Tag Archives: Beauty

Degrading Paris newsstands

Posted on June 4, 2016 by David Brussat

My correspondent in Paris, Mary Campbell Gallagher, warns that its mayor, Anne Hidalgo, wants to replace the city’s historic newsstands with a new version of greater spaciousness but lesser gloire. In its relative mildness, this initiative seems to contradict almost … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Architecture Education, Architecture History, Art and design, Development, Other countries, Preservation, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Beauty and the bore

Posted on April 14, 2016 by David Brussat

Several people have sent me “The Psychological Cost of Boring Buildings,” by Jacoba Urist in New York Magazine. The title hooked me, of course, but her essay hardly went down like an oyster. First, I am distrustful of “studies,” especially … Continue reading →

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Sadness etched in stone

Posted on March 26, 2016 by David Brussat

The sculptures linked here as “15 utterly incomparable sculptures of the past and present” may or may not be utterly incomparable but are unutterably beautiful, some perhaps more fervently so than others. Most or maybe all evoke sadness, melancholy or … Continue reading →

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Mittell: “Why I love Lviv”

Posted on January 26, 2016 by David Brussat

David A. Mittell Jr., of Boston, has visited Lviv 22 times, some of them while he was on the editorial board of the Providence Journal, where I first met him. He now writes independently, after a stint as editor of … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Architecture History, Art and design, Other countries, Preservation, Providence Journal, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

What is architecture about?

Posted on November 25, 2015 by David Brussat

Stephen Fry, celebrated British actor and humorist best known on this side of the pond for his portrayal of Jeeves, manservant to Bertie Wooster in the TV series Jeeves and Wooster, published his first novel, Liar, in 1991, which also … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Art and design, Books and Culture, Humor, Landscape Architecture, Photography, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Paris strong, Paris beautiful

Posted on November 14, 2015 by David Brussat

Very little suggests itself to me in reply to last night’s evil events in Paris except to assert, a year after the Charlie Hebdo attack, that America still has France’s back. America is next. It becomes deadly clear that the … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Architecture History, Art and design, Books and Culture, Other countries, Photography, Preservation, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Goldberger on Newport

Posted on September 30, 2015 by David Brussat

Here is the column from 1997 about Paul Goldberger’s lecture in Newport that I refer to in my blog “Botching history in Newport.” The illustration above, which went viral online, is from an recent exhibit at the Newport Historical Society. … Continue reading →

Posted in Architects, Architecture, Architecture Education, Architecture History, Art and design, Blast from past, Development, Rhode Island, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Architecture and friendliness

Posted on September 23, 2015 by David Brussat

My friend Cliff Vanover just sent me a link to Travel & Leisure’s new survey on the 266 places that made it onto its list of World’s Unfriendliest Cities. The unfriendliest was Moscow. A hint of political bias, perhaps? How … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Art and design, Books and Culture, Other countries, Photography, Providence, Rhode Island, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Architecture and happiness

Posted on September 23, 2015 by David Brussat

In “Why the ‘happiest’ cities are boring,” John Kay of the Financial Times makes a series of very important distinctions between happy cities and great cities, and in doing so he challenges most of the reigning official definitions of happiness … Continue reading →

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“Up from Ugliness” at NYT

Posted on July 17, 2015 by David Brussat

Here is what I wrote about a New York Times column before learning it was published not recently but in 2011. Sigh. Well, the points do remain valid. * * * Ross Douthat, a regular columnist at the New York … Continue reading →

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