Category Archives: Books and Culture

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 →

Posted in Architecture, Art and design, Books and Culture, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Stan Aronson, RIP

Posted on January 28, 2015 by David Brussat

Rhode Island has lost one of its longtime leading lights. Stanley M. Aronson, M.D., a giant of medicine in the Ocean State, a founder of the Brown University medical school, and a contributor of commentaries to the Providence Journal’s oped … Continue reading →

Posted in Books and Culture, Providence, Rhode Island | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Justin Lee Miller: Architecture and the operatic angst

Posted on January 19, 2015 by David Brussat

Justin Lee Miller, the opera singer, actor and playwright, has sent me a fascinating essay that elucidates the parallels between opera and architecture, especially in regard to the handling of traditional works by their modernist interpreters. Here is the passage … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Art and design, Books and Culture | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Kismet, but not in Mecca

Posted on January 8, 2015 by David Brussat

Originally posted on Architecture Here and There:
Mecca, Saudi Arabia, in 1951. (mic.com) Poster for 1955 musical “Kismet.” (stevelensman.hubpages.com) Makkah Clock Tower Hotel. (evaser.com) Clock Tower Hotel on chart of tallest buildings. (aaviss.com) The Kaaba at Mecca. (universalfreepress.com) Mecca in…

Posted in Architecture, Books and Culture, Other countries, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Shubow on the march

Posted on January 6, 2015 by David Brussat

Justin Shubow has posted his second excellent essay at Forbes.online. His first, last month, analyzed Frank Gehry’s finger. His second analyses the flap aroused by the New York Times when it published an oped Dec. 15 twitting architects for ignoring … Continue reading →

Posted in Architects, Architecture, Books and Culture | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

“Modernism in Vienna”

Posted on December 31, 2014 by David Brussat

Here’s the column on my 2005 trip to Vienna linked to in my last post: Modernism in Prague and Vienna June 16, 2005 IN VIENNA AND PRAGUE, built before the divorce of art and architecture, where buildings are encrusted with … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Architecture History, Art and design, Blast from past, Books and Culture, Other countries | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

Nouvel but not novel

Posted on November 17, 2014 by David Brussat

There is nothing unique, these days, about an architect who loves to throw ugliness in the eye of the world. There is nothing novel, alas, in architecture by those who keen to a sado-masochist ethic. I refer to Jean Nouvel, … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Art and design, Books and Culture | Tagged , , | 8 Comments

Column: A Henry Hope Reed chrestomathy

Posted on September 25, 2014 by David Brussat

One of my favorite books is A Mencken Chrestomathy, H.L. Mencken’s own favorite essays by himself (a chrestomathy being a selection of choice literary passages, often intended to teach a language). Reading Mencken, who wrote for the Baltimore Sun in … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Architecture History, Art and design, Books and Culture | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Hawthorne and architecture

Posted on September 22, 2014 by David Brussat

In his masterpiece (and my bible) The Golden City (1959), Henry Hope Reed cites a character, Holgrave, from Hawthorne’s House of Seven Gables, in describing early attitudes toward innovation in architecture. He has Holgrave, a daguerrotypist, say to his inamorata, … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Architecture History, Art and design, Books and Culture | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Under Western Eyes

Posted on September 10, 2014 by David Brussat

Here is a passage from Joseph Conrad’s book about revolutionaries of early 20th century Russia (though the book is mostly set in Geneva, a refuge for those feeling discomfort under the czar). Razumov, who has just met a fellow agitator … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Books and Culture, Other countries | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment