Category Archives: Books and Culture

Style vs. form balderdash

Posted on September 7, 2015 by David Brussat

Justin Shubow, the provocative head of the National Civic Art Society, has posted a segment from a 1996 book review by the late Paul Malo of Roger Scruton’s The Classical Vernacular: Architecture in a Time of Nihilism, which I recently … Continue reading →

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Artful restraint in Hartford

Posted on September 1, 2015 by David Brussat

This New York Times headline – “A New Look for the Wadsworth Atheneum” – had my neck hairs leaping to attention when I saw it in Paul Ranogajek’s email to the TradArch list yesterday. (Hats off to him!) A “new … Continue reading →

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The Salon des Refuses

Posted on August 30, 2015 by David Brussat

The topic has come up of a “Salon des refusés” for the classical entries that did not make it into the first two rounds of the competition for a national memorial to World War I. More than 350 entries were … Continue reading →

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Behead the Islamic State

Posted on August 29, 2015 by David Brussat

It may have been the beheading of Khalid al-Asaad, known as Mr. Palmyra, a retired professor and protector of antiquities at Palmyra, that pushed me over the edge a few days ago, and I’ve been mulling the idea with further … Continue reading →

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Corbu, Paris and Pinceau

Posted on August 27, 2015 by David Brussat

Today is the 50th anniversary of the death of Le Corbusier, founding villain of modern architecture and to this day still its leading hero. He died in a swimming accident off the Mediterranean coast where he had vandalized the seaside … Continue reading →

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Figurative statue at Loyola

Posted on August 23, 2015 by David Brussat

Walter Arnold’s sculpture of Father Arnold Damen, S.J., has just been installed at Loyola University, in Chicago, and the sculptor reports that returning students are already taking selfies with it, which he considers a sign of a work’s success in … Continue reading →

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Children and architecture II

Posted on August 23, 2015 by David Brussat

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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Park or party at the Facade

Posted on August 21, 2015 by David Brussat

The convention celebrating the 125th birthday of, and all things relating to, H.P. Lovecraft hosted a party in the parking lot behind the naked façade, next to the Arcade, that is all that remains of the Providence National Bank Building. … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Books and Culture, Development, Photography, Preservation, Providence, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Green eggs and metaphor

Posted on August 20, 2015 by David Brussat

A old Washington chum, Stevenson Hugh Mields, one of the most original unrecognized humorists of our time, sends me his reaction to the WWI memorial competition: I want to revise my entry. Instead of a pyramid of 1,000,000 artillery shells, … Continue reading →

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Lovecraft at the Facade

Posted on August 20, 2015 by David Brussat

Fans of H.P. Lovecraft’s tales of horror, most of which are set in Providence and elsewhere in New England, will want to be downtown at “The Facade” tonight at 7 for an event hosted by NecronomiCon Providence – the conference … Continue reading →

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