Tag Archives: Beauty

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

Rome: Who are those guys?

Posted on August 20, 2018 by

Who are those guys? Good question. But first, I must point out that indecipherable notes on a recent lecture force me to leapfrog a topic I’d intended to address today and grab a quicky topic instead. I’ve chosen to simply … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Photography, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Sir Roger Scruton on beauty

Posted on May 12, 2018 by

Here is a lovely video of the British philosopher and architectural theorist Roger Scruton called “Why Beauty Matters.” The usefulness of beauty in uplifting human lives serves as the bottom-line rationale for my book Lost Providence. But if you have … Continue reading →

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

Talk the talk on buildings

Posted on February 7, 2018 by

An essay by Marianela D’Aprile, “What We Talk About When We Don’t Talk About Buildings,” on the website Common\Edge, gathers together some strands of discourse about architecture that I’ve posted on recently. Most particularly, I refer to a post called … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 16 Comments

The uses of preservation

Posted on January 12, 2018 by

“The Uses of Corruption” is an essay by Theodore Dalrymple published in the Summer 2001 issue of City Journal, the quarterly of the Manhattan Institute. Dalrymple is a British sociologist and commentator who argues that Italy is more prosperous and … Continue reading →

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