Why Architectural Elites Love Ugly Buildings

Graham Cunningham | The American Conservative | 1st November 2019

The proponents of popular versus highbrow architecture continue to battle it out. Much of the argument comes down to the merits of modernist (high rise) functionality versus the reassurance of the familiar. Sweeping urban “renewal” is discredited but a mania for “starchitect bling” persists. Architects should abandon “grand societal visions … leaving only purely aesthetic judgements”.