Category Archives: Blast from past

Architect, bury your mistake

Yesterday I ran some passages from the late critic Lewis Mumford and thought I recalled having written a column on him years ago after reading a biography. I cannot find it. But here is one column from June 1994 in … Continue reading

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Portland’s imposing Old Port

Portland’s Old Port Exchange district was bustling with tourists on Sunday morning as Billy and I drove up and down its streets in search of parking. Finding no place, we ended up touring Congress Street on foot instead, taking too … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture, Architecture History, Art and design, Blast from past, Development, I-195 Redevelopment District, Photography, Preservation, Providence, Urbanism and planning, Video | Leave a comment

Portland’s phoenix resurgent

Billy, Victoria and I are driving up to Augusta, Maine, for the long weekend to visit friends. We plan to visit Portland on the way or on the way back. The Journal column below reaches back two decades to compare … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture, Architecture History, Art and design, Blast from past, Development, Preservation, Providence, Providence Journal, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Astonishing Ishmael in N.B.

Traveling with my son Billy to New Bedford today, eager to check out the new addition to its famous Whaling museum, here is my column from 1997 about the Whaling City. The aquarium proposed for N.B. has not yet been … Continue reading

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Goldberger on Newport

Here is the column from 1997 about Paul Goldberger’s lecture in Newport that I refer to in my blog “Botching history in Newport.” The illustration above, which went viral online, is from an recent exhibit at the Newport Historical Society. … Continue reading

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First critique in Pawtucket

Here is one of my earliest columns about a design competition, in this case to renovate an old department store into a visitors center for the City of Pawtucket. *** Promoting a Peerless Pawtucket December 4, 1992 IN PAWTUCKET, the … Continue reading

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Children and architecture II

A commenter, reading in a recent post (“Children and architecture,” Aug. 8) on this blog an excerpt from a column I wrote for the Providence Journal in early 2001, asked to see the rest of the column, so here it … Continue reading

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Children and architecture

Andres Duany has sent to TradArch a charming article, “Why Children Need Playhouses,” in the Wall Street Journal. Dale Hrabi describes his ramshackle playhouse behind his boyhood home in Alberta as a place to get away from his parents, how … Continue reading

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Lists and lists of restaurants

Providence has a reputation for fine dining and restaurants that grow old and increasingly beloved. Le tout foodie Prov is mourning the announced closure, on Aug. 9, of the Rue de L’Espoir. But as GoLocalProv.com’s story “Restaurants That Are Sadly … Continue reading

Posted in Art and design, Blast from past, Books and Culture, Development, Preservation, Providence, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , | 8 Comments

Lisbon’s coach catastrophe

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

Posted in Architecture, Architecture History, Art and design, Blast from past, Other countries | Tagged , , , | 69 Comments