Tag Archives: Beauty

TB: Beauty as a social good

Posted on August 10, 2017 by

Here is my Traditional Building blog post from last month, which ran with the following headline: “Beautiful Architecture is a Social Good. Why not bottle it?” It makes much of the fact that in Manhattan residents and visitors can stroll … Continue reading →

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Hooked on bridges, are ya?

Posted on July 30, 2017 by

Well, here’s a treat for you. This collection of 29 “Stunning Bridges From Around the World” has some real beauts, plus a few bummers thrown in to help you appreciate the beauts a little more. The group, from the website … Continue reading →

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

More Hayes on beauty

Posted on July 27, 2017 by

British Transport Minister John Hayes’s remarks about beauty and transit infrastructure were quoted on Tuesday in “Sic transit beautiful? Not!” It is brilliant, but I had intended to post instead the full text of “Hayes’s speech on beauty,” a different … Continue reading →

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Sic transit beautiful? Not!

Posted on July 25, 2017 by

The race is on to see whether British Prime Minister Theresa May or American President Donald Trump will win the bilateral infrastructure beauty sweepstakes. At least we know Britain has entered. May’s Transport Minister John Hayes recently gave a speech, … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Beauty, nature or nurture?

Posted on July 4, 2017 by

I often repeat the idea that our love for beauty – and for architecture whose ornament stimulates that love – arises from our prehistoric neurobiology. Primitive man on the savannah needed to be aware of details revealing dangers to be … Continue reading →

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Lovely Venice, lovely video

Posted on June 26, 2017 by

I want to go back. To Venice. Ahhh. And to a degree, this Expedia video provides the cheapest, fastest and perhaps the most intensely beautiful way to go. Not that being there is not the best. It is. But few … Continue reading →

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

Surrounded by beauty

Posted on May 14, 2017 by

Spent Friday morning surrounded by beauty at the auctioneer’s showroom of Kevin Bruneau out Elmwood way, just over the line in Cranston. The exterior of the low, tan cinder-block building belies its contents. A visitor, having mastered the desire to … Continue reading →

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Words that protect a nude

Posted on April 11, 2017 by

The essay that accompanies the girl being sold at a Roman slave market in the 1884 painting by Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824-1904) tries to cover up the nude with protective words. The writer, Titus Techera, performs an act of charity in … Continue reading →

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A lovely 3 minutes in Rome

Posted on March 8, 2017 by

Here is a video of Rome, with some clips from Pisa and Vatican City, sent to me by Big Geek Daddy. Actually, they sent a video of Barcelona, but it was marred by too much focus on special effects, though … Continue reading →

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The eye, the mind, the heart

Posted on February 17, 2017 by

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so sayeth just about everyone, but how does the mind influence what the eye of the beholder sees? If the eye informs the brain and the brain informs the taste, then there … Continue reading →

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