Category Archives: Providence

Brown engineering virus

Posted on July 28, 2014 by David Brussat

Brown University’s proposed new engineering school on Hope Street is to be designed by the modernist firm that designed the abominable new U.S. embassy in London, Kieran Timberlake. This is almost surely a disaster in the making, but not certainly … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Architecture History, Development, Preservation, Providence | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

Column: Halt this attack on the people’s plaza

Posted on July 24, 2014 by David Brussat

[This is my weekly column in The Providence Journal, a revised version of the post “Let’s ruin Kennedy Plaza” on my blog Architecture Here and There, written on vacation the day before the July 15 groundbreaking for this unfortunate project.] … Continue reading →

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Greater Kennedy Plaza

Posted on July 15, 2014 by David Brussat

Here is a column I wrote last year about the nice proposal being frog-marched out of the picture: A greater Kennedy Plaza, yet again April 25, 2013 On Monday morning, my bus was at least 20 minutes late. Tired of … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Blast from past, Development, Providence, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Postcard from Providence 1997

Posted on July 15, 2014 by David Brussat

Here is the 1992 column mentioned in today’s post “Let’s ruin Kennedy Plaza” in which I suggest merging the plaza with Burnside Park to form a Central Park for Providence. I also placed the bus hub under “Kennedy Park.” On … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Architecture History, Art and design, Blast from past, Preservation, Providence, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Let’s ruin Kennedy Plaza

Posted on July 14, 2014 by David Brussat

[This is not my weekly column in The Providence Journal. It is a post on my blog Architecture Here and There. I am on a week’s vacation.] * * * For an urban city bus hub, Kennedy Plaza’s intermodal station, … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Development, Providence, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , | 10 Comments

Kennedy Plaza video

Posted on July 13, 2014 by David Brussat

Here is a fascinating and extremely useful time-lapse video of Kennedy Plaza that, in two and a half minutes, shows buses and riders entering and leaving the plaza from 3:05 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 1, 2012. To … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Old Video, Providence, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

My reply to that then

Posted on July 12, 2014 by David Brussat

Since we are already in the wayback machine, here is the column I wrote following the publication of Journal reporter John Castellucci’s interview with modernist Derek Bradford back in 1996: The silence of the modernists April 18, 1996 JOHN CASTELLUCCI’S … Continue reading →

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How modernism thinks

Posted on July 12, 2014 by David Brussat

Derek Bradford, the modernist architect, longtime professor of architecture at RISD and Capital Center design review panelist whom I mentioned in Thursday’s column “Providence’s long romance with brick,” was interviewed by Providence Journal reporter John Castellucci back in 1996. Castellucci … Continue reading →

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Column: Providence’s long romance with brick

Posted on July 10, 2014 by David Brussat

Brick often finds itself in the dog house. Long ago in Providence, architectural historian and local preservation heroine Antoinette Downing, sitting on the design review panel of the Capital Center Commission, is said to have sniggered at one of the … Continue reading →

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Dish Dallas kitsch

Posted on July 9, 2014 by David Brussat

Mark Lamster writes about architecture for the Dallas Morning News, which owns, at least for now, my employer, the Providence Journal (for sale by A.H. Belo, which also owns the Morning News).* So I was predisposed to be generous in … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Architecture History, Providence | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments