Category Archives: Urbanism and planning

Film of foreign cities, c. 1920

Posted on January 15, 2015 by David Brussat

Here is an amazing series of clips filmed around 1920, apparently during the travels of a U.S. Navy fleet to various port and other cities around the world. When the sailors get out of the way (as they do quite … Continue reading →

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Survey: Your preferred row

Posted on January 15, 2015 by David Brussat

Matthew Johnson, writing in ArchDaily of the furor aroused by the recent Bingler/Pedersen oped in the New York Times, the response by Aaron Betsky as mouthpiece of the American Institute of Architects, and the tart wrap-up of the brouhaha by … Continue reading →

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Milwaukee ex-mayor on 195

Posted on January 13, 2015 by David Brussat

I am gratified to post the comment of former Milwaukee Mayor John Norquist, who revitalized the city’s downtown in the 1990s before spending a decade, I think, as president of the Congress for the New Urbanism. Responding to my post … Continue reading →

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By the book on the 195 land

Posted on January 13, 2015 by David Brussat

The front page of the Providence Journal today shows an architect with a pasteboard rendering of the new student housing he has proposed for the Route 195 Redevelopment District. It could have been swiped right from the 195 commission’s Toolkit … Continue reading →

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Providence’s ‘renaissance’

Posted on January 12, 2015 by David Brussat

The scalawag bugbear of an agitator Mary Ann Sorrentino on Sunday deplored downtown Providence in her Journal oped, “Walking through our moribund ‘renaissance’ city.” She describes strolling through town describing its former delights to her granddaughter. You can see the … Continue reading →

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Film of Charleston in 1934

Posted on January 12, 2015 by David Brussat

Here is a film of Charleston, S.C., taken three years after the city passed its landmark preservation law, first of its kind in the world. Its streets today are much more as they were then than in the recently posted … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Architecture History, Old Video, Preservation, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Mayors and modernism

Posted on January 7, 2015 by David Brussat

Here is a column I wrote back on May 22, 2008, just after Boris Johnson’s election as mayor of London. At the time there was good news coming from the mouths of mayors in Italy and Czechoslovakia as well. Rome … Continue reading →

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Film of Chicago in 1940s

Posted on January 7, 2015 by David Brussat

Here’s a wonderful film of Chicago from the 1940s, discovered by film editor Jeff Altman at an estate sale on the South Side of the Windy City. A good portion of the film was taken from their air, courtesy of … Continue reading →

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Simon Jenkins contra Boris

Posted on January 6, 2015 by David Brussat

This piece in London’s Evening Standard by Simon Jenkins may lack the flair of Rowan Moore’s denunciation of the Walkie-Talkie in the Observer (I assure you that Jenkins is quite capable of summoning that flair). But Jenkins takes aim at … Continue reading →

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Rowan Moore’s confusion

Posted on January 5, 2015 by David Brussat

Rowan Moore’s tart critique in the Observer of London’s newest tower since the hideous Shard – the Walkie-Talkie-Scorchie Building (20 Fenchurch) – is a joy to read. His sallies against the building that no longer burns cars on the streets … Continue reading →

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