Tag Archives: modernism

‘Modernism and all that’

Posted on September 16, 2014 by David Brussat

Michael Mehaffy, the architectural theorist from Portland, Ore., who used to work with Prince Charles, sent in this brief essay to the TradArch list, which he has kindly let me post on my blog. There’s a lot of good stuff … Continue reading →

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My reply to that then

Posted on July 12, 2014 by David Brussat

Since we are already in the wayback machine, here is the column I wrote following the publication of Journal reporter John Castellucci’s interview with modernist Derek Bradford back in 1996: The silence of the modernists April 18, 1996 JOHN CASTELLUCCI’S … Continue reading →

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Modernism in retreat?

Posted on June 23, 2014 by David Brussat

Here is an e-mail sent by architect Marc Szarkowski to the TradArch listserv’s discussion thread, “CNU is burning,” about modernism being invited further into New Urbanism at its recent conference in Buffalo. Marc disagrees, and though I’m not buying into … Continue reading →

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The Providence conference

Posted on June 15, 2014 by David Brussat

Here is an e-mail I posted just now to the TradArch and Pro-Urb listservs, discussion groups that have for three or four days now been chewing on my last column, “Modernism invades New Urbanism,” along with architect David Rau’s cri … Continue reading →

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Mackintosh’s ‘modernism’

Posted on May 27, 2014 by David Brussat

The idea of Charles Rennie Mackintosh as an early modernist may seem absurd to those familiar with his work, but a few passages in one of his lectures are surely what has given rise to such an idea. Thought to … Continue reading →

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Past blast: Confusion of the design reviewers

Posted on April 8, 2014 by David Brussat

As an enticement to read Thursday’s column about the new Dean Hotel, on Fountain Street in downtown Providence, I offer a blast from the past. In 2006 the city permitted a developer to pull down the building on Fountain next … Continue reading →

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Taki’s take on New York

Posted on April 5, 2014 by David Brussat

Here is a piece from The Spectator (of Britain) by Taki, the London socialite of Greek extraction who has written the magazine’s “High Life” column since 1977. In this essay he ruminates filmographically about New York and how it has … Continue reading →

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Is beauty conservative?

Posted on March 30, 2014 by David Brussat

No. Certainly not in the political sense. Beauty, by which I mean architectural beauty in traditional and classical design, is as alluring to liberals as it is to conservatives. Because political conservatives have been more skeptical of modern architecture and … Continue reading →

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Shocking! Le Corbusier nude!

Posted on March 1, 2014 by David Brussat

Pictured at left is founding modernist Le Corbusier in the nude, painting at the home of fellow modern architect Eileen Gray, in the south of France, a house she is said to have designed. (Though some say Corbusier actually designed … Continue reading →

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More on the modernist coup d’etat

Posted on February 15, 2014 by David Brussat

John Massengale, head of the New Urbanists in New York and a classicist who often writes in to TradArch to note that modernism is at least as popular as traditional design in the cafes and restaurants of the Big Apple, … Continue reading →

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