Tag Archives: Providence RI

“White tower with curves”

Posted on February 1, 2018 by David Brussat

Providence awaits its “white tower with sculptured curves.” That’s how developer Jason Fane, of New York City, now envisions his “iconic” building of 46 stories (no pics yet) as described to Providence Journal reporter Mark Reynolds in “Land sale gets … Continue reading →

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Shaping a Canal St. ethos

Posted on January 29, 2018 by David Brussat

Even as a new apartment tower arises on Canal Street, another of similar size and design, just south of it along the eastern edge of the Providence River, faces a harder slog through the city’s development process. It may be … Continue reading →

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Two attacks on the East Side

Posted on January 27, 2018 by David Brussat

These two really ugly new buildings on Providence’s storied East Side reveal a thoughtlessness and lack of consideration on the part of two highly respected private schools. People walking or driving by Moses Brown or the Lincoln School must wonder … Continue reading →

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At last, the old state arsenal

Posted on January 23, 2018 by David Brussat

Christopher Martin, who edits the indispensable blog Quahog.org (a quahog is a clam), notes that on my Lost Providence book page I bemoaned my inability to locate a more substantial image of the arsenal attacked by Thomas Wilson Dorr at … Continue reading →

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Update on Carpionato plan

Posted on January 10, 2018 by David Brussat

My intention today was to run images of both the 2013 and the 2018 proposals by the Carpionato Group for a development that was originally proposed four or five years ago. But Carpionato politely asked me to withhold the 2018 … Continue reading →

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Today: Carpionato’s 195 plan

Posted on January 9, 2018 by David Brussat

Here is a column I wrote after the Carpionato Group had proposed a magnificent plan for a project in the Route 195 Corridor, taking up three development parcels east of the Providence River. Then the project sort of went away. … Continue reading →

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Stuart Little’s aerie in NYC

Posted on December 29, 2017 by David Brussat

Reading E.B. White’s 1945 masterpiece, Stuart Little, to my little boy, Billy, at bedtime brought the illustration above to my attention last night for the first time in, um, shall we say, several decades. The artist, Garth Williams, drew the … Continue reading →

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Assault on history at Brown

Posted on December 19, 2017 by David Brussat

This afternoon, Providence’s City Plan Commission heard Brown University officials propose to move one and raze four historic buildings to make way for a new performing arts center with a concert hall rumored large enough to swallow the nearby Granoff … Continue reading →

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Behold the classical disorders

Posted on December 15, 2017 by David Brussat

The other day I got word that the British architectural historian James Stevens Curl – with 40 books under his belt – had written another, Making Dystopia: The Strange Rise and Survival of Architectural Barbarism. Due out next August from … Continue reading →

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Stan Weiss’s house divided

Posted on December 13, 2017 by David Brussat

For decades until a year or two ago, Stan Weiss’s antiques collection graced the graceful, gilded the lily so to speak, by residing in downtown’s Tilden-Thurber Building. Then he sold Tilden-Thurber to former Providence Mayor Joe Paolino Jr. Weiss also … Continue reading →

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