Category Archives: Preservation

Wake up, Little Compton

Posted on March 8, 2024 by David Brussat

Little Compton’s town council will soon receive advice from this corner that was good when originally delivered in 2003, in my Journal column of Aug. 28 of that year as part of my “Outside Providence” series. The series looked at … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Blast from past, Preservation | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Save Pawtucket’s Ott Mansion

Posted on February 10, 2024 by David Brussat

The headline of this post is the same as when I wrote it as my weekly column for the Providence Journal in 2008. The Read-Ott Mansion was at a most dire risk of demolition then, and remains so now. Its … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Architecture History, Preservation, Rhode Island | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Losing Providence, bit by bit

Posted on December 12, 2023 by David Brussat

The Downtown Design Review Committee met a couple of days ago to consider applications to demolish a couple of buildings on Chestnut Street and Richmond Street in the Jewelry District. I looked them up to see whether I should be … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Development, Preservation | Tagged , , , | 9 Comments

Don’t demo this sad trio

Posted on November 27, 2023 by David Brussat

Someone has it in for a row of decent old houses on Angell Street. Specifically, they are Nos. 209, 211 and 217. They should be preserved. Their preservation should be second nature at every level of policy in Providence. Yet … Continue reading →

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In London, a laudable ruling

Posted on September 27, 2023 by David Brussat

In London a developer has been ordered to tear down a completed 23-story residential building in the Royal Borough of Greenwich, in the southeast of London, because it deviates too far from the original proposal. Residents of 204 flats will … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Development, Preservation | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Move over, historic character!

Posted on June 2, 2023 by David Brussat

New and dubious projects (the only kind permitted in Providence, it seems) have crossed my desk, perhaps belatedly. One is for an 11-story residential building in the Jewelry District, appalling in its design as is apparently now mandatory under official … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Preservation | Tagged , , , , | 9 Comments

Gebreyohanes to the rescue!

Posted on October 3, 2022 by David Brussat

Restore Trust’s Zewditu Gebreyonhanes discusses the National Trust’s policies with Peter Whittle for New Culture Forum. (Restore Trust) In Britain, a new organization has arisen to push back against the backsliding of an old organization. Restore Trust believes that the … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Preservation | Tagged , , , , , , , | 10 Comments

Latest wrinkle at Notre-Dame

Posted on August 14, 2022 by David Brussat

Paris’s mayor Anne Hildago has announced a proposed visitors center in an abandoned garage beneath Notre-Dame cathedral. Since visitors centers are notoriously ugly, this one qualifies as an odd duck. Its location underneath the cathedral’s large plaza hides it away … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Preservation | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Save the Library of Congress

Posted on July 30, 2022 by David Brussat

The spirit of the Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress trembles as the institution’s leadership proposes $60 million in renovations, including the removal of the circulation desk in the middle of its Main Reading Room. The D.C. Preservation League … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Preservation | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

Ah, the gentle old streets!

Posted on July 16, 2022 by David Brussat

Weybosset Street, just as it curves into its merger with Westminster Street, in downtown Providence, surely is the apex of beauty in this historic city. On a fall day in 1984 I emerged for the first time from the Providence … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Preservation | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments