Category Archives: Providence

Blast: Ah, the sandbox!

Posted on June 27, 2014 by David Brussat

Ah, here is that long lost column, from July 1996, in which I mentioned to a friend that a sandbox for the modernists might be an appropriate thing for her neighborhood, whereupon she kicked sand in my face. Someone just … Continue reading →

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Blast: Seeking the sandbox

Posted on June 27, 2014 by David Brussat

Yesterday’s column referred to the “sandbox for the modernists,” notifying readers that I had once promised Providence modernists a sandbox they could play in on that distant tomorrow when land vacated after Route 195 was relocated would be vacant and … Continue reading →

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Column: No need for preservation veto on 195

Posted on June 26, 2014 by David Brussat

Should Rhode Island’s state office of historic preservation have a veto over the design of buildings proposed for the land I once described as a “sandbox for the modernists”? Yes, it should. But no, it shouldn’t. A memorandum of agreement … Continue reading →

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Column: Bill Warner, due diligence and history

Posted on June 19, 2014 by David Brussat

The Rhode Island Senate has passed legislation, Senate Bill No. 2255, to rename State Bridge No. 1181 — known as the Providence River Bridge — as the William D. Warner Memorial Bridge. Perhaps, in the waning days of this session … Continue reading →

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Human scale in Providence

Posted on June 16, 2014 by David Brussat

Tonight I saw the documentary The Human Scale, about the work of Jan Gehl, a Dane who has sought, as I put it in last night’s post, to undo some of the damage done by modernism to the space between … Continue reading →

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The Providence conference

Posted on June 15, 2014 by David Brussat

Here is an e-mail I posted just now to the TradArch and Pro-Urb listservs, discussion groups that have for three or four days now been chewing on my last column, “Modernism invades New Urbanism,” along with architect David Rau’s cri … Continue reading →

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See ‘The Human Scale’

Posted on June 14, 2014 by David Brussat

That is a documentary film about the work of Jan Gehl, a Danish architect whose idea of “Life Between Buildings” encapsulates his desire, apparently, to undo some of the harm that modern planning and design have done to cities over … Continue reading →

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Blast: CNU in Providence (2)

Posted on June 9, 2014 by David Brussat

Here is the second of those two columns: The New Urbanists in Providence II June 8, 2006  THE QUESTION most asked at last week’s 14th Congress for the New Urbanism was: If style doesn’t matter, why are we always discussing … Continue reading →

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Blast: CNU in Providence (1)

Posted on June 9, 2014 by David Brussat

The lengthy thread called “CNU is burning” began on the TradArch listserv with architect David Rau’s ringing expression of concern that the Congress of the New Urbanism, which recently met in Buffalo, is opening its doors too widely to modern … Continue reading →

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An ecclesiastical mood

Posted on June 8, 2014 by David Brussat

Something of an agnostic myself (and a Jewish one, to boot), I used to take my son to various churches not to give him a taste of theology (he was only 2 then, and we lived near Grace Church in … Continue reading →

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