Tag Archives: Nazis

Unify in the fight for beauty

Posted on February 11, 2020 by David Brussat

The draft executive order to encourage classical architecture for federal buildings in Washington and elsewhere has shifted the world of architecture on its axis. Patrick Webb, a teacher of ornamental plastering at the American College of Building Arts in Charleston, … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Why the folks hate the mods

Posted on November 13, 2019 by David Brussat

Mark Lamster’s The Man in the Glass House continues to offer up examples of Philip Johnson’s dislikeability, many of which amount to reasons why people dislike modern architecture. The following passage comes after Lamster has described how Johnson struck out … Continue reading →

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

Rybczynski reviews Dystopia

Posted on February 14, 2019 by David Brussat

“Witold Rybczynski on architectural PTSD and what James Stevens Curl gets wrong (and right) in his controversial new book” is the sub-headline of Rybczynski’s review of Making Dystopia, the magisterial history of modern architecture by Britain’s most accomplished architectural historian. … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Book/Film Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

The mods’ survival explained

Posted on January 29, 2019 by David Brussat

They cut the feedback loop. Nobody has done a better job of explaining the persistence of modern architecture than does Roger Scruton in his review of James Stevens Curl’s new book, Making Dystopia. In his review, Scruton sums up with … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Books and Culture | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Millais vs. Le Corbusier

Posted on November 5, 2017 by David Brussat

Malcolm Millais, the author of Exploding the Myths of Modern Architecture, has written Le Corbusier, the Dishonest Architect, brought out in Britain by Cambridge Scholars Publishing, of Newcastle upon Tyne. It is a brave book and a necessary book, a … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Architecture History | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 11 Comments

Fascism, modernism paired

Posted on April 21, 2016 by David Brussat

Mother’s milk flowing from her gentle soul, a good friend expressed at lunch yesterday her dismay at the fascist tendencies of modernist architect Philip Johnson. She is no fan of his buildings (there are two in Providence), but she was … Continue reading →

Posted in Architects, Architecture, Architecture Education, Architecture History, Art and design, Books and Culture, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Corbu, Paris and Pinceau

Posted on August 27, 2015 by David Brussat

Today is the 50th anniversary of the death of Le Corbusier, founding villain of modern architecture and to this day still its leading hero. He died in a swimming accident off the Mediterranean coast where he had vandalized the seaside … Continue reading →

Posted in Architects, Architecture Education, Art and design, Books and Culture, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

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 →

Posted in Architecture, Architecture History, Books and Culture, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Ghosts at a school for girls

Posted on May 17, 2015 by David Brussat

Reading a novel by Robert Harris called Fatherland, published in 1992, about a Berlin detective who gets caught up in crimes, circa 1964, arising from the protection of deep secrets in a Germany that had not lost World War II, … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Architecture History, Other countries | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

To Corb or not to Corb

Posted on April 3, 2015 by David Brussat

I am at this moment watching a Swiss video called Le Corbusier: Why he is adored and detested. The screenshot from the video atop this post captures his pitch to build another of his machines for dying in (yes, that’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Architects, Architecture, Architecture Education, Architecture History, Video | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments