Category Archives: Urbanism and planning

Another Chelsea Barracks?

Posted on January 3, 2015 by David Brussat

According to Robert Booth’s piece in The Guardian, it appears that the next battle in the style wars of architecture will take place in London’s Hyde Park. Booth’s piece, entitled “Architects’ vision of London takes inspiration from 19th-century Paris,” describes … Continue reading →

Posted in Architects, Architecture, Development, Other countries, Providence, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Welcome to Warwick? Ha!

Posted on January 3, 2015 by David Brussat

The city of Warwick has made a big mistake permitting a developer to tear down the Elizabeth Mill near T.F. Green State Airport, in Warwick. Warwickers are always miffed that airline captains say “Welcome to Providence” upon landing in Warwick. … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Development, Preservation, Rhode Island, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , | 8 Comments

The granularity of cities

Posted on January 2, 2015 by David Brussat

The University of Oklahoma’s Institute for Quality Communities has developed a website that offers superimposed maps of major American cities. The maps cover identical territory in each city, and you can slide a line in the middle to reveal the … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Development, Landscape Architecture, Preservation, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , | 7 Comments

Quack troops invade capital

Posted on December 28, 2014 by David Brussat

A friend and I drove through the swath of redevelopment land where Route 195 used to be. We wanted to view the new street infrastructure. We were yukking it up over the “art” when we had to stop to review … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Development, Humor, Landscape Architecture, Providence, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Between the lines of the NYT

Posted on December 27, 2014 by David Brussat

Steven Bingler and Martin Pedersen, the architect and the writer who called on architects to pay more attention to public taste, do not seem to realize it, and would probably not admit it, but their essay in the New York … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Architecture Education, Development, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Raise the BAR, Duany

Posted on December 23, 2014 by David Brussat

It is extremely encouraging to read in the Charleston Post and Courier that Andrès Duany has been hired to help advise the city on how to improve its Board of Architectural Review. By approving a provocative modernist Clemson building in … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Development, Preservation, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , | 11 Comments

Cuba libre, let us hope

Posted on December 20, 2014 by David Brussat

Other commentators can and will masticate the president’s new Cuba policy, but let me shed a few tears for the Cuba of yesterday known as the Cuba of today that might not last far into the Cuba of tomorrow. Havana … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Architecture History, Other countries, Photography, Preservation, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Blackstone blitzkrieg

Posted on December 17, 2014 by David Brussat

The Granoff proposal to split their land at Blackstone Boulevard and Rochambeau Avenue up into 12 lots (the two largest would include their fine old house built in 1915 and owned by the Granoffs since the ’60s) was rejected by … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Development, Preservation, Providence, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Temper of the Times

Posted on December 16, 2014 by David Brussat

This cartoon by Olivier Schrauwen that ran with “How to Rebuild Architecture,” by Steven Bingler and Martin Pedersen in yesterday’s New York Times is most evocative. An architect is directing the attention of another man to his stupid-looking houses but … Continue reading →

Posted in Architects, Architecture, Architecture Education, Art and design, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , | 22 Comments

Gentling gentrification

Posted on December 15, 2014 by David Brussat

A stinging rebuke to Australia’s capital city of Canberra, and thence to just about every other city that has embraced the placemaking agenda, comes from Oliver Wainwright in the Guardian, “50 years of gentrification: Will all our cities turn into … Continue reading →

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