Category Archives: Urbanism and planning

The sad primacy of Unite

Posted on October 10, 2014 by David Brussat

Regarding the minimal-security affordable housing project in Harlem by David Adjaye, this morning I have received a trenchant email from Malcolm Millais, author of Exploding the Myths of Modern Architecture: How strange, by coincidence I saw this Horror in Harlem … Continue reading →

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Against Adjaye’s agitprop

Posted on October 9, 2014 by David Brussat

Adding to the widespread perception that British architect David Adjaye’s affordable-housing project in Harlem looks like a prison, architect Marc Szarkowski offers, on TradArch, this pertinent riposte to the recent mass exercise in droolery from the commentariat: Let’s see, from … Continue reading →

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Attack on Kennedy Plaza

Posted on October 7, 2014 by David Brussat

My last post may have unintentionally dissed Burnside Park and Kennedy Plaza, leaving readers with the impression that they were failures, and that Providence civic leaders and city officials, along with the state transit authority, were valiantly riding to the … Continue reading →

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Jane Jacobs and KP

Posted on October 6, 2014 by David Brussat

Jane Jacobs had some interesting things to say in The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961) about parks, and while Kennedy Plaza is not a park (though it has Burnside Park right next to it), some of it … Continue reading →

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Radiant Garden City Beautiful

Posted on October 5, 2014 by David Brussat

If wizards like Henry Hope Reed can be wrong on occasion, so can Jane Jacobs, who in our era is even more famous for her own pathbreaking book, The Death and Life of Great American Cities. Its chief claim to … Continue reading →

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Henry and ‘the Heterodox’

Posted on October 4, 2014 by David Brussat

Henry Hope Reed was such a perfectionist that his detractors, and perhaps even some of his friends, called him Henry Hopeless Reed. What he sought was too perfect, too unlikely ever to be built. Hopeless. Since classical architecture is the … Continue reading →

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Henry Reed’s Philadelphia II

Posted on September 30, 2014 by David Brussat

Here are more shots from Philadelphia, not all of which will be strictly to the taste of Henry Hope Reed, the honoree of a symposium held at the Franklin Inn Club there on Saturday. The photo above shows the late … Continue reading →

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Henry Reed’s Philadelphia

Posted on September 29, 2014 by David Brussat

Your far-flung correspondent was in Philadelphia (five-hour train ride) to attend, speak at and report on the Henry Hope Reed legacy symposium sponsored by the city’s chapter of the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art. It was a delightful and … Continue reading →

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New Engand Diary

Posted on September 15, 2014 by David Brussat

That it is easy to park on the wrong street of the same name one town over in New England is like saying that if you don’t like the weather in New England, wait five minutes and it will change. … Continue reading →

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First onto 195 land

Posted on September 13, 2014 by David Brussat

First reported this week in the Providence Business News, Johnson & Wales University has proposed the first new building to arise on land near downtown Providence freed by the relocation of Route 195. Predictably, it will be a sort of … Continue reading →

Posted in Architects, Development, Providence, Rhode Island, Uncategorized, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , | 1 Comment