Category Archives: Urbanism and planning

A boulevard, not a highway

The next big Providence project for a city that has seen many might be to turn the old Route 6/10 connector into a boulevard. The Providence Journal reports that the state’s transportation authorities seem surprisingly receptive to the idea as … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture, Art and design, Development, Landscape Architecture, Providence, Rhode Island, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 10 Comments

“Sorry ’bout me building!”

[This post goes onto my blog but not out to my blog send list recipients until my email server quits intercepting my bulk posts under the suspicion that they are spam. I am sorry to say that for the time … Continue reading

Posted in Architects, Architecture, Development, Humor, Other countries, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Why Angry Birds are angry

You think the three television networks are the same? Not so! Last year’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade was broadcast by NBC and this year CBS got the job. What a difference a network makes! So yes, the Angry Birds have … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture, Architecture History, Art and design, Books and Culture, Development, Humor, Urbanism and planning, Video | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

What is architecture about?

Stephen Fry, celebrated British actor and humorist best known on this side of the pond for his portrayal of Jeeves, manservant to Bertie Wooster in the TV series Jeeves and Wooster, published his first novel, Liar, in 1991, which also … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture, Art and design, Books and Culture, Humor, Landscape Architecture, Photography, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

AIA artist exposes mods

  Above on this page, Chicago illustrator Lauren Nassef reinterprets everyday objects that have become symbolic and, rendered as speculative buildings, could be iconic. Please don’t sue her. The passage appears at the end of an article in Architect, the … Continue reading

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Descent from red to green

This “charming” video is difficult to resist, and will resonate, perhaps, with drivers everywhere, especially in big cities. Although I myself am strikingly immune to the phenomenon of road rage, driving in Providence seems to grow increasingly akin to the … Continue reading

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Our Downcity walkabout

On a clear, modestly chilly evening that just about defines New England in November, hundreds were out on the streets of downtown Providence. No doubt thousands more were inside on the seats of downtown’s robust round-robin of local restaurants and … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture, Architecture History, Art and design, Preservation, Providence, Uncategorized, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Let Adelaide be Adelaide

Adelaide, Australia’s fifth-largest city, gracing the continent’s southwestern quadrant, has almost 10 times the population of the city of Providence but the same perceived needs. Manufacturing having vamoosed (you can’t say headed south), Adelaideans seek to develop medical services and … Continue reading

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

Your best lost building here!

The other day I received an email from Edward Mack, an editor at The History Press, an imprint of Arcadia Publishing. You all know their books. The regional literature shelves of your local bookstore are struggling even now under the … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture, Architecture History, Blast from past, Books and Culture, Development, Preservation, Providence, Providence Journal, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , | 8 Comments

Skyscraper vs. skyscraper

Hats off to Kristen Richards of ArchNewsNow.com for publishing a denunciation by CityLab of the (Toronto) Globe & Mail’s critic Eric Reguly’s piece “Why skyscrapers are killing great cities.” Otherwise we might not have seen the latter essay, which flies … Continue reading

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