Tag Archives: New York City

Christopher Gray’s legacy

Posted on April 25, 2024 by David Brussat

Christopher Gray was my favorite Timesman, which is news speak for reporter at the New York Times. (I’ll admit, that’s a low bar, these days at least.) I didn’t read him often because I don’t get the Times, but when … Continue reading →

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

Behold, NYC’s Tudor City

Posted on January 11, 2024 by David Brussat

I had lunch today (by now, yesterday) at Maven’s, a newly opened Jewish delicatessen in that plaza just off Hope Street as it becomes East Avenue, in Pawtucket. I’ve eaten there once before with my wife, Victoria – delicious, though … Continue reading →

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

Delay foils NYC megaproject?

Posted on November 2, 2022 by David Brussat

rendering of proposed Eighth Avenue facade of Penn Station. (Nova Concepts/Richard Cameron) Crain’s New York, the financial newspaper, reports that Vornado Realty Trust has announced it is delaying its plan to build ten skyscrapers in the near vicinity of Pennsylvania … Continue reading →

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

Bob Stern and Bill Brussat

Posted on March 25, 2022 by David Brussat

A book unexpected and unannounced arrived on my doorstep today: Robert A.M. Stern’s Between Memory and Invention, which I immediately mistook for an update of an earlier volume of his, Tradition and Invention in Architecture (2011). That has inhabited my … Continue reading →

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

PBS’s “High-Risk High-Rise”

Posted on January 5, 2022 by David Brussat

A friend alerted me to a “Nova” special being aired today (through Feb. 2) called “High-Risk High-Rise.” I watched it, and it was as slick as you’d expect from PBS, but I could not help noticing its biases and omissions. … Continue reading →

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

Up Fifth Avenue in early ’30s

Posted on October 17, 2021 by David Brussat

Stumbled upon this delightfully informative, well-paced, almost soporific film of Fifth Avenue, taken from the rear window of a motorcar (if they still used that word in the 1930s), at a steady pace except for stops at traffic lights. You’ll … Continue reading →

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

Penn Station post Cuomo

Posted on August 17, 2021 by David Brussat

Andrew Cuomo’s resignation, effective in one week, could provide an opening to rebuild Penn Station as designed by architects McKim Mead & White in 1910. Is the next governor, Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul, of a mind to support the plan? … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Development | Tagged , , , , , | 15 Comments

They don’t get Carnegie Hall

Posted on September 18, 2020 by David Brussat

Here is another edition of Timesman Michael Kimmelman’s virtual tours through Manhattan’s neighborhoods accompanied by celebrity architects, in this case Midtown’s Carnegie Hall area with Billie Tsien and Tod Williams, who once lived in a Carnegie Hall studio (they are, … Continue reading →

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

Johnson’s risky functionalism

Posted on November 9, 2019 by David Brussat

Philip Johnson, the modernist architect who tricked America into embracing modern architecture, was a nasty piece of work according to Mark Lamster’s book, The Man in the Glass House. But there are some humorous passages whose inclusion reflects Lamster’s ability … Continue reading →

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

Hudson Yards as Dildoville

Posted on October 6, 2019 by David Brussat

The other day a correspondent sent me, under the title “Beyond parody,” an item from Architect’s Newspaper headlined “Design firm turns Hudson Yards towers into sex toys.” This family blog must of course issue a firm “No comment.” The late … Continue reading →

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