Tag Archives: Providence RI

Dodge the I-195 fooddoggle

Posted on July 25, 2022 by David Brussat

Yesterday’s Sunday Journal describes the growing dispute between Providence restaurants and the I-195 Redevelopment District Commission, which wants to use state money to finance a food pavilion in the park at the west end of the Van Leesten Memorial Pedestrian … Continue reading →

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

Ah, the gentle old streets!

Posted on July 16, 2022 by David Brussat

Weybosset Street, just as it curves into its merger with Westminster Street, in downtown Providence, surely is the apex of beauty in this historic city. On a fall day in 1984 I emerged for the first time from the Providence … Continue reading →

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

The Fane tower: It’s baaack!

Posted on June 24, 2022 by David Brussat

The Rhode Island Supreme Court has ruled that the Fane tower – a proposed 500-foot, 46-story luxury highrise in the Jewelry District of Providence – can go forward toward construction. The tower’s proposed height of five times the limit in … Continue reading →

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Architectural Freemasonry

Posted on June 20, 2022 by David Brussat

I open this blog post with not a little trepidation, given the extraordinary level of disapprobation from historian James Stevens Curl for those who are not quite up to speed on or serious connoisseurs of Freemasonry, Masonic architecture, its symbolic … Continue reading →

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

Flub at Brick School House

Posted on June 11, 2022 by David Brussat

I drove up downtown’s beautiful Westminster Street yesterday and saw director Brent Runyon of the Providence Preservation Society sitting outdoors at a café around noon. I wanted to scream at him: “WTF are you guys doing!” PPS plans to add … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Preservation, Providence | Tagged , , , , , | 19 Comments

FLW’s house in Pawtucket

Posted on June 7, 2022 by David Brussat

Frank Lloyd Wright would be 155 years old if he were alive on this June 8 date of his birth. A hundred and fifty years ago he spent the age of five in Pawtucket, where for a year his family … Continue reading →

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Van Gogh, boring fr. within

Posted on May 24, 2022 by David Brussat

This past weekend we took in the Van Gogh exhibit, called “Beyond Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience,” that has taken the country by storm these last few months. Van Gogh isn’t quite my cup of tea, but I was prepared … Continue reading →

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

Still no basis to leave plaza

Posted on May 20, 2022 by David Brussat

Not much seems to have changed from last November when I first wrote about a new proposal to replace the Kennedy Plaza bus depot with a new, indoor facility at Dorrance and Clifford streets, four or five blocks south of … Continue reading →

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

From this house to Parcel 2

Posted on May 9, 2022 by David Brussat

As I begin to write, I have no idea where the house above is located. America? Europe? I have asked the instigator of a very brief conversation on an online list serv where it is. The conversation went: “Why can’t … Continue reading →

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New life for Industrial Trust?

Posted on April 14, 2022 by David Brussat

On Tuesday, officials gathered in the State House to announce a plan to renovate the Industrial Trust Bank Building (ITBB), Rhode Island’s tallest tower, known also as the Superman Building. It has been vacant since 2013, and sits on the … Continue reading →

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