"Another example: East Lansing (Mich.) has a collection of about a dozen
early International Style (or Art Moderne, or something) houses from the
late 1930s and early 1940s.  Most of these are concrete stucco houses,
large and assymetric, with flat roofs, pipe railings, steel casement
windows, etc.  One of my colleagues on the Historic District Study
Committee who most strongly agreed with me in recognizing their
significance also called them "ugly as sin.""

        Oh, Lawrence K., my weak spot. I lived in an International Style
mansion for a year when I was 6-7 years old in Blindern, a suburb of Oslo
Norway, and was hooked for life..... so when I visited my then-mother-in-law
in that very same East Lansing neighborhood, for over twenty years (she
herself lived in a dullsville "Cape Cod"), I alsways took long walks and
drives to go by those "ugly as sin" houses, which I found absolutely ravishing.
Your geographer pal in KY
Hilary LH