Tag Archives: Berlin

“Symphony of a Great City”

Posted on October 9, 2021 by David Brussat

This video of Berlin made in 1927 – halfway between World War I and World War II – by German filmmaker Walter Ruttman, takes viewers through a day in the life of the metropolis, from morning to noon to night. … Continue reading →

Posted in Old Video, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Daum: Four days in Berlin

Posted on January 22, 2020 by David Brussat

This essay was written by Eric Daum, founder of the firm Eric Inman Daum, Architect, who traveled with his wife, Beth Niemi, to Berlin in November. Beth had been to East Berlin in 1986, and this essay is accompanied by … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Preservation | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

Millais on rebuilding Berlin

Posted on February 28, 2018 by David Brussat

Malcolm Millais, author of Le Corbusier, the Dishonest Architect and Exploding the Myths of Modern Architecture, recently visited Berlin, in part to investigate four examples of how Germans have reconstructed historic buildings damaged by Allied bombs in World War II. … Continue reading →

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Color film of Berlin in 1900

Posted on September 13, 2017 by David Brussat

Although three decades had passed since the Franco-Prussian War and another decade and a half awaited World War I, the Berliners in this 1900 color film (with some 1914 scenes toward the end) of their city appear depressed. The elegance … Continue reading →

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

Paying for Berliner Schloss

Posted on October 9, 2015 by David Brussat

Audun Engh of INTBAU kindly noted, after reading my last post, that the figures next to architectural elements and statuary in drawings of a Berliner Schloss façade near the end of the Extrablatt PDF represented not the cost of those … Continue reading →

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Berlin Palace, Penn Station

Posted on October 9, 2015 by David Brussat

Germany is rebuilding the Berlin Palace, the Berliner Schloss, at an expected cost of €590 million or $665 million, a half or a third of the estimated price of rebuilding Penn Station in New York, which itself is considered understated … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Architecture Education, Architecture History, Art and design, Development, Urbanism and planning, Video | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

The great cities after WWII

Posted on August 14, 2015 by David Brussat

Today is the 50th anniversary of the day Japan’s surrender in World War II was announced – a holiday still celebrated in no U.S. state but Rhode Island. It is a day to remember those who died, those who sacrificed, … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Architecture History, Other countries, Preservation, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

More grace in glass additions

Posted on July 14, 2015 by David Brussat

In researching glass additions worthy of downtown Providence’s Grace Episcopal Church, I came across the image above of the Royal Opera House (formerly Covent Garden), designed by Edward Middleton Barry and completed in 1858, with its elegant glass addition followed … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Architecture Education, Architecture History, Art and design, Development, Preservation, Providence, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Speer’s Berlin described

Posted on May 18, 2015 by David Brussat

Here is another passage from Fatherland, a novel whose plot unfolds almost two decades after Germany has won World War II in 1946. The Fatherland stretches east of Moscow; most of Western Europe that is not part of the new … Continue reading →

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