Tag Archives: Alistair Horne

Riding by versus looking at

Posted on March 17, 2017 by David Brussat

Yesterday I posted a couple of quotes from Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises. Of a taxi ride down the Boulevard Raspail, the author has his protagonist muse: “It is a street I do not mind walking down at all. But … Continue reading →

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Fond adieu to Horne’s Paris

Posted on February 18, 2017 by David Brussat

Here are several more passages lifted from the closing chapters of Alistair Horne’s engaging Seven Ages of Paris: Less felicitous were architectural scandals like the Tour Montparnasse (started in 1959, but not finished till 1973), greatest urban project since Haussmann, … Continue reading →

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Le era (er, error) de Corbu

Posted on February 8, 2017 by David Brussat

Here is what Alistair Horne has to say about Le Corbusier in his book Seven Ages of Paris. It is on page 330. In my opinion, he lets the guy off too lightly. … [A]fter 1919 most new building shifted … Continue reading →

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More from ‘7 Ages of Paris’

Posted on February 5, 2017 by David Brussat

Here are a couple more passages from Alistair Horne’s Seven Ages of Paris: The first two are from his section on the Second Empire: With so much borrowed from the past, was there (leaving aside the new apartment blocks) any … Continue reading →

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Haussmann’s urban removal

Posted on February 2, 2017 by David Brussat

Preservationists and architects should be enemies: the preservation of any old building postpones work designing a new building to replace it. Baron Haussmann’s demolition and rebuilding of much of old Paris in the third quarter of the 19th century created … Continue reading →

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