Tag Archives: Jan Gehl

Authenticity in placemaking

Posted on August 31, 2022 by David Brussat

AS220’s “Unpacking Authentic Placemaking” at the Peerless Building. Left to right, standing and on panel: Marc Levitt, Lucie Searle, Rick Lowe, Myrna Breitbart, Umberto Crenca and Andres Duany. (This and first photo below by David Brussat) Here is a relatively … Continue reading →

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Jan Gehl’s misplacemaking

Posted on November 7, 2017 by David Brussat

ArchDaily has interviewed Jan Gehl, the noted Danish designer and theorist of placemaking. The article, “In the last 50 years, architects have forgotten what a good human scale is,” suggests that Gehl’s thinking, for all its merit, has not truly … Continue reading →

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Betsky bags Times Square

Posted on September 3, 2015 by David Brussat

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio has stirred a crisis by suggesting that he might remove the seating from Times Square and give it back to automotive traffic. The problem is that ladies with the breasts painted fabulous colors parade … Continue reading →

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Gentling gentrification

Posted on December 15, 2014 by David Brussat

A stinging rebuke to Australia’s capital city of Canberra, and thence to just about every other city that has embraced the placemaking agenda, comes from Oliver Wainwright in the Guardian, “50 years of gentrification: Will all our cities turn into … Continue reading →

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Placemaking under siege

Posted on December 9, 2014 by David Brussat

Audun Engh, of INTBAU, the International Network of Traditional Building, Architecture and Urbanism, recently sent to TradArch readers an update by Ellie Violet Bramley on the work of Jan Gehl, the pioneer of city livability. Bramley’s article in the Guardian, … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Development, Preservation, Providence, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , | 6 Comments

Column: Providence’s long romance with brick

Posted on July 10, 2014 by David Brussat

Brick often finds itself in the dog house. Long ago in Providence, architectural historian and local preservation heroine Antoinette Downing, sitting on the design review panel of the Capital Center Commission, is said to have sniggered at one of the … Continue reading →

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Column: Bill Warner, due diligence and history

Posted on June 19, 2014 by David Brussat

The Rhode Island Senate has passed legislation, Senate Bill No. 2255, to rename State Bridge No. 1181 — known as the Providence River Bridge — as the William D. Warner Memorial Bridge. Perhaps, in the waning days of this session … Continue reading →

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Human scale in Providence

Posted on June 16, 2014 by David Brussat

Tonight I saw the documentary The Human Scale, about the work of Jan Gehl, a Dane who has sought, as I put it in last night’s post, to undo some of the damage done by modernism to the space between … Continue reading →

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See ‘The Human Scale’

Posted on June 14, 2014 by David Brussat

That is a documentary film about the work of Jan Gehl, a Danish architect whose idea of “Life Between Buildings” encapsulates his desire, apparently, to undo some of the harm that modern planning and design have done to cities over … Continue reading →

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