Posts Tagged ‘Architecture Here and There’
“We hate that” – Ch. 19, LOST Providence – David Brussat
by David Brussat, Architecture Here and There, contributing writer Photo, top: View of Old Stone Square (1984) from Turk’s Head Building (1913), site of author’s Turk’s Head Club luncheon with Journal publisher Michael Metcalf in 1984. (Photo by author) I decided to go with Chapter 19, of LOST PROVIDENCE, “We Hate That” because how could…
Read MoreThe Interface Plan of 1974, Lost Providence – David Brussat
by David Brussat, Architecture Here and There, contributing writer Photo: Rhode Islanders shopping on Westminster St during Christmas season, 1950. Library of Congresss The second half of Chapter 17, “The Interface Plan,” from Lost Providence, tells the story of the plan produced by the Rhode Island School of Design students under Prof. Gerald Howes. It…
Read MoreRural life faces grim reaper – David Brussat
by David Brusat, Architecture Here and There, contributing writer Photo: Cows, unaware of dark clouds, enjoying rural landscape in Scotland. (heraldscotland.com) The shadow darkening over pastures and woodlands, farm villages and hamlets probably threatens the rural style of life more in Britain than in America, where only a remnant of family farms, dairy or crops,…
Read MoreLong live King Charles – have we lost his princely activism for traditional architecture? – David Brussat
by David Brussat, Architecture Here and There Photo: Balmoral Castle, where Queen Elizabeth died and Prince Charles succeeded her as king. Anglophilia runs deep in this corner. Not because Great Britain has a royal family but because it has embraced Western civilization more than any nation. This fact explains its reign as Europe’s most powerful…
Read MoreWashington’s Union Station expansion to hide ugliness in plain site – David Brussat
by David Brussat, Architecture Here and There, contributing writer Union Station, completed in 1907 near the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. (ggwash.org.) Last week the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts and the Federal Railroad Administration released images of a planned expansion of Washington’s Union Station, which sits just east of the U.S. Capitol grounds. The…
Read MoreFlub planned by Providence Preservation Society for its own 1769 headquarters – David Brussat
by David Brussat, Architecture Here and There Photo: Unsympathetic glass-and-steel addition planned for rear of 1769 Old Brick School House. (PPS) 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…
Read MoreTwo cities of Ukraine – Part 1: Holding our breath for Lviv – David Brussat
by David Brussat, Architecture Here and There – contributing writer Lviv’s beautiful architecture. My friend and former colleague on the Providence Journal editorial board, David Mittell, once wrote me a guest post called “Why I love Lviv,” a city he has visited dozens of times and hopes to visit again, even though he is laid…
Read MoreBacksliding on 67 Williams – David Brussat
by David Brussat, Architecture Here and There, contributing writer Photo: Inset at left describes changes from earlier plan for 67 Williams St. Click to enlarge. (HDC) The proposal for a new house on Williams Street where no house has ever been built has, in my mind, slid in status from buildable perhaps to buildable not.…
Read MoreTradition! Architecture as an anchor of stability in a churning, complicated environment – David Brussat
by David Brussat, Architecture Here and There, contributing writer Architecture may be suffering from a hegemonic conundrum that afflicts the major institutions of the whole world. It is not just hegemon vs. hegemon anymore, according to analyst Richard Fernandez in his recent essay “There Is Something Wrong with our Giant Institutions.” Instead, what we may…
Read MoreTwo visions of New York City – David Brussat
by David Brussat, Architecture Here and There, contributing writer Two recent panels held by the Empire Station Coalition discussed rebuilding Penn Station in its original 1910 design and growing opposition to former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Empire Station Complex, which would clog the area around Penn Station with glass-box skyscrapers. The vicinity has already been declared…
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