Architecture Here and There

Competition for a new Newport visitors center

8:41 AM Thu, Jun 30, 2011 | Permalink | Write a comment
By David Brussat    Email

Surely we can improve upon the sad relic pictured at left! In fact, so averse is Newport to its "gateway" that it is almost impossible to find a photo of it on Google. It is one of three or four,......

>> Continue reading Competition for a new Newport visitors center

 Tags  America's Cup Avenue   Christine Franck   David Brussat   Gateway Visitors Center   Newport RI   William D. Warner  

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Column: Oops! Excuse our libido for the ugly!

7:00 AM Thu, Jun 30, 2011 | Permalink | Comments (5)
By David Brussat    Email

Above, the Gherkin, a 2005 office tower of 40 stories designed by Kenneth Shuttleworth of Foster + Partners, looms beyond the Tower of London. (Photograph by Ed O'Keefe) * * * Kenneth "Ken the Pen" Shuttleworth builds his alter......

>> Continue reading Column: Oops! Excuse our libido for the ugly!

 Tags  Architecture   David Brussat   Engineering   Gherkin   Kenneth Shuttleworth   London   London City Hall   Modernism   Norman Foster   Richard Eden   Stuart Lipton  

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Will we always have Paris?

4:50 PM Tue, Jun 28, 2011 | Permalink | Comments (3)
By David Brussat    Email

Well, maybe not, but we'll always have films about Paris. A new one is out from Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris, that's been described by critic David Denby as "a love letter to Paris." But Paul Goldberger disagrees. By......

>> Continue reading Will we always have Paris?

 Tags  Architecture   Jack Finney   Midnight in Paris   Modernism   Paris   Paul Goldberger   The New Yorker   Woody Allen  

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Coming up: Sorry for inflicting Crystal Phallus on London!

10:24 PM Sun, Jun 26, 2011 | Permalink | Write a comment
By David Brussat    Email

When I wrote this I did not know I'd be writing my Thursday column on the same subject, so I hereby, henceforth and forthwith turn this into a preview of that column. The British architect Ken "The Pen" Shuttleworth......

>> Continue reading Coming up: Sorry for inflicting Crystal Phallus on London!

 Tags  Architecture   Crystal Phallus   Gherkin   Ken Shuttleworth   London   London City Hall   Modernism   Robie Wood  

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Column: China's faux Hallstatt? The outrage!

7:00 AM Thu, Jun 23, 2011 | Permalink | Comments (1)
By David Brussat    Email

Austrian lakeside village of Hallstatt, a UNESCO World Heritage Site (wonderfull-tourism.blogspot.com) * * * Hallstatt in the winter * * * Central square in Hallstatt * * * Chengdu, New English Town, modeled after Dorchester * * * High......

>> Continue reading Column: China's faux Hallstatt? The outrage!

 Tags  Albert Speer Jr.   Anting   Chengdu   China   Dorchester   Hallstadt Austria   Hong Kong   Las Vegas   UNESCO   Venetian   Venice  

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Coming up: Copy the past or - what - the future?

10:11 PM Tue, Jun 21, 2011 | Permalink | Write a comment
By David Brussat    Email

This space often devotes itself to the subject of copying - copying the past, but usually in the form of a single building, or a few buildings. I had written a post previewing my upcoming column on Thursday, about......

>> Continue reading Coming up: Copy the past or - what - the future?

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Column: A proper memorial for Eisenhower

8:45 PM Wed, Jun 15, 2011 | Permalink | Comments (4)
By David Brussat    Email

Above left: Proposal for Eisenhower Memorial near the Mall, in Washington, by Frank Gehry; above right: counterproposal submitted by Rodney Mims Cook and Michael Franck (Eisenhower Memorial Commission, left, and National Civic Art Society) Click to enlarge. Another image......

>> Continue reading Column: A proper memorial for Eisenhower

 Tags  Architecture   Chelsea Barracks   Daniel Cook   Dwight Eisenhower   Frank Gehry   Institute for Architecture & Art   Michael Frank   National Civic Art Society   Prince Charles   Richard Rogers   Rodney Mims Cook   Washington DC  

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Coming up: Don't set Ike a-spinnin' in his grave

10:49 PM Tue, Jun 14, 2011 | Permalink | Write a comment
By David Brussat    Email

Thursday's column will be about the counterproposals generated by a countercompetition generated by the official decision to choose Frank Gehry to design a memorial to Dwight D. Eisenhower. Can anything more silly and undignified be imagined? But in fact,......

>> Continue reading Coming up: Don't set Ike a-spinnin' in his grave

 Tags  Alaska   Capitol   David Brussat   Design Competition   Eisenhower Memorial   Marianne Casuto   Pritzker Prize   Thom Mayne  

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Blast from the past: The Dreyfus Hotel story

10:15 PM Tue, Jun 14, 2011 | Permalink | Write a comment
By David Brussat    Email

Some readers might have attended the ribbon-cutting at the Mercantile Block yesterday. I have a yen to reprint my column about AS220's renovation of its next-door neighbor, the Dreyfus Hotel. Here is that column, "Artful restoration of the Dreyfus Hotel,"......

>> Continue reading Blast from the past: The Dreyfus Hotel story

 Tags  Architecture   Art   AS220   Dreyfus Hotel   Lucie Searle   Mercantile Block   Preservation   Providence RI  

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Architecture cartoon about cartoon architecture

9:51 PM Mon, Jun 13, 2011 | Permalink | Write a comment
By David Brussat    Email

Thanks to George Osner for sending this to the Pro-Urb list.......

>> Continue reading Architecture cartoon about cartoon architecture

 Tags  Architecture   Cartoon   Earthquakes   Frank Gehry  

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Column: Mercantile Block blooms for AS220

7:00 AM Thu, Jun 09, 2011 | Permalink | Comments (2)
By David Brussat    Email

Above: The Mercantile Block, circa 1915, on Washington Street in downtown Providence (AS220/Providence Public Library) * * * The Mercantile Block before its renovation * * * Mercantile Block after its renovation * * * Rear of Mercantile Block......

>> Continue reading Column: Mercantile Block blooms for AS220

 Tags  Architecture   AS220   David Brussat   John Fitzhugh Millar   Lucie Searle   Mercantile Block   Newport RI   Newport Tower   Preservation   Providence RI  

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Coming up: Big day on Washington Street

2:56 PM Wed, Jun 08, 2011 | Permalink | Write a comment
By David Brussat    Email

So why is that Westminster Street pictured above? Read on. Next Monday a ribbon will be cut to dedicate AS220's new Mercantile Block, which the arts cooperative has raised from the near dead. I did not have enough space......

>> Continue reading Coming up: Big day on Washington Street

 Tags  AS220   David Brussat   Don King   Donald Powers   Mercantile Block   Providence Black Repertory Company   Providence RI  

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Column: Who really built Newport's old tower?

7:00 AM Thu, Jun 02, 2011 | Permalink | Comments (1)
By David Brussat    Email

Old postcard of Touro Park's tower, circa 1900, in Newport * * * Another postcard, of romantic tower in ivy * * * Jim Egan's Newport Tower Museum, est. 2010, near the tower in Touro Park * * *......

>> Continue reading Column: Who really built Newport's old tower?

 Tags  Architecture   Colonization   David Brussat   History   Jim Egan   John Dee   Newport RI   Newport Tower   Newport Tower Museum   Queen Elizabeth II   Rhode Island   William Penhallow  

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