Category Archives: Blast from past

Follies at the CNU in Dallas

The big buzz at the annual meeting (the “congress”) of the Congress of the New Urbanism, under way in Dallas, is how lame Dallas Morning News architecture critic Mark Lamster was. Anyone familiar with his writing cannot have been surprised. … Continue reading

Posted in Architects, Architecture, Architecture Education, Blast from past, Development, Landscape Architecture, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Hyperadvertising in Russia

Roy Lewis has sent two marvelous illustrations, below, that remind me of my post on the “Hyperphotography of Jean-François Rauzier,” in particular his “Versailles,” above, which I used to illustrate a number of posts a year or so ago. When … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture, Art and design, Blast from past, Other countries, Photography | Tagged , , , , | 6 Comments

Thom Mayne in Alaska, 2005

I referred yesterday in “Heidi’s chilly new neighbor,” to my column almost precisely a decade ago on Thom Mayne’s submission in a design competition for a new state capitol in Juneau, Alaska. Here is that column: A ‘bad-boy’ capitol for … Continue reading

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What monuments tell us

Recently, as museums to remember the stain of slavery in America are under construction in Washington and planned in Charleston, there has arisen the vital question of whether memorials should speak in a traditional language everyone can understand or a … Continue reading

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Amazing: N.Y. in 1896-1905

I didn’t even know they had movies that far back, but here are film clips of New York City in the decade that straddles the turn of the 19th Century. Said to be the oldest surviving film of the Big … Continue reading

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Sketching my mom of moms

Here’s the column I wrote in 2004 about the annual meeting in Providence of the American Society of Architectural Illustrators. I was going to write it mainly about the work of a sort of sketchy illustrator from San Francisco in … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture, Art and design, Blast from past, Books and Culture, Providence, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Helfand’s Boston City Hall

As I remarked in my last post, “Edges, shapes and patterns!,” Boston City Hall’s famous inhumanity came up in Tuesday’s lecture by Ann Sussman, co-author of Cognitive Architecture. At her lecture was Aaron Helfand, an architect at the Boston firm … Continue reading

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The classical vernacular

These capitals above by Portuguese architect Raul Lino (1879-1974), with more shots linked to down below, were sent by Malcolm Millais, author of Exploding the Myths of Modern Architecture (2009), as an antidote (I think) to the snow in Providence, … Continue reading

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Buda + Pest = Budapest x 3

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

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Ode to snow in Providence

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