Category Archives: Uncategorized

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

Songs of electric car silence

Posted on February 1, 2020 by David Brussat

One of the endearing features of electric and hybrid cars is the silence of their engines. So of course that feature is about to meet its maker. U.S. and E.U. regulators are calling for noisemaking electric engines for safety reasons. … Continue reading →

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The real Minette de Silva

Posted on January 30, 2020 by David Brussat

Sometimes it seems like open season on female architects as long as they are in cahoots with the roving eye of Le Corbusier, one of the founding fathers of modern architecture. There is the recurrent hullaballoo over Eileen Gray, whose … Continue reading →

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Bad Mad Men

Posted on January 28, 2020 by David Brussat

See them (the bad mad men) lurking in the background? Please don’t remove the foreground (the bad mad, often angry, women)! So here’s Dan Bishop, production designer for Mad Men, describing (I think in Dwell magazine, as my source seems … Continue reading →

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Gone fishin’; back soon, II

Posted on January 26, 2020 by David Brussat

On Tuesday I go under the knife for an aortic valve replacement, and I deeply thank all who have wished me well, both the first time (the operation was originally scheduled for Dec. 17) and this time. Nobody wants his … Continue reading →

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Gone fishing, be back soon

Posted on December 16, 2019 by David Brussat

Originally posted on Architecture Here and There:
(Peanuts Worldwide) Those who have wished me the best* have my heartfelt thanks, but please, let us not forget what I was really fishing for – examples of new traditional architecture completed during…

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments

Gone fishing, be back soon

Posted on December 16, 2019 by David Brussat

Those who have wished me the best* have my heartfelt thanks, but please, let us not forget what I was really fishing for – examples of new traditional architecture completed during this past year of 2019. As a reminder, I … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 15 Comments

Providence riots, 1824, 1831

Posted on November 23, 2019 by David Brussat

Here is my Feb. 24, 2005, column in the Providence Journal, headlined “Hardscrabble and Snowtown of yore”: *** HARDSCRABBLE and Snowtown are old Providence neighborhoods that have fallen off the map. In 1824, Hardscrabble was a poor enclave of houses … Continue reading →

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Henry James inhales Nimes

Posted on June 25, 2019 by David Brussat

Here is a passage from A Little Tour in France, by Henry James, published in 1884. In this passage he is in Nîmes, a town in Provence best known for the Maison Carrée, a survivor from Roman days that inspired … Continue reading →

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Fane tower & Hudson Yards

Posted on March 26, 2019 by David Brussat

A relic of dated 2000s thinking, nearly devoid of urban design, it declines to blend into the city grid. The Fane tower, right? That building proposed for the Jewelry District near downtown Providence? No. In fact, it’s the Hudson Yards … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Development, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | 10 Comments