davidbrussat

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Jane Austen on 'improvements'

Jane Austen on ‘improvements’ I have come across in Jane Austen’s novel Mansfield Park an interesting passage in which she describes rival plans for improving a house in the “living” (meaning parsonage) of Thornton Lacey, the hamlet in the town of Northhamptonshire. They are not just rival plans, the plans are rivals for the affection of the novel’s protagonist, Fanny Price, who lives nearby and…

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David A. Mittell Jr.: R.I.P.

The Providence Journal Building, 1933- on Fountain Street, in downtown Providence. (Wikipedia) I can find no other indication that David has passed away, beyond a phonecall from an even closer friend, to the effect that he passed away Thursday morning, age 82. David was a prolific editorial writer and columnist for the Providence Journal in the 1990s and the early 2000s, and other newspapers even…

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David A. Mittell Jr.: R.I.P.

Providence Journal Building, Fountain Street, 1933- (Wikipedia) I can find no other indication that David has passed away, beyond a phonecall from an even closer friend, to the effect that he passed away Thursday morning David was a prolific editorial writer and columnist for the Providence Journal in the 1990s and the early 2000s, among other newspapers even before he was hired by the Journal. I…

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Leon Krier (1946-2025), R.I.P.

Leon Krier, photographed in 2018 in Poundbury. (Wikipedia) Léon Krier died yesterday morning in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, aged 79. Krier often spent time in Spain with Andrés Duany, another popular classicist. Krier was born in the capital city of Luxembourg after World War II, and observed its degradation thereafter at the hands of modernist architects. His design education was very brief; he…

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CNU returns to Providence

  This recent view of Westminster Street is almost entirely indistinguishable from the period of CNU14, in 2006. (Google) Mark your calendars for June 11-14, which is when CNU-New England returns to Providence for CNU33. A full agenda may be viewed here. (The agenda lacks information of where its sessions are located.) CNU last landed in Rhode Island’s capital in 2006. That was CNU14. Below is a…

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Paul Revere's Ride, set to music

  Benjamin Nacar plays the tone poem “The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere” at the Music Mansion on College Hill, Providence, Rhode Island. (YouTube) This piano music, written and played by the Rhode Island pianist Benjamin Nacar, brings to life most beautifully the cadence of Paul Revere’s famous ride. It was performed on the ride’s 250th anniversary at the Music Mansion on College Hill, in…

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Rebuild Penn Station

Grand Penn proposal for rebuilding Penn Station. (Grand Penn Community Alliance) Big news: President Trump has agreed to take over the job of building a new, classically-inspired Pennsyvlania Station. He has given the boot to the inept Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), and has put Amtrak – which owns the facility – in charge of rebuilding it, with Madison Square Garden to be demolished…

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Our Rube Goldberg world

Typical Rube Goldberg device. (Rube Goldberg Inc.) Or, the Architecture of our Lives By this title I refer to the structures of the lives that we Americans, most of us, lead. Notwithstanding all the other things we all have going on in our lives, much of our lives as Americans is lived under a blizzard of mail of all sorts that comes into our mailboxes – digital and snail – almost every…

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Newport Cottages: 1835-1890

Cover illustration of Cannon Hill (ca. 1850), on the west side of Bellevue Avenue, built by a family from Boston. Photo by Aaron Usher III. This excellent volume is the second describing the splendid dwellings of the summer colony of the City by the Sea, by architectural historian Michael C. Kathrens. It is subtitled “1835-1885: The Summer Villas Before the Vanderbilt Era.” His first volume…

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Notre-Dame and Weybosset St.

  Newly completed reconstruction of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame. It’s a bit late to be hailing the rebuilt Cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris. How beautiful it looks, inside and out. For a deeper analysis of both I will await word from those more knowledgeable than I. Still, it was thrilling to see the leaders of the world, including President-elect Trump, gathering for the occasion. And perhaps it…

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The Miriam Hospital: 1984

The Miriam Hospital, now Brown University Health. I was planning such a takedown of Miriam Hospital, known as The Miriam Hospital, or, now, Brown University Health. My hospital system was until recently called Lifespan. Lifespan is now out. It is now Brown University Health. Well, this was going to be such a stitch, riffing on johnnies and all other things medical that have not been updated in…

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The mush slated for Parcel 5

The Route 195 District Development Commission has just released a set of nine proposals submitted at its request for Parcel 5, the largest remaining unbuilt, unsold or not yet “under agreement” bit of I-195 land east of the Providence River, created more than a decade ago by the relocation half a mile south of Route 195. The proposals are all bad. My friendly rival Will Morgan has critiqued them…

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Proposed life sciences center in Brown’s Jewelry District campus in Providence. (TenBerke) Brown has released the design of its umpteenth medical research center in Providence’s Jewelry District. It looks just like every other building of its sort, a bland, inoffensive glass and steel nonentity designed by TenBerke, with interiors by Ballinger, encumbered with a bulky name comprising the chief…

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Read-Ott House, RIP

Remains of Read-Ott House after partial demolition on Monday. (Photo from Valley Breeze) After years of effort by those who wished to save it, the Read-Ott House succumbed to demolition on Monday by its owner, the Assumption of the Virgin Mary Greek Orthodox Church next door to it on Walcott Street, in Pawtucket’s Quality Hill historic district. It may seem a bit much to point the finger of blame…

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My guess on Penn Station

Rebuilt waiting room at the proposed new Penn Station. (By Jeff Stikeman for Rebuild Penn Station) Not much news lately on the idea of rebuilding Pennsylvania Station as it was originally designed by architects McKim Mead & White in 1910. The station was torn down in 1963 and replaced by the existing mess of a rail hub, underneath a hulking sports arena. An excellent and eminently feasible…

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Olympic start was off a bit

The River Seine in Paris all decked out for the Summer Olympiad. (Paris 2024) Many around the globe had hoped to be thrilled by this year’s opening ceremonies at the XXI Summer Olympiad. The beauty of Paris offered splendid opportunity, if organizers had only let Paris be Paris. But sadly, it was not to be. The ceremony, with the famous bateaux mouches cruising down the River Seine with the…

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Another one bites the dust

The IGA at the bottom of Pitman Street, in Providence. Stop & Shop, owner of Eastside Marketplace (or, to many of its longtime shoppers, the IGA, Independent Grocers Alliance), will shut down the market on or before Nov. 2. That is a shame and a tragedy for my family, which has tried to avoid the Whole Foods Market, owned by Amazon.com, the most logical alternativve, which has two stores on the…