Category Archives: Urbanism and planning

Adele C-T at PPS in Prov.

Adele Chatfield-Taylor will speak at tonight’s annual meeting of the Providence Preservation Society. It will be at 5:30 p.m. this evening in the Providence Public Library. Last night, trying to finally decide whether to attend or to train up to … Continue reading

Posted in Architects, Architecture, Architecture Education, Architecture History, Art and design, Development, Preservation, Providence, Urbanism and planning, Video | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

My new blog at TB and PH

My new blog is now up on the remodeled websites of two leading trade journals, Traditional Building and Period Homes,  published by the Home Group of Active Interest Media. The blog is called Architecture Old and New, a recasting of … Continue reading

Posted in Architects, Architecture, Architecture Education, Architecture History, Art and design, Books and Culture, Development, Preservation, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Bill & Hugh, together again

Here is my July 20, 1995, column from The Providence Journal about my father and his best friend, who both were city planners. The images are photographed from an old copy of the column, so I apologize if the expressions … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture, Architecture History, Art and design, Blast from past, Development, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

City planning now and then

My friend Steve’s father Hugh Mields and his friend William K. Brussat (my dad) were city planners. Steve, who is both a philatelist and a fenestration cleanliness engineer, recently sent me an envelope postmarked Washington, D.C., Oct. 2, 1967, and … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture, Architecture History, Art and design, Blast from past, Development, Humor, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Hint, hint: Rebuild Penn Sta.

Michael Kimmelman’s recent piece, “How to Transform Penn Station: Move the Garden,” revives the idea of moving Madison Square Garden into Farley Post Office (supposedly Moynihan Station someday). The Timesman unpacks some excellent ideas but doesn’t mention the one that … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture, Architecture History, Art and design, Development, Preservation, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , | 6 Comments

The “of our time” bugaboo

I have just concluded Brent Brolin’s Architectural Ornament: Banishment & Return, written in 1985 and republished in 2000. It tells the history of how the meaning of innovation and creativity was lost in the 19th and 20th centuries, leading to, … Continue reading

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RISD rides to 195 rescue

Governor Raimondo has invited the Rhode Island School of Design to help bring more innovation to the I-195 corridor. She has also hired the state’s first chief innovation officer, former CIA wonk Richard Culatta, who will work in splendid isolation … Continue reading

Posted in Architects, Architecture, Architecture Education, Architecture History, Art and design, Development, Providence, Rhode Island, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The future of Charleston?

Say it ain’t so, Joe! Say it ain’t so! Why does such a lovely, lovable city as Charleston seem so eager to commit civic suicide? It would not be easy. Charleston is healthy and strong. But, sadly, it is headed … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture, Architecture Education, Architecture History, Art and design, Development, I-195 Redevelopment District, Preservation, Providence, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Fogarty building never liked

Now that it seems as if the Fogarty Building will finally come down, the Brutalist government structure next to the Providence Journal Building downtown was treated to a love-fest in the Journal today. “Time’s Up” reads the headline of reporter … Continue reading

Posted in Architects, Architecture, Architecture Education, Architecture History, Art and design, Development, Providence, Providence Journal, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Rise and fall of Haverhill

John Massengale sent to the Pro-Urb listserv a 45-minute documentary, “Woolworth’s: Remembering Haverhill’s Shopping District,” produced just last year by Historic New England. He said it was more than you might want to know about the northern Massachusetts shoe-manufacturing town … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture, Architecture History, Art and design, Blast from past, Development, Preservation, Urbanism and planning, Video | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment