Category Archives: Uncategorized

The 4th w/out the Overture

Posted on July 8, 2016 by David Brussat

I am still suffering from Tchaikovsky’s Retreat from Providence. Last year the Rhode Island Philharmonic gave a bravura performance of “The 1812 Overture” for the city’s Fourth of July celebration at India Point Park. Not this year. I have no … Continue reading →

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Independence architecture

Posted on July 4, 2016 by David Brussat

The classicism of the Jefferson Memorial, inspired by the Pantheon in Rome, a design beloved of Jefferson, is by John Russell Pope and was dedicated in 1943, during the Second World War. The monument’s classicism was pecked at by modernist … Continue reading →

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Gaudi’s Manhattan tower

Posted on July 3, 2016 by David Brussat

That Gaudi had considered erecting a New York skyscraper is not widely known. William O’Connor writes of it in “Gaudi’s Lost Manhattan Tower” for the Daily Beast. O’Connor prates absurdly of Gaudi’s modernism – more than any other major architect, … Continue reading →

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Give modernism a beating

Posted on June 17, 2016 by David Brussat

This list of architectural models in movies that look askance at modern architecture through the lens of film was linked from a piece in Architizer warning architects not to go see The Architect, a movie coming out soon. It mentioned … Continue reading →

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Beautiful Brutalist buildings

Posted on June 11, 2016 by David Brussat

Contradiction in terms? Not to architecture critic Jonathan Glancey; still less, one must assume, to Peter Chadwick, who has devoted an entire book, This Brutal World, from which Glancey has selected his favorites in “Ten beautiful Brutalist buildings” for the … Continue reading →

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Cafe Pushkin comes alive

Posted on May 22, 2016 by David Brussat

No doubt inspired by photographs of mahogany antiques crammed with romantic abandon into a lovely building in downtown Providence (see my post “Tilden-Thurber memories“), Malcolm Millais, author of Exploding the Myths of Modern Architecture, has sent me a tale, in … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Architecture History, Art and design, Books and Culture, Interior Design, Other countries, Preservation, Uncategorized, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Miniatures, near and afar

Posted on May 19, 2016 by David Brussat

Clay Fulkerson, designer and sculptor of miniature temples, sent me a photo of his latest temple, a Baroque incense burner, shortly after I posted a video of pencil lead sculptures by Salavat Fidai, which elicited from Andrew Reed a photo … Continue reading →

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See ‘High Rise’ film trailer

Posted on May 17, 2016 by David Brussat

Imagine my thrill at learning today that J.G. Ballard’s suspense novel, High-Rise, depicting what can come of the pressures that build up in the compressed psychosis of a modern residential tower, came out as a film in Britain last year, … Continue reading →

Posted in Architects, Architecture, Architecture Education, Architecture History, Art and design, Development, Interior Design, Landscape Architecture, Uncategorized, Urbanism and planning, Video | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Capt. Aubrey’s dad’s house

Posted on May 12, 2016 by David Brussat

I am on the seventh volume* of my fourth circumnavigation of Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey-Maturin series of 21 novels, set during the Napoleonic Era. Much of it takes place between bouts of naval warfare, at home as an half-pay officer with … Continue reading →

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Sleeping girl, sleeping father

Posted on March 27, 2016 by David Brussat

My friend Philip Jameson, the photographer, saw my post of sad sculptures and sent this shot he took in Athens of the “Sleeping Girl,” lightly brushed by sun. Philip’s fond belief is that the sculptor was the girl’s father, and … Continue reading →

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