Tag Archives: Beauty

The good cheer of beauty

Posted on December 26, 2016 by David Brussat

Vanity Fair, by William Makepeace Thackeray, was published as a serial novel of 20 monthly parts in issues of Punch magazine from January 1847 to July 1848. So next month will be the 170th anniversary of its appearance in print. … Continue reading →

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Transport official on beauty

Posted on November 3, 2016 by David Brussat

On my ballot next Tuesday I will write in John Hayes for president. Dammit! He is ineligible. He is a member of Parliament, and now Britain’s minister for transport, newly appointed by Prime Minister Theresa May, successor to David Cameron … Continue reading →

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Krier on the people’s choice

Posted on September 2, 2016 by David Brussat

Leon Krier argues that people should be permitted to prefer architecture they like, and dismisses modernists who browbeat the public for the alleged ignorance it expresses in disliking their work. His latest piece in BD, Britain’s building design journal, is … Continue reading →

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J&W’s engineering error

Posted on September 1, 2016 by David Brussat

Johnson & Wales University is about to open up its new engineering facility, named for its chancellor, John Bowen. It will be the first building on land vacated by the relocation of Route 195 to the south of downtown. Providence … Continue reading →

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How does tower still stand?

Posted on August 26, 2016 by David Brussat

Its bell is gone but somehow the tower along the main road through Amatrice survived the magnitude 6.2 earthquake that hit central Italy early Wednesday morning. At least 267 souls perished. Some of these mountain villages hit may never revive.In … Continue reading →

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Lovely rough-hewn brick

Posted on August 18, 2016 by David Brussat

Beauty is not always symmetrical, or smooth or polished. Neither is nature. Some of the most beautiful buildings have a sort of rough-hewn quality, often provided gratis over the years by time and weather. The matter came up yesterday when … Continue reading →

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Photochromatic coloration

Posted on August 11, 2016 by David Brussat

Here, in “Please Don’t Take My Photochrome,” courtesy of Geoff Manaugh at BLDGBLOG, are a good bunch of photochrome photographs of European and North African buildings housed at the Library of Congress. Manaugh writes: “Each image has a strangely volumetric … Continue reading →

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Dicey dioramas of ruin porn

Posted on July 20, 2016 by David Brussat

Lori Nix and Kathleen Gerber have fashioned what might be described as apocalypic dollhouses to create an end-of-the-world sensibility. The result, from an article in Architizer titled “The Beauty of Decay: These Stunning Dioramas Depict Perfect Post-Apocalyptic Architecture,” brings to … Continue reading →

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Nice and soulful architecture

Posted on July 15, 2016 by David Brussat

It is hard to think with violence raining down, near and far. I am far from it in Providence, at least for now. My heart goes out to Nice. In a strange way its beauty struck me as I read … Continue reading →

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Who owns Europe’s night?

Posted on July 1, 2016 by David Brussat

Videographer Luke Shepard and a companion traveled through 36 cities in 21 European countries to film “Nightvision: The Brilliance and Diversity of Euoropean Architecture.” It captures buildings of both chief types, old and new, traditional and modernist They are different. … Continue reading →

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