Category Archives: Development

Legal on Blackstone Blvd.

Posted on November 6, 2014 by David Brussat

Even the Blackstone neighborhood of Providence can be relied on to prove that no place in the city is absolutely stereotypical. I didn’t realize the extent to which this was so until yesterday, when I went, ahem!, “jogging” up and … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Development, Preservation, Providence, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Lucas villain ship to Chicago

Posted on November 5, 2014 by David Brussat

It’s hard to imagine how distant filmmaker George Lucas of Star Wars fame must be from his project for a museum displaying his collection of “narrative art.” The phrase “billions and billions and billions,” made famous by the astronomer Carl … Continue reading →

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Intruder at Gugg party

Posted on November 3, 2014 by David Brussat

On Halloween I posted a link to all 1,700-plus entries, from 77 nations, in the international design competition for a proposed Guggenheim Museum in Helsinki. I scanned reams of thumbnails, hoping to find among them one that struck me as … Continue reading →

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Bowling trophy architecture

Posted on October 29, 2014 by David Brussat

Read “Top Seven Reasons Behind the Shanghaiing of New York (#Dubai-on-Hudson),” architect and urban designer John Massengale’s astute analysis of the linkage between Big Finance and Big Architecture. His assessment is depressing, because it looks impregnable. He uses an illustration … Continue reading →

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Potemkin justice for Russia?

Posted on October 29, 2014 by David Brussat

Far be it from me to endorse anything proposed by the regime of Vladimir Putin, but permit me to embrace the classical judicial complex to be built in St. Petersburg. As the blogger Andrew Cusack points out, the Russian architect … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Development, Other countries, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Hard to build unnatural park

Posted on October 28, 2014 by David Brussat

The parks committee of the Route 195 Redevelopment District Commission met yesterday afternoon to hear WaterFire generalissimo Barnaby Evans urge, late in the design process, that the western end of the proposed pedestrian bridge be raised to let the river … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Development, Landscape Architecture, Providence, Rhode Island, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Column: Yes, alas, we have modernism in R.I.

Posted on October 23, 2014 by David Brussat

“God will provide,” my editor Bob Whitcomb used to say. This morning, as I struggled to find a column topic, He placed one right before my eyes, occupying the very space where my regular Thursday column in the Providence Journal … Continue reading →

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Patrick Conley’s waterfront

Posted on October 19, 2014 by David Brussat

Here is the column I refer to in my last post, “The lady on the waterfront“: Pat Conley’s educational wharf Sept. 29, 2005 STATE PIER No. 1 might be called the Ellis Island of the Ocean State. It was the … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Blast from past, Development, Providence, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

The lady on the waterfront

Posted on October 19, 2014 by David Brussat

In her chapter “The curse of border vacuums” in The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Jane Jacobs considered waterfronts a potential assassin of liveliness in city districts, not intrinsically so but because they were often poorly used. But … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Development, Providence, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Barbarians at the gate

Posted on October 18, 2014 by David Brussat

Above you can see them in the distance, but watch the video by Mary Campbell Gallagher and you will find that they are marshalling their vandalism for an invasion of central Paris. And here, again, is a petition to get … Continue reading →

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