[log in to unmask] writes (about why the last 30 years of architecture in NYC
has been "so bad", according to H. Muschamp):

>  ..the preservation movement as a  whole, has had far less impact on the
design of >  new buildings, except those in historic districts....  Maybe the
people are taking
>  back the buildings.  Maybe what architects and critics see as great design
> is not what the rest of the world sees as great design.

Mary, maybe the "chilling effect" in the air - the one that flags out unusual
designs and stomps on them - is not preservation-related, but
"people-taking-the-buildings-back-related" - that the consensus politics of
present-day New York exhaust and discourage anything not wearing the
camoflage of "safe-contextual-bland".

Christopher