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Brunel’s Unbuilt Capitol
Marc Isambard Brunel was raised in the ambience of the late ‘Enlightenment’ just as the cold yet optimistic certainties it proclaimed were descending into bloodshed and terror. Born in Normandy in...
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Palacio Barolo Revisted
Assiduous readers may recall my posting about the Palacio Barolo, the mad Buenos Aires skyscraper that was conceived as a monument to the genius of Dante. In a recent entry of Kit Wilson’s excellent...
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Compact Grandeur in Genoa
In the heart of Genoa, the corner apartment of an historic palazzo has been rescued from graceless subdivision and given back a measure of domestic dignity. Once part of the great salon of a palace...
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Swift’s Spire
An unbuilt cathedral in Monrovia, Liberia Arthur Swift and the architectural partnership he founded have something of a mixed legacy. Established in London in 1953, Swift & Partners expanded...
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A Gorgeous Tomb
Sir Thomas Gorges’ monument in Salisbury Cathedral We all love a good funerary monument. If you are wandering in Salisbury Cathedral you will inevitably stumble upon the beautiful tomb of Sir Thomas...
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Copenhagen’s Courthouse
Photo: Finn Christoffersen THE CURIOSITY of classicism in building is that its principals are universal and yet the way it is carried out in each land is so distinct. Scandinavian classicism embodies...
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Riverside Park Volunteer House
Manhattan’s Riverside Park is one of the jewels of the island, with four miles of rustic beauty spilling down to the Hudson River (with, alas, the Henry Hudson Parkway in between). These riparian...
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Sag Harbor Cinema
For a film fan, to grow up in an American town with a small cinema is to win the lottery of life. In my childhood, we had the advantage of two little movie houses within walking distance: the...
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In the Courts of the Lord
Well, not quite a lord, but a Vanderbilt — which in America is much the same. The indoor tennis courts at “Idle Hour” in Oakdale, L.I., were some of the grandest ever built in the United States. The...
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American Exuberant
I have seen far too little of California, which is a shame because the confident freehand of American architecture between the wars reaches its greatest exuberance in the Golden State. William Gayton...
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Jesuit Gothic
The Duane Library at New York’s Fordham University Think of Jesuits and architecture and you probably think of the Baroque. At Fordham University, however, the SJs followed the American fashion and...
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Christ Church
Christ Church Lancaster County, Commonwealth of Virginia I don’t much care for box pews: traditional wooden chairs are visually superior and much preferred. Nonetheless, this gem of the American...
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The Secret Chapel of Harkness Tower
Yale’s Harkness Tower is, by my estimate, the finest tower in the United States and its designer, James Gamble Rogers, one of the best American architects of his day. JGR is in the Pantheon of his...
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London’s Unbuilt University
The Bloomsbury Scheme of Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens The University of London is a curious institution that these days no one really knows quite what to do with. At its zenith it was an imperial giant,...
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Amsterdam
Is die Amsterdamse stadsargitektuur die mees hemels in die wêreld? Winkels, huise, alles baie aangenaam. Burgerlik. (Ek moet teruggaan.) Die Nederlanders het ’n samelewing met ’n semi-republikeinse...
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Silver Jubilee
This week marks the silver jubilee — that’s twenty-five years — of the Jubilee Line Extension, one of the best-designed British infrastructure of our lifetimes. The Critic invited me to put together a...
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Articles of Note: 17 September 2024
Matty Roodt, Bos multi block colour relief on cotton cloth, 31½ in. x 59 in.; (link) Articles of Note Tuesday 17 September 2024 ■ “People loved passing through, even for a two-day stopover, to enjoy...
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French Railways House
A disappearing remnant of 1960s Gaullist optimism in London While elegant proportions and a certain timeless yet modern style might sound like some bavard’s evocation of a French woman, it seems most...
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Bicycle Rack
We are so used to the functional ugliness of practical things in everyday life that people have forgotten we used to design useful things to be beautiful as well. A look at the street furniture —...
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