Category Archives: Uncategorized

‘Making Dystopia’: Arrival

Posted on August 8, 2018 by

There it was. Sitting on my stoop. Wrapped in a plain brown postal envelope. I picked it up. Oof! It weighs a ton. It is not big but it is heavy. A brick of gold. Making Dystopia: The Strange Rise … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Books and Culture, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

The stupidest profession …

Posted on July 31, 2018 by

Localism calls to mind various slow movements such as slow food. There should be a slow architecture movement. Localism was taken up recently by the New York Times columnist David Brooks in “The Localist Revolution: Sometimes it Pays to Sweat … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Need sigs vs. Fane today!

Posted on May 28, 2018 by

On behalf of all Providence communities, the Providence Preservation Society and Building Bridges are calling on people to get local voter signatures on the attached lists by tomorrow to force the Ordinance Committee of City Council to hold a meeting … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Development, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | 8 Comments

The Journal’s angry editorial

Posted on May 17, 2018 by

The Providence Journal today published an editorial, “Saying no to a bold future,” that castigates opponents of the proposed Fane tower as “insiders,” a term usually applied to those who manipulate the system to benefit the few at the expense … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Development, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | 24 Comments

One of Fallows’s small cities?

Posted on March 29, 2018 by

James Fallows, a longtime writer for The Atlantic, gave the keynote address at today’s Power of Place Summit, held every couple of years by Grow Smart Rhode Island, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary. With wife Deborah, Fallows has written … Continue reading →

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Rebuild the Roman Forum

Posted on March 17, 2018 by

Last October I described a master’s thesis on how to plan for a restoration of the Roman Forum – center of civic life in the capital of the Roman empire. The author, Eric Stalheim, was the first graduate of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Preservation, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 13 Comments

Battering Battersea Station

Posted on March 15, 2018 by

Owen Hatherley has denounced a large development around the historic Battersea Power Station, in London. I cannot read his piece because it is behind the paywall of The Architects’ Journal. But I do have the next best thing – its … Continue reading →

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Wild wood Scottish palace

Posted on February 9, 2018 by

Here’s a passage from Three Sisters, Three Queens, Philippa Gregory’s historical novel set in Tudor England and, mainly, Scotland that unfolds – or unravels – as Henry VIII breaks with the pope over annulling his marriage to Katherine of Aragon … Continue reading →

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Stern’s 250 W81st tops out

Posted on February 5, 2018 by

Robert A. M. Stern’s latest Manhattan apartment building at 250 West 81st St., on a corner of Broadway, recently topped out. That means the top of the building’s steel structure of girders has been achieved. It is 209 feet tall, … Continue reading →

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“White tower with curves”

Posted on February 1, 2018 by

Providence awaits its “white tower with sculptured curves.” That’s how developer Jason Fane, of New York City, now envisions his “iconic” building of 46 stories (no pics yet) as described to Providence Journal reporter Mark Reynolds in “Land sale gets … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | 20 Comments