Category Archives: Uncategorized

Aliens didn’t build pyramids

Posted on April 12, 2022 by David Brussat

News flash: Aliens did not build the Great Pyramid! The Spectator’s A.S.H. Smyth has reviewed a recent book by a pair of senior Egyptologists, Pierre Tallet and Mark Lehner: The Red Sea Scrolls: How Ancient Papyri Reveal the Secrets of … Continue reading →

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TAG 4.2 versus TAG 4.2?

Posted on February 26, 2022 by David Brussat

TAG 4.2 means traditional architecture gathering, this year held via Zoom from the offices, in Washington, D.C., of the Classical Planning Institute founded by Nir Buras, an Israeli American architect, author of The Art of Classic Planning, and impresario of … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 13 Comments

Another travesty at Brown?

Posted on April 13, 2021 by David Brussat

Brown sent a gang of its minions to present its latest proposed abomination to the Fox Point Neighborhood Association last night. The two huge rectangular boxes with skewed roofs on either side of poor Brook Street (disembowled recently by the … Continue reading →

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Before the London fire, 1666

Posted on October 1, 2020 by David Brussat

An engraver by trade, John Thomas Smith trod this earth two centuries ago (1766-1833), and was also known as “Antiquity Smith.” He etched buildings in London that had survived the Great Fire of 1666, many of which were being demolished … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture History, Art and design, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | 11 Comments

Modern Diner, USModernist

Posted on August 19, 2020 by David Brussat

Great good news! I just now learned that, after half a year of closure, the excellent Modern Diner, in Pawtucket, has reopened. There is, I should say, nothing modern about the Modern Diner, just a ways down Hope Street, then … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | 6 Comments

Amend GSA’s guidelines?

Posted on July 31, 2020 by David Brussat

After February’s leak of the draft executive order to prefer traditional design for federal architecture, many architects, including some classicists, worried that classicism would be hurt by any proposal linked to President Trump. Now, on the heels of a congressional … Continue reading →

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Monster U.’s oddball campus

Posted on April 17, 2020 by David Brussat

Imprisoned in our own home, we decided (that is, Billy, 11, decided, with Mom’s backing) that we’d watch Monster University, a 2013 Disney animated prequel to 2001’s Monster Inc. by Pixar. Monster U. features six cute young frat monsters led … Continue reading →

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

Video of Manhattan in 1911

Posted on February 28, 2020 by David Brussat

This is, I am pretty sure, the best video of old New York City that I’ve come across. At eight and a half minutes, it is among the longest, with crisp photography and a wide range of locations. Ladies and … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Uncategorized | 5 Comments

Video of pencil sculptures

Posted on February 5, 2020 by David Brussat

A marvelous minute of video portrays a virtuoso hand at sculpting the lead out of a pencil. Click on “Art on the tip of a pencil” to view a minute of how Salavat Fidai gets the lead out. More can … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments

Homage to Penn Station

Posted on February 3, 2020 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 Uncategorized | 2 Comments