Wayback Machine, I alight on this blog post from February 6, 2015, called “Better lights for Providence,” atop of which is a beautiful photo of Benefit Street and its lovely, faux-18th century amber lights. I thought that … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Art and design, Blast from past | Tagged , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Modernist GMO architecture

Posted on April 8, 2022 by David Brussat

It occurs to me that in my longstanding effort to demonize modern architecture that I could stand to remind readers that it qualifies as the architectural equivalent of genetically modified organisms – GMO architecture. I wrote of the term several … Continue reading →

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Steampunk vid of New York

Posted on March 28, 2016 by David Brussat

Came across this film, “The Old New World,” of New York and bits of Boston and Washington, D.C. (the Capitol), in about 1931, on the Kuriositas website. It is the Old New World Project run by Alexey Zakharoff. It is … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Architecture History, Art and design, Blast from past, Old Video, Photography, Urbanism and planning, Video | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

Archaeology at Penn Station

Posted on March 4, 2016 by David Brussat

The website Untapped Cities has apparently been sending people out (or at least receiving reports from disparate individuals and then signing them up) to find parts of the old and beloved Penn Station in the bowels of the new and … Continue reading →

Posted in Architects, Architecture, Architecture Education, Architecture History, Art and design, Blast from past, Development, Interior Design, Preservation, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Glide through Angkor Wat

Posted on February 28, 2016 by David Brussat

The website Kuriositas has a five-minute film of Angkor Wat, the Hindu-turned-Buddhist temple ruins in Cambodia. Filmmaker Tyler Fairbank, based in New York, shot the film using glidecam technology. The ruins seen in “The Temples of Angkor” and originally built … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Architecture Education, Architecture History, Art and design, Blast from past, Other countries, Urbanism and planning, Video | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Two agin transforming Prov.

Posted on February 10, 2016 by David Brussat

Here are two columns I wrote long ago about the “Transforming Providence” symposium held at RISD Auditorium in November 2000. The first ran before the event, the second after the event. They represent my occasional effort to promote some sort … Continue reading →

Posted in Architects, Architecture, Architecture Education, Architecture History, Art and design, Blast from past, Development, Preservation, Providence, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Out-of-country Cianci tale

Posted on January 29, 2016 by David Brussat

Buddy Cianci. RIP. Everyone in Providence has a Buddy story, and many will be told fondly following the death of Vincent A. Cianci Jr. yesterday. My Cianci story – this one, at least – involves a trip to Malta as … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Architecture History, Blast from past, Other countries, Preservation, Providence Journal, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Trying to like this building

Posted on January 25, 2016 by David Brussat

Capital Properties has proposed and the Capital Center Commission has apparently approved the design above for the parcel next to the almost supernaturally ugly Capital Cove, on land at Canal and Smith streets along the Moshassuck River. Here is what … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Art and design, Blast from past, Development, Providence, Providence Journal, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Bill & Hugh, together again

Posted on January 17, 2016 by David Brussat

Here is my July 20, 1995, column from The Providence Journal about my father and his best friend, who both were city planners. The images are photographed from an old copy of the column, so I apologize if the expressions … Continue reading →

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City planning now and then

Posted on January 16, 2016 by David Brussat

My friend Steve’s father Hugh Mields and his friend William K. Brussat (my dad) were city planners. Steve, who is both a philatelist and a fenestration cleanliness engineer, recently sent me an envelope postmarked Washington, D.C., Oct. 2, 1967, and … Continue reading →

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