Category Archives: Urbanism and planning

Bedford Falls or Pottersville?

Posted on December 26, 2015 by David Brussat

I saw George Bailey in Bedford Falls and Pottersville last night. You don’t see It’s a Wonderful Life on television as much as you used to. The film’s copyright lapsed for 20 years beginning in 1974. Last night I saw … Continue reading →

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Form, function and Sullivan

Posted on December 24, 2015 by David Brussat

Am plunging into a 1956 softcover copy of Louis Sullivan’s The Autobiography of an Idea, first published in the early ’20s. The introduction to this edition by University of Illinois architecture professor Ralph Marlowe Line, written with the well-known forward … Continue reading →

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Semes on Paris and our cities

Posted on December 23, 2015 by David Brussat

Steven Semes, head of the Rome program for the school of Architecture at the University of Notre Dame, and the author of The Future of the Past (one of my bibles) has written a long and, I am sure, brilliant … Continue reading →

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

Christmas card community

Posted on December 22, 2015 by David Brussat

Tom Low responded to a request on TradArch from architect Steve Mouzon for comment, thumbs up or down, on a new neighborhood in Bentonville, Ark., featured in Architect magazine, voice of the AIA (which traditionally hates traditional architecture). Low replied … Continue reading →

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Lovely house on N.J. coast

Posted on December 22, 2015 by David Brussat

David Rau has sent to TradArch his sketch of a house he has designed along the intercoastal waterway of New Jersey. I am assuming that the grayed-out structures to the left and the rear are the neighbors of the eventual … Continue reading →

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Haussmanhattan Paris

Posted on December 21, 2015 by David Brussat

The architectural historian and urbanist John Massengale, author of Street Design, sent to TradArch a most provocative email, with a photograph of the Municipal Building of New York City superimposed on a photo of the district of central Paris near … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Architecture History, Art and design, Development, Other countries, Photography, Preservation, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

My new TB and PH blog

Posted on December 20, 2015 by David Brussat

Starting on New Year’s Day my blog joins forces with the online website blogs at Traditional Building and Period Homes. Architecture Old and New will combine new essays with posts from Architecture Here and There. My monthly blog on the … Continue reading →

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Respite for an old hospital?

Posted on December 19, 2015 by David Brussat

Providence’s City Plan Commission voted unanimously last week to reject Rhode Island Hospital’s plan to demolish the oldest remaining structure on the hospital campus, its Southwest Pavilion. That’s not the end of the story, unfortunately; the hospital (owned by the Lifespan … Continue reading →

Posted in Architects, Architecture, Architecture History, Development, Preservation, Providence, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Flashmob lasers supertalls?

Posted on December 19, 2015 by David Brussat

The rise of supertallsuperthins in Manhattan has driven upward the angst over skyscrapers, but who has given much thought to what it might be like to live in one – if anyone actually does. I see a run on the … Continue reading →

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Blackstone rebuffs bumps

Posted on December 18, 2015 by David Brussat

Joan Slafsky sent me word this morning of a response by the city to the neighborhood’s expression of unified dismay at its plan to put speed bumps on Blackstone Boulevard. Here is part of the city’s letter: The City Traffic … Continue reading →

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