Category Archives: Development

Lovely N.B. whaling district

New Bedford’s Whaling National Historical Park, the preserved area of downtown that reflects the city’s famous industry, long gone and, some will say, thankfully so, is lovely nevertheless. Billy and I walked around a bit, visited the Whaling Museum (see … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture, Art and design, Development, Photography, Preservation, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Whale of a museum wing

A storm threatened to lash the Whaling Museum in New Bedford yesterday, violent enough in prospect to counsel against a trip there with family. But today we went, or at least Billy and I did. Last week, despite dulcet weather … Continue reading

Posted in Architects, Architecture, Architecture Education, Architecture History, Art and design, Development, Landscape Architecture, Photography, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

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

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

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

Posted in Architects, Architecture, Architecture Education, Architecture History, Art and design, Blast from past, Development, Rhode Island, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Critic Moore on Zaha Hadid

Rowan Moore, the powerful British architecture critic of the powerful Guardian newspaper in Britain, has done a profile of Zaha Hadid and her life’s work thus far. Moore is not impressed, and his profile is a catalogue of the many … Continue reading

Posted in Architects, Architecture, Architecture Education, Architecture History, Art and design, Development, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Rachleff programming notes

Victoria and I attended last night’s Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra performance at Veterans Memorial Auditorium. It was a wonderful concert even though – perhaps because – we left during intermission. Not that we wanted to miss Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring,” … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture, Art and design, Books and Culture, Development, Providence, Rhode Island | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Canoe canoe, Canada?

“Canoe Canoe?” Remember that jingle from the ad for cologne back in, what, the 1970s or ’80s? Get it? Can you canoe! It rushed to mind with news that the design competition for a relocated Canadian Canoe Museum, in Peterborough, … Continue reading

Posted in Architects, Architecture, Architecture History, Art and design, Development, Urbanism and planning, Video | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Zaha bolts BBC interview

And who can blame her? Zaha Hadid was asked to explain the deaths of construction workers at the site of her vagina-like stadium in Qatar for the 2022 World Soccer Cup. At the time the charge of hundreds of deaths … Continue reading

Posted in Architects, Architecture, Art and design, Development, Other countries, Video | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Architecture and happiness

In “Why the ‘happiest’ cities are boring,” John Kay of the Financial Times makes a series of very important distinctions between happy cities and great cities, and in doing so he challenges most of the reigning official definitions of happiness … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture, Art and design, Books and Culture, Development, Other countries, Preservation, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Mod dorms bite the dust

Perhaps the worst-looking project proposed for the I-195 corridor has been abandoned. It is hard to say whether this is good news or bad news, given Rhode Island’s need to develop the land. How nice it would be to read … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture, Art and design, Development, I-195 Redevelopment District, Preservation, Providence, Providence Journal, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments