Category Archives: Providence

College Hill places fourth

Posted on April 20, 2015 by David Brussat

GoLocalProv.com posted a story this morning ranking College Hill as the “fourth most beautiful neighborhood in America.” The website Thrillist.com published the list, and ranked Boston’s Beacon Hill as No. 1. It’s hard to argue with that. But Thrillist cast … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Architecture History, Art and design, Providence, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Dredging? Yes, dredging!

Posted on April 18, 2015 by David Brussat

Yes, dredging. The view above depicts Waterplace Park’s basin at low tide yesterday afternoon. I got a call from Joan Slafsky, among the city’s most “connected” citizens, who helps keep WaterFire running. She promising a surprise if I showed up … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Architecture History, Development, Humor, Providence, Rhode Island, Urbanism and planning, Video | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Pleasant PawSox palace

Posted on April 17, 2015 by David Brussat

I see little reason after a half-season of public discussion of the plan to move the Pawtucket Red Sox to a proposed stadium in downtown Providence to get off the fence. A more detailed plan was released by the new … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Art and design, Development, Providence, Rhode Island, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , | 12 Comments

Growing dull in Denver

Posted on April 6, 2015 by David Brussat

I clicked with no small degree of excitement on ArchNewsNow.com, the piece by a Denver architect about insipidity in the Mile-High City. “Denver Is a Great City, So Why the Bad Buildings?” asks Jeffrey Sheppard. Denver is experiencing the sort … Continue reading →

Posted in Architects, Architecture, Development, Preservation, Providence, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , | 6 Comments

Last wooden bridge in Prov.

Posted on March 30, 2015 by David Brussat

In an excellent online post for the Providence Journal, photographer Sandor Bodo notes the demise and, more recently, the removal of the last wooden river bridge in Providence. It is called “Documenting the fall of Providence’s last wooden river bridge,” … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Architecture History, Book/Film Reviews, Development, Preservation, Providence, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Heidi’s chilly new neighbor

Posted on March 26, 2015 by David Brussat

Kudos to Gizmodo.com not just for the inspired montage above but to its correspondent Alissa Walker, who reports that starchitect Thom Mayne has announced an evaporating glass slab for poor Vals, Switz. At 80 stories and 1,250 feet in the … Continue reading →

Posted in Architects, Architecture, Art and design, Development, Other countries, Providence, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Landmark the neighbors

Posted on March 19, 2015 by David Brussat

Many Providence residents live on beautiful streets lined with houses built before ugly architecture became almost mandatory. Few neighborhoods are dominated by midcentury modern houses, although some jackanapes might even argue that they qualify as historic. Historic, perhaps, if the … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Development, Preservation, Providence, Uncategorized, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

New apartments downtown!

Posted on March 11, 2015 by David Brussat

Monday evening’s meeting of the Downtown Design Review Committee relieved concerns that one must feel upon news that a graceful old building is being renovated. Who knows what evil could be afoot. But the applicant, HM Ventures 7, of Brooklyn, … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Architecture History, Development, Photography, Preservation, Providence, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , | 7 Comments

To be cont’d in Charleston

Posted on March 11, 2015 by David Brussat

Beach Company, which had submitted what I thought was an elegant proposal to replace a midcentury modernist clunker of an apartment tower with three shorter but larger mostly residential buildings of seemingly high design on the edge of Charleston’s historic … Continue reading →

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Cret’s wandering WWI shaft

Posted on March 6, 2015 by David Brussat

Warren Lutzel has kindly sent me a portrait of architect Paul Philippe Cret’s monument originally erected in 1929 at Providence’s Memorial Square to commemorate World War I. The square looks almost bucolic in the painting above but in time grew … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Architecture History, Art and design, Landscape Architecture, Providence, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments