Tag Archives: Modern Architecture

The joy of hating modernism

Posted on May 15, 2022 by David Brussat

My favorite writer of all time is William Hazlitt, the British essayist of the early 19th century and contemporary of Charles Lamb and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. He was considered a “good hater” (or maybe it was “a good damner”) and … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Art and design | Tagged , , , , , | 32 Comments

Modernist GMO architecture

Posted on April 8, 2022 by David Brussat

It occurs to me that in my longstanding effort to demonize modern architecture that I could stand to remind readers that it qualifies as the architectural equivalent of genetically modified organisms – GMO architecture. I wrote of the term several … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Blast from past | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

The hegemony of architecture

Posted on December 7, 2021 by David Brussat

Architecture may be suffering from a hegemonic conundrum that afflicts the major institutions of the whole world. It is not just hegemon vs. hegemon anymore, according to analyst Richard Fernandez in his recent essay “There Is Something Wrong with our … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture | Tagged , , , , , | 6 Comments

“Conundrum of architecture”

Posted on November 4, 2021 by David Brussat

Below is a long guest post written by Scottish architecture critic David Black, who lives in Edinburgh. Written in light of controversies in the United States over former President Trump’s effort to align the styles of federal architecture with American … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

The vapidity of the modern

Posted on July 21, 2021 by David Brussat

You know you are being targeted when your clickbait stories include video of a 2001 panel led by Charlie Rose (transcript included) discussing Ludwig Mies van der Rohe with Paul Goldberger, Phyllis Lambert (a liquor distributor’s daughter who hired Mies … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture | Tagged , , , , , | 12 Comments

Greenberg’s independence

Posted on July 6, 2021 by David Brussat

In the temporal orbit of Independence Day, we have seen the passing of classicist Thomas Gordon Smith and the trashing of all the values he respected and that we celebrate on the Fourth of July. Leaving aside the latter, I … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture | Tagged , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Thos. Gordon Smith, R.I.P.

Posted on July 1, 2021 by David Brussat

Classical architect Thomas Gordon Smith died peacefully in his sleep near the South Bend, Ind., campus of the University of Notre Dame, age 73. His many admirers have adorned pages with encomiums to his commitment to classical architecture, to its … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Architecture History | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 19 Comments

Max building fail in Miami

Posted on June 25, 2021 by David Brussat

Aside from expressing sorrow and dismay, it is too early to say anything definitive about the beachfront building collapse in Surfside, Fla., north of Miami. The 12-story Champlain Towers condominiums opened in 1981 with 136 apartments. About half of the … Continue reading →

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

An architectural reawakening

Posted on May 16, 2021 by David Brussat

Architect David Rau gave a lecture called “Reawakening” last week, sponsored by the New Vitruvians, the youth wing of the New England chapter of the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art. He tracks four “awakenings” in the world today, involving … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture | Tagged , , , , , , , | 14 Comments

Pop the “historicist” bugaboo

Posted on April 25, 2021 by David Brussat

The architectural theorist Nikos Salingaros recently urged me to bar the use of the words historicist and pastiche, which modernists use to criticize architecture by traditionalists. “The modernists are forewarned that their favorite terms of insult are now off-limits,” quoth … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture | Tagged , , , , , | 5 Comments