Category Archives: Uncategorized

First onto 195 land

Posted on September 13, 2014 by David Brussat

First reported this week in the Providence Business News, Johnson & Wales University has proposed the first new building to arise on land near downtown Providence freed by the relocation of Route 195. Predictably, it will be a sort of … Continue reading →

Posted in Architects, Development, Providence, Rhode Island, Uncategorized, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

WTC blues

Posted on September 8, 2014 by David Brussat

The Guardian has published a lengthy article, “1 World Trade Center: How New York Tried to Rebuild its Soul,” by Jason Farago. He bemoans the lost opportunity of the World Trade Center. But he does not mention what that lost … Continue reading →

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Sin-thetic ornament?

Posted on August 9, 2014 by David Brussat

  Here’s a column from the wayback machine in which I debunk the modernist claim – dishonest, as usual – that building traditionally with classical ornament is too expensive. If true, it’s only because the modernists themselves snuffed out the … Continue reading →

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Column’s gone fishin’?

Posted on August 7, 2014 by David Brussat

Gone fishin’. Well, not really. Seems my blogaholism has taken a vacation. Plus my sources at Brown University went AWOL, leaving me with enough information to write a damning column about Brown’s proposed new engineering campus, as I’d intended, but … Continue reading →

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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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What young people want

Posted on June 19, 2014 by David Brussat

Originally posted on Architecture Here and There:
The first of two schemes presented by Bevan & Liberatos as counter proposals to the proposed Clemson building in Charleston. Jenny Bevan, of the Charleston, S.C., architecture firm Bevan & Liberatos, has written…

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Column: Modernism invades New Urbanism

Posted on June 12, 2014 by David Brussat

The New Urbanism is really the old urbanism guided by principles of human scale, residential density, proximity and walkability. Before World War II, cities, towns and villages got built and grew over time with few rules. Builders used forms and … Continue reading →

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Eyed by Anne Boleyn

Posted on April 24, 2014 by David Brussat

Here is a passage from Bring Up the Bodies, the second, following Wolf Hall, of Hilary Mantel’s trilogy (the third is yet to be published) on Henry VIII’s romantic life. In this passage, seen from the perspective of protagonist Thomas … Continue reading →

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My 777 conspiracy theory

Posted on April 10, 2014 by David Brussat

A little (okay a lot) off topic, but like many I cannot forget about the poor jet and its passengers and their fate. But didn’t the abrupt switch away from the possibility of a hijacking and the constant focus, thereafter, on … Continue reading →

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My alma mater

Posted on March 28, 2014 by David Brussat

Guess. More tomorrow.

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