Tag Archives: UNESCO

While Our Lady is restored

Posted on May 14, 2019 by David Brussat

The as yet officially unannounced international design competition on how to repair Notre-Dame de Paris after her extensive damage by fire has already spawned a number of predictably ridiculous proposals. One would replace the roof with a swimming pool intended, … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Preservation | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 10 Comments

Beauty vs. elegance of cities

Posted on November 17, 2017 by David Brussat

My former colleague at the Providence Journal, Froma Harrop, who has a syndicated column and a website called This East Side (about that side of Manhattan; she also lives partly on that side of Providence), recently asked me to contribute … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Art and design | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Passages and lessons, 2016

Posted on January 1, 2017 by David Brussat

The passages referred to in the title of this post are from Home Free, a 1977 novel by Dan Wakefield, who earlier had written Going All the Way about the “free” lifestyle embraced by many in the late ’60s early … Continue reading →

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Eviscerating Edinburgh

Posted on November 8, 2015 by David Brussat

The iconic photograph of Edinburgh, above, testifies to what Scotland’s capital and leading city have to lose in a recent rush to development. The United Nations agency that oversees its World Heritage Cities program, UNESCO, has been asked to remove … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Architecture History, Art and design, Development, Other countries, Preservation, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

“The city that makes Rome blush”

Posted on May 22, 2015 by David Brussat

“The City that Makes Rome Blush: Five Reasons Why Palmyera’s Ruins Are So Important,” by Caroline Miranda (what a name!) of the Los Angeles Times, wrote a fascinating piece in the days leading up to the ancient Syrian city’s capture … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Architecture History, Art and design, Other countries, Preservation, Video | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

UNESCO urbanicide?

Posted on August 26, 2014 by David Brussat

DOMUS, a magazine about cities and culture, has published an infantile essay, “Urbanicide in all good faith,” excoriating UNESCO’s World Heritage program as an assassin of cities. The author, Marco D’Eramo, doesn’t call a spade a spade. Only briefly does … Continue reading →

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