Category Archives: Uncategorized

A tale of two PPS events

Posted on May 11, 2017 by

Originally posted on Architecture Here and There:
Aerial view of Cathedral Square shows many entry points into the plaza. (Digital Commons @ RIC) Over the course of four days the Providence Preservation Society hosted two events, one about Cathedral Square,…

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My Jane’s Walk, tomorrow

Posted on May 5, 2017 by

Originally posted on Architecture Here and There:
Jane Jacobs in 1961, leading fight for West Village at Lions Head restaurant, in NYC. Jane Jacobs’s 101st birthday is coming up on Thursday, May 4, so my Jane’s Walk tour along the…

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Rhode Island, circa 1947

Posted on March 29, 2017 by

Here’s a video of a nine-minute promotional film on Rhode Island, the smallest state in the union – though the state with the nation’s highest per capita production of industrial goods. The grainy black & white photography and the “professional” … Continue reading →

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S.J. Perelman in Wash. Sq.

Posted on March 23, 2017 by

Who hasn’t seen a musical that makes you want, in the spirit of the moment, to leap up and dance down that stone balustrade past the water fountain and into the dappled park, singing a Broadway tune to beat the … Continue reading →

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Christopher Gray, RIP

Posted on March 14, 2017 by

Just got a sad email from Irving Sheldon, my friend and former colleague at the Providence Journal, that Christopher Gray has just died. From 1987 to 2014, he wrote the weekly “Streetscapes” column in the real-estate section on Sundays for … Continue reading →

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Cement plant for living in

Posted on February 28, 2017 by

Ricardo Bofill has long been known for bombastic and gargantuan pseudoclassicism – his take on postmodernism’s ironic dismissal of the classical orders and traditional ornament. In 1973, the Spanish architect purchased an old abandoned cement plant near Barcelona, and has … Continue reading →

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Betsky goes ballistic

Posted on February 26, 2017 by

Originally posted on Architecture Here and There:
CCTV tower in Beijing – known as “Big Pants,” it seems intended to crush the people. (nytimes.com) Let the establishment – in this case the New York Times – allow to be uttered…

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Our buildings, our selves

Posted on February 24, 2017 by

Originally posted on Architecture Here and There:
Details of Trinity Church, Copley Square, Boston. (Photo by David Brussat) Ann Sussman, author with Justin Hollander of Cognitive Architecture, has an article in Planning magazine, “Planning for the Subconscious,” that suggests that…

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And the race is on!

Posted on February 13, 2017 by

Providence. Friday, February 10. 7:45 a.m. This is a completely absurdist concept for a blog post, but my cab to Green Airport, outside of Providence, will (I hope) pick me up in 45 minutes. So here, to be brief, are … Continue reading →

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Atayants’s classical Russia

Posted on January 27, 2017 by

The Russian classicist Maxim Atayants’s winning entry in a 2014 competition to design a new judicial quarter in St. Petersburg for the supreme court to be relocated from Moscow was, according to architectural blogger Peter Keller, revoked a year ago. … Continue reading →

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