Category Archives: Preservation

Two lovely local buildings

Posted on January 7, 2016 by David Brussat

I don’t know what’s gotten into me, but I thought I’d just post photos of a couple very nice local buildings, a house and a school office, on the East Side of Providence. Maybe the 40th anniversary of the East … Continue reading →

Posted in Architects, Architecture, Architecture Education, Architecture History, Art and design, Preservation, Providence | Tagged , , , , , , , | 13 Comments

Rome’s exaltation explained

Posted on January 6, 2016 by David Brussat

I’ve always been intrigued by Rome – which I visited in 1990 – not just by its extraordinarily beauty and its ruins, but by the story of how its ancient leaders conceived the city as a crescendo of classicism in … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Architecture Education, Architecture History, Art and design, Books and Culture, Preservation, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Another classical courthouse

Posted on January 5, 2016 by David Brussat

Tuscaloosa recently saw the completion of a beautiful classical courthouse, federal, that might have stepped directly off the Acropolis in Athens. Now Mobile, seems about to begin building a beautiful classical courthouse, also federal, designed by the Washington, D.C., firm … Continue reading →

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

Roses and raspberries, 2015

Posted on January 4, 2016 by David Brussat

If the objective were to build beauty, the past year has served Providence poorly. Since the fault is mainly in the office of the new governor, Gina Raimondo, Providence’s mayor, Jorge Elorza, can be absolved of some of the blame, … Continue reading →

Posted in Architects, Architecture, Architecture Education, Architecture History, Art and design, Blast from past, Development, Preservation, Providence, Providence Journal, Rhode Island, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Love at Providence Place

Posted on January 3, 2016 by David Brussat

The evening of New Year’s Day, after seeing The Force Awakens at Providence Place with Victoria, Billy and friend Maria, all the shops were closed as we descended the escalator to the third level and strolled down the concourse, at … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Architecture History, Art and design, Development, Photography, Preservation, Providence, Providence Journal, Rhode Island, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Brutalism’s heroic ugliness

Posted on December 30, 2015 by David Brussat

Hats off to Jo-Anne Peck for sending to TradArch this amazing article, “In Memoriam: Important Buildings We Lost in 2015,” by Kriston Capps, a staff writer for CityLab. Quoth Peck: “I don’t see any I would miss.” Right on, Jo-Anne! … Continue reading →

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

“Suburbia!” – the game!

Posted on December 28, 2015 by David Brussat

I added both exclamation points, with full ironic intent. The game Suburbia? How about let’s play another game, Traffic Jam! (exclamation added). There are city-building games already, so why in heaven’s name a suburbia-building game? Maybe it’s a sort of … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Architecture Education, Architecture History, Art and design, Books and Culture, Development, Landscape Architecture, Preservation, Urbanism and planning, Video | Tagged , , , , , | 5 Comments

Form, function and Sullivan

Posted on December 24, 2015 by David Brussat

Am plunging into a 1956 softcover copy of Louis Sullivan’s The Autobiography of an Idea, first published in the early ’20s. The introduction to this edition by University of Illinois architecture professor Ralph Marlowe Line, written with the well-known forward … Continue reading →

Posted in Architects, Architecture, Architecture Education, Architecture History, Art and design, Preservation, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Semes on Paris and our cities

Posted on December 23, 2015 by David Brussat

Steven Semes, head of the Rome program for the school of Architecture at the University of Notre Dame, and the author of The Future of the Past (one of my bibles) has written a long and, I am sure, brilliant … Continue reading →

Posted in Architects, Architecture, Architecture Education, Architecture History, Art and design, Development, Other countries, Preservation, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Haussmanhattan Paris

Posted on December 21, 2015 by David Brussat

The architectural historian and urbanist John Massengale, author of Street Design, sent to TradArch a most provocative email, with a photograph of the Municipal Building of New York City superimposed on a photo of the district of central Paris near … Continue reading →

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