by Witold | Aug 4, 2019 | Architects, Architecture
This 1931 photograph of a group of party-goers at the Beaux-Arts Ball in New York is famous. That’s William Van Alen in the center (the Chrysler Building), flanked by Ely Jacques Kahn (the Squibb Building) on the left, and Ralph Walker (the Irving Trust Building) on...
by Witold | May 29, 2019 | Architecture, Urbanism
Here is a recent photograph of Catfiddle Street an infill development in Charleston, which is slowly coming together. The house in the foreground is being built by Vince Graham and was designed by George Holt and Andrew Gould. The veranda has wrought-ironwork, a...
by Witold | May 24, 2019 | Architecture, Urbanism
My friend Vince Graham holds a copy of my new book in front of his Charleston home. The house features in Charleston Fancy: Little Houses and Big Dreams in the Holy City, published by Yale University Press. The book combines three themes, architecture, cities, and...
by Witold | May 12, 2019 | Architecture
Harvard’s Fogg Museum, a Colonial Revival building at 32 Quincy Street, reopened five years ago after Renzo Piano’s major expansion, or “reboot” as The Guardian called it. The other day I had a free hour and I spent it in the Calderwood Courtyard of the old/new...
by Witold | Apr 19, 2019 | Architecture
The organizers of the competition to design a replacement spire for Notre Dame Cathedral, “even more beautiful than before” in President Macron’s words, might take a lesson from an incident that happened more than 300 years ago. In 1681 the architect Christopher Wren...
by Witold | Apr 17, 2019 | Architecture
The heart-wrenching sight of Notre Dame de Paris in flames was a reminder that fire is the great enemy of architecture. So are earthquakes. The third enemy, ever since 1687 when the Venetians destroyed the Parthenon, is wartime bombardment. The Paris fire is also a...
