Category Archives: Preservation

Column: “The Rise and Fall of Penn Station”

Posted on February 13, 2014 by David Brussat

Before Pennsylvania Station opened in 1910, travelers headed for New York on the Pennsylvania Railroad, owned by the largest company in the world, had to debark in New Jersey and cross the Hudson River by ferry to Manhattan. It’s hard … Continue reading →

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Past blast: Video homage to Penn Station

Posted on February 10, 2014 by David Brussat

Tonight I watched a PBS “The American Experience” presentation on the rise and fall of Pennsylvania Station, which I will preview for Thursday’s column and which will broadcast to the public next Tuesday. To gin readers up for that, enter … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Architecture Education, Architecture History, Blast from past, Book/Film Reviews, Old Video, Preservation | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Old videos: Two from 1940s Rhode Island

Posted on February 9, 2014 by David Brussat

Two old film clips of Rhode Island take viewers on tours of the nation’s smallest state – the smallest but not the least significant! The first is a propaganda film focusing on the home front and its values; the second … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Architecture History, Old Video, Preservation, Providence, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

No lampooning Lampoon Castle

Posted on February 8, 2014 by David Brussat

Among the most charming and beloved buildings in Cambridge is the old Lampoon Building (Lampoon Castle), where Harvard’s famous yuk-yuk club, the Harvard Lampoon, graduated, years ago, the founders of National Lampoon magazine. The building, designed by Edmund Wheelwright, a … Continue reading →

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Honey, I’m home (after 70 years)!

Posted on February 5, 2014 by David Brussat

Nazis occupy Paris. Lady fed up and leaves for south of France. Never returns but keeps paying rent. Dies at 91. Nobody goes into her apartment until recently, when it was found untouched since her departure 70 years before. A … Continue reading →

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Old video: Trolley ride in San Francisco, 1906

Posted on February 2, 2014 by David Brussat

Here’s video, with music, from YouTube of a trolley ride down San Francisco’s Market Street in 1906, before the earthquake. After the earthquake? Tune in to this blog tomorrow!

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Past blast: Review of Versaci’s “new old” house book

Posted on January 27, 2014 by David Brussat

My blog on how to resolve the difficulty of finding an old house to buy mentioned Russell Versaci’s prefab houses, but I was unable to access my review of his book from 2008. Here it is, reprinted courtesy of The … Continue reading →

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Can’t find/afford an old house? Try this

Posted on January 26, 2014 by David Brussat

This article by Dale Hrabi in the Wall Street Journal called to mind my dear old neighborhood in D.C. and our friends the van der Taks (three sons, Steven, Derek and Laurens, whose ages closely matched those of me and … Continue reading →

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Vandalism at Corbu’s Ronchamp

Posted on January 25, 2014 by David Brussat

How could they tell? Seriously, the Chapel of Notre-Dame du Haut at Ronchamp, with its rough texture and swoopy lines, may be the least objectionable of Le Corbusier’s buildings. Although William J.R. Curtis has more respect for the chapel than … Continue reading →

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Column: World roses and raspberries for 2013

Posted on January 23, 2014 by David Brussat

Here, from around the globe, are roses and raspberries for buildings, people and events that moved the world as we know it closer to or further from the world as we’d like it to be: • A raspberry to Lisbon … Continue reading →

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