Tag Archives: Modern Architecture

Lovely town main streets

Posted on August 12, 2018 by David Brussat

Architectural Digest has posted “The 30 Most Beautiful Main Streets Across America,” and they are beautiful. I examined each photo and saw no buildings identifiable as modern architecture. For while civic beauty is primarily the presence of lovely old buildings; … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Photography | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

‘Making Dystopia’: Arrival

Posted on August 8, 2018 by David Brussat

There it was. Sitting on my stoop. Wrapped in a plain brown postal envelope. I picked it up. Oof! It weighs a ton. It is not big but it is heavy. A brick of gold. Making Dystopia: The Strange Rise … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Books and Culture, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Apex ain’t Pawtucket’s soul

Posted on August 2, 2018 by David Brussat

If Apex is the soul of Pawtucket, then today’s Penn Station is the soul of New York City. Bad things have happened to the Big Apple in the last half century, and Penn Station arguably symbolizes the worst of it. … Continue reading →

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

The stupidest profession …

Posted on July 31, 2018 by David Brussat

Localism calls to mind various slow movements such as slow food. There should be a slow architecture movement. Localism was taken up recently by the New York Times columnist David Brooks in “The Localist Revolution: Sometimes it Pays to Sweat … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Modernist luxury mall fall

Posted on July 20, 2018 by David Brussat

Beautiful building, eh? Well, you won’t have to look at it anymore after viewing this video. The mall collapsed in Mexico City on July 12, some four months after opening amid controversy, said by the Associated Press to have involved … Continue reading →

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

The headache of modernism

Posted on July 8, 2018 by David Brussat

CNN has run an article called “Looking at buildings can actually give people headaches. Here’s why.” Its author, psychology professor Arnold J. Wilkins of Essex University, in Great Britain, is right. Modern architecture can give you a headache, and it … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

So blame it on Washington!

Posted on July 1, 2018 by David Brussat

No other world capital so directly expresses itself in architecture as Washington, D.C. Its classicism was selected by George Washington and Thomas Jefferson to reflect the ideals of democracy, reaching back to those of Athens and Rome. Between 1800 and … Continue reading →

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

Yo! Brutalist website design!

Posted on June 26, 2018 by David Brussat

Russell Jenkins, who has an accurate sense of where my funny bone is located, sent me a link to a website about Brutalist web design. “The disease spreads beyond architecture,” he noted. Yes, but that strikes me as old news. … Continue reading →

Posted in Art and design | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

Cover-up on Canal Street!

Posted on June 13, 2018 by David Brussat

Some people might think the “cover up” in the headline refers to the legally dubious swap of air rights for extra height that would have enabled 15 stories for Phase 2 of the proposed Edge College Hill apartments on Canal … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Development | Tagged , , , , | 10 Comments

Don’t junk up the PawSox

Posted on May 30, 2018 by David Brussat

The politics of the proposed new stadium for the Pawtucket Red Sox – the PawSox – are beyond me, but a new financial package just proposed by its leading opponent, Nicholas Mattiello, speaker of the Rhode Island House of Representatives, … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Development | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments