Tag Archives: Beauty

Going wild over beauty

Posted on April 8, 2020 by

Beauty is a form of Genius – is higher, indeed, than Genius, as it needs no explanation. It is one of the great facts of the world, like sunlight, or spring-time, or the reflection in dark waters of that silver … Continue reading →

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

Comparing Italy and Britain

Posted on March 11, 2020 by

What makes a good society? Part of the answer is good architecture. Yet the good that is done by good architecture reaches well beyond beauty. Good architecture does much to create the conditions in which health, prosperity and happiness grow. … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Imagine all the buildings …

Posted on November 29, 2019 by

The other day, flipping through stacks of my old Providence Journal columns seeking a shot of a c. 1750 house in Providence’s old village of Hardscrabble (which I found), I came across a column inspired by a website’s image of … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Development | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Two fumbles in Providence

Posted on October 28, 2019 by

Among the eight or so new buildings erected in Providence with virtually zero opposition in the past two years are a pair that ought, by now, to have been reviewed here. And I will get to that. But first: The … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Development | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

A mere moment of beauty

Posted on July 26, 2019 by

These two shots of the John Carter Brown Library on the College Green of Brown University were taken as my son Billy and I paused on College Hill, waiting for Victoria, his mother and my wife (whose birthday is today), … Continue reading →

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

The streets of New York

Posted on May 9, 2019 by

I was in New York on Monday to celebrate James Stevens Curl’s laureateship, bestowed by the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art’s 2019 Arthur Ross Awards, at the University Club of New York, for his book Making Dystopia, now high … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Lovely Venice in 9 minutes

Posted on March 31, 2019 by

This beautiful travel video of Venice from Expedia lives up to the high standards of its tribe. The online travel booking service has dozens of fine videos of cities around the world that are so nice that they might make … Continue reading →

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

Seek the bottom of beauty

Posted on November 16, 2018 by

The headline of Joanne Ostrow’s article in the Denver Sun got my attention: “Is Denver’s contemporary architecture killing us?” Leaving aside that Denverites are not the only victims of modern architecture, the answer offered to Ostrow by the subject of … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Review: ‘Making Dystopia’

Posted on November 2, 2018 by

[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 →

Posted in Architecture, Book/Film Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , | 15 Comments

Buildings that go extinct

Posted on October 22, 2018 by

Here is an interesting article in The Baffler, “The Archivists of Extinction,” by McMansion Hell blogger Kate Wagner. She focuses her microscope on folks who collect and post photos of old Kmarts, Toys ‘R’ Us’s, and the like, which are … Continue reading →

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