Tag Archives: Architectural History

Architecture of the picturesque

Posted on October 26, 2020 by David Brussat

Having just twitted a panel of architects for having “touched on weighty academic matters that would never enter the mind of most citizens,” I beg readers’ pardon for touching on such a matter here. Many classicists blame “the picturesque” for … Continue reading →

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See “Divine Providence”

Posted on August 5, 2019 by David Brussat

On Sunday, Aug. 11 at 2:30 p.m., in the elegant RISD Auditorium (1940), the Rhode Island International Film Festival will feature Divine Providence: The Rebirth of an American City. Tickets may be reserved at this link for $10. How it … Continue reading →

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Curl’s American lecture tour

Posted on May 3, 2019 by David Brussat

Professor James Stevens Curl, author of the pathbreaking Making Dystopia: The Strange Rise and Survival of Architectural Barbarism, will be visiting on our side of the pond to receive a Ross Award from the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art. … Continue reading →

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Review: ‘Making Dystopia’

Posted on November 2, 2018 by David Brussat

[Review by David Brussat of Making Dystopia, by James Stevens Curl. Oxford University Press. 592 pages. U.S. publication date Oct. 23, 2018.] *** Modern architecture has hoaxed the world for well over half a century. Charlatans bred the founding modernist … Continue reading →

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Our “Homes Sweet Homes”

Posted on September 16, 2018 by David Brussat

In his remarkable new book Making Dystopia, James Stevens Curl keeps quoting someone called Osbert Lancaster, who is cited 20 times in the book’s extensive index. Who is Osbert Lancaster? Well, it turns out my friend David Mittell, of Jamaica … Continue reading →

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‘Making Dystopia’: Arrival

Posted on August 8, 2018 by David Brussat

There it was. Sitting on my stoop. Wrapped in a plain brown postal envelope. I picked it up. Oof! It weighs a ton. It is not big but it is heavy. A brick of gold. Making Dystopia: The Strange Rise … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Books and Culture, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Millar on Harrison in Prov

Posted on June 4, 2018 by David Brussat

John Millar has sent me some contextual thoughts about his attribution of some famous old Providence buildings to architect Peter Harrison (see my post “Harrison’s excellent career,” written after his lecture at the Boston Athenaeum last Thursday). His attribution to … Continue reading →

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Pevsner’s archiperversity

Posted on April 20, 2018 by David Brussat

What are the sources of modern architecture? I recently completed Nikolaus Pevsner’s The Sources of Modern Architecture and Design, published by the famous German-turned-Brit architectural historian in 1968. Rarely have so many underlinings arisen in protest against so much dubious … Continue reading →

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Review: “Classic Columns”

Posted on December 1, 2017 by David Brussat

Aside from my own book Lost Providence, Robert Adam’s Classic Columns, published by Cumulus Books, London, is the recent book that I would place highest on my list of books to give to friends or family members interested in architecture … Continue reading →

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Brown attacks College Hill

Posted on December 13, 2015 by David Brussat

Four excellent old houses disappeared, poof!, from the Brown campus in recent weeks. In “New campus for Brown engineering?” I protested their proposed demise in a column in 2014. Now the design for what is to replace them has been … Continue reading →

Posted in Architects, Architecture, Architecture Education, Architecture History, Art and design, Development, Preservation, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments