#nir buras

Who can identify this city? It appears at minute 4:40 in the video linked below. (CPI) It is past time for my annual roundup of best buildings from 2023. I confess, the time blew right past me. Maybe it is not too late now, but I am too busy (and lazy) to wrap it all up again for last year. Instead, I offer a video that should help to promote a best-building culture around the world. Once you’ve…

Section of proposed Anacostia river waterfront, in D.C. (Nir Buras) I grew up in Washington, D.C., and probably gained my affection for classical architecture from its grand public spaces. I went off to college and upon my return found a striking new waterfront along the Potomac River, parallel to M Street and the C&O Canal, in Georgetown. It was exciting not because of but in spite of its…

Mary Campbell Gallagher: RIP

Of all the photographs I have taken of Paris, this is my favorite. I was saddened to hear of the passage on Monday, after a year-long illness, of Mary Campbell Gallagher, a leader in the fight against skyscrapers and other modernist architecture in Paris. Mary was best known for her work as liaison in the United States for SOS Paris, an organization dedicated to preserving the historical…

Diamant on trad in Europe

Image of European street scene atop blog of Michael Diamant. Below is a guest column by Michael Diamant, a connoisseur of architecture living in Stockholm and founder, in 2012, of the website New Traditional Architecture. He will participate in the annual meeting of the Traditional Architecture Gathering set for March 26-28 on Zoom. It is sponsored by Nir Buras of the Classic Planning Institute…

L.A.’s over-the-top garage?

Garage for J.W. Robinson’s a Los Angeles department store. (Classic Planning)

This is, believe it or not, a parking garage.

I am informed by Nir Buras, author of The Art of Classic Planning, that the parking garage pictured above, built at 9th & Hill Sts. in Los Angeles in 1926, designed by Alexander Edward Curlett and Claud W. Beelman, once stored the cars of Angelenos shopping at J.W.…