Tag Archives: Philip Johnson

Deconstructing the church

Posted on March 17, 2020 by David Brussat

I’ve just finished reading a curious and compelling book called Living Machines: Modern Architecture and the Rationalization of Sexual Misbehavior, by E. Michael Jones. It makes a strong case for what has become a notable cliché: that modern architecture symbolizes … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture | Tagged , , , , , , , | 8 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

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

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

Bad trad and good trad

Posted on January 17, 2019 by David Brussat

Two articles fished from today’s indispensable ArchNewsNow.com, the thrice-weekly free compendium of anglospherical articles on architecture, edited by Kristen Richards, show the use and misuse of classical traditions on opposite sides of the world. Guess which is which, above and … Continue reading →

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

New Brown engineers’ crib

Posted on October 26, 2017 by David Brussat

Modern architecture is easy to dislike. Its exemplars are ridiculous, its mythology is idiotic, and the methods by which it maintains dominance in the field of architecture are corrupt. I loathe modern architecture generally and feel little but contempt for … Continue reading →

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

Hark, a noble local Nobel!

Posted on October 5, 2016 by David Brussat

Congratulations to Brown University for the Nobel won by one of its physics professors, Michael Kosterlitz. Moreover, congrats to Kosterlitz himself. His Nobel threw me for a loop. It was, I thought, for a discovery in topography, as if he’d … Continue reading →

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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