Architecture Here and There

September 2009 Archives


Kool House. Koolhaas. Kookhaas. Kook House.

koolmaid.jpg 7:42 PM Wed, Sep 30, 2009 | | Write a comment
By David Brussat    Email

Rem Koolhaas designed a house for a rich client handicapped in an automobile accident. The house features a central core of a round platform/elevator open to the floors around it. Ada Louise Huxtable has written a review of a......

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Coming up: Hot little building vs. parking leviathan

arnoldwash.JPG 7:56 PM Tue, Sep 29, 2009 | | Comments (1)
By David Brussat    Email

The photo above, taken this evening on my way home from work, shows how crucial the Arnold Building is to the fabric of Washington Street, in downtown Providence. The poor Arnold was struck by a serious fire last week......

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Column: Exploding modernism's myths

myths2.JPG 10:26 AM Thu, Sep 24, 2009 | | Comments (3)
By David Brussat    Email

Illustration: "Modern Movement reality," by Louis Hellman: The legacy of founding modernist Le Corbusier (From Exploding the Myths of Modern Architecture, Frances Lincoln Ltd., London, 2009) * * * EXPOSÉS of modern architecture have seen through the emperor's new......

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Coming up: An explosive review

exploding.jpeg 8:15 PM Wed, Sep 23, 2009 | | Write a comment
By David Brussat    Email

Exploding the Myths of Modern Architecture, by Brit engineer Malcolm Millais (published by Francis Lincoln Ltd.), has just been published in this country. It knocked my socks off, and readers' socks will be knocked off too if they read the......

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Sneering at Britain's new old high courthouse

supctlibrary.jpg 12:00 PM Mon, Sep 21, 2009 | | Comments (1)
By David Brussat    Email

Parliament has created a new upper court, called the "Supreme Court," for Britain and instead of spending millions on a carbuncle has put millions to better use by renovating an old building near Parliament. It's a lovely one, somewhat hidden......

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Column: Architects mix and match online

ronchampchalet.jpg 12:15 AM Thu, Sep 17, 2009 | | Comments (5)
By David Brussat    Email

Illustrations: Above: mausoleum in Russia (1808). Below, top left: library in Stockholm (1928); bottom left: chapel in Ronchamp (1954). Credits: Above, Calder Loth; below: top left, Dino Marcantonio; bottom left, Wikipedia * * * EVERY FRIDAY, a photo of......

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Coming up: Civil conversation, for a change

mausoleum.jpg 8:17 AM Wed, Sep 16, 2009 | | Write a comment
By David Brussat    Email

What connects this lively temple (actually a Russian mausoleum) to Gertrude Stein? Well, let's just call it a pleasant conversation among unalike-minded classical architects who can certainly bend language this way and that - and mutules, too! So come join......

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Parsing the classical temples of India

temple4.JPG 8:19 PM Sun, Sep 13, 2009 | | Write a comment
By David Brussat    Email

My column "Meet the real international style" (Sept. 3) made its way to Prof. Krupali Uplekar at Notre Dame, who sent me word of her and her students' work to identify the blood lines of the temple architecture of India......

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Column: Gilded Age of maps in Newport

cliffmapblog.jpg 9:51 AM Thu, Sep 10, 2009 | | Write a comment
By David Brussat    Email

Illustration: From front side of Newport map "Cliff Walk & Bellevue Avenue," by Cliff Vanover. Courtesy of Great Swamp Press. * * * IT TOOK a guy named Cliff to do the Cliff Walk proud. Cliff Vanover, of Charlestown,......

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Coming up: Cartography resurgent in Newport

cliffsegment.JPG 10:03 PM Tue, Sep 08, 2009 | | Write a comment
By David Brussat    Email

Cliff Vanover has created a map of Newport south of Memorial Boulevard, embracing the Cliff Walk and Bellevue Avenue, that revives the lost art of map making. What do modern cartography and modern architecture have in common? A hatred......

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Column: Meet the real international style

templeindia.jpg 8:07 AM Thu, Sep 03, 2009 | | Comments (1)
By David Brussat    Email

Illustration: Kandariya Mahadeva Temple (circa 1025-50), in Khajuraho, India (from World Architecture: The Masterworks, by Will Pryce) Note: Trying to get a higher-res version, plus one of temple in Java mentioned below. THE 1956 EPIC Around the World in......

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2009 Carbuncle Prize: And the winner is . . .

carbuncle2.jpg 4:31 PM Wed, Sep 02, 2009 | | Comments (3)
By David Brussat    Email

. . . The Liverpool Ferry Terminal. It seems the enchanting fire station sponsored by Prince Charles dodged a bullet. It was included as a spiteful sort of ideological repartee, but it appears that the sponsors of this contest -......

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Coming up: What is the real International Style?

around.jpg 12:05 AM Wed, Sep 02, 2009 | | Write a comment
By David Brussat    Email

The 1956 film Around the World in 80 Days took moviegoers on a voyage to the world's major cultures as its protagonists, David Niven, Shirley McLaine and Cantinflas (the famous Mexican acrobat who plays valet to Brit snit Phileas Fogg)......

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