Ugly Architecture: Does It Have An Alibi?

"Why try to make buildings and cities beautiful if not to help us feel better?"

"Which raises a more complicated question: Why do we keep building things that make us unhappy?"

"Architects' egos can lead to buildings that bruise cities. Some are so eager to impose their grand vision that the mundane matter of how it may feel to people at street level is scuttled."

"Frequently it's a lesser-of-evils tradeoff. Public school buildings thrown up from 1950 to the 1970s to engorge the baby boom are almost universally bleak; they exude all the charm of insecticide factories. But replacing them would create a crushing tax burden, so we endure."

"And finally, in many cases there's really no one to blame. Glum buildings ooze into existence because there's no coherent process for saying no."