Tag Archives: Ada Louise Huxtable

The College Hill Study, cont.

Posted on October 31, 2022 by David Brussat

Here is the second half of Chapter 16, “The College Hill Study,” from Lost Providence. The study’s proposals, released in 1959, would have replaced much of the fabled district’s historical houses with modernist infill, although most of the houses condemned … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Lost Providence | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Better lights for Providence

Posted on October 17, 2022 by David Brussat

Getting into the Wayback Machine, I alight on this blog post from February 6, 2015, called “Better lights for Providence,” atop of which is a beautiful photo of Benefit Street and its lovely, faux-18th century amber lights. I thought that … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Art and design, Blast from past | Tagged , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Hudson Yards as Dildoville

Posted on October 6, 2019 by David Brussat

The other day a correspondent sent me, under the title “Beyond parody,” an item from Architect’s Newspaper headlined “Design firm turns Hudson Yards towers into sex toys.” This family blog must of course issue a firm “No comment.” The late … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Humor | Tagged , , , , , | 7 Comments

North vs. South on Benefit

Posted on October 16, 2018 by David Brussat

After a couple of centuries dodging various bullets, including the College Hill Study of 1959, Benefit Street has come under the wing of a new organization called the Mile of History Association. It held its first annual meeting Sunday in … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Preservation | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

A timeline of “authenticity”

Posted on July 11, 2017 by David Brussat

Authenticity must rank near the top of the list of dubious words. Authentic has been split from its original meaning and used to brush a patina of merit upon many dubious ideas. A good example is its use by the … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Video | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Huxtable versus Huxtable

Posted on April 10, 2017 by David Brussat

Ada Louise Huxtable’s first collection of her New York Times criticism, Will They Ever Finish Bruckner Boulevard?, is subtitled “A Primer on Urbicide.” The widely admired book, first published in 1970, is less than the sum of its parts. It … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Books and Culture | Tagged , , , , , | 8 Comments

The Huxtable joke’s on us

Posted on April 1, 2017 by David Brussat

It may sound like an April Fool’s joke, but I recently started to read Will They Ever Finish Bruckner Boulevard? Turns out the joke’s on us. The book’s author, the late Ada Louise Huxtable, was, as most readers of this … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Hitler’s revenge on America

Posted on June 8, 2016 by David Brussat

The journal Places has published, as the inaugural installment in its Future Archive series of forgotten writing of the past century, a 1968 essay for Art in America by Sibyl Moholy-Nagy called “Hitler’s Revenge.” The essay is introduced by Despina … Continue reading →

Posted in Architects, Architecture, Architecture Education, Architecture History, Art and design, Development, Preservation, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Astonishing Ishmael in N.B.

Posted on October 4, 2015 by David Brussat

Traveling with my son Billy to New Bedford today, eager to check out the new addition to its famous Whaling museum, here is my column from 1997 about the Whaling City. The aquarium proposed for N.B. has not yet been … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Architecture History, Art and design, Blast from past, Development, Preservation, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Kimmelman swoops Whitney

Posted on April 24, 2015 by David Brussat

It took Theodore Dalrymple, an essayist for the Manhattan Institute’s splendid quarterly, City Journal, to pull back the curtain on the operatic vapidity of New York Times architecture critic Michael Kimmelman. The latter has written his architectural review of the … Continue reading →

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