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This also puzzles me often. I live in a Spanish city full of apartment buildings of a variety of periods. Often, one can see beautiful art deco buildings (edit:

This also puzzles me often. I live in a Spanish city full of apartment buildings of a variety of periods. Often, one can see beautiful art deco buildings (edit: I meant art nouveau, although art deco is nice as well) from the early 20th century right near horrible blocks from the 60s-70s (50s architecture was not that awful here IMO) that took the place of other beautiful buildings of yore. http://www.turismo.gal/imaxes/mdaw/mtyy/~edisp/~extract/TURGA162643~1~staticrendition/tg_carrusel_cabecera_grande.jpg http://www.turismo.gal/imaxes/mdaw/mtyy/~edisp/~extract/TURG... http://www.turismo.gal/imaxes/mdaw/mtyy/~edisp/~extract/TURGA162627~1~staticrendition/tg_carrusel_cabecera_grande.jpg http://www.turismo.gal/imaxes/mdaw/mtyy/~edisp/~extract/TURG... Doing a bit of research, one can uncover true atrocities made in the 60s and 70s... for example, in the 70s, this building (which was fully functional at the time): https://antiguaprisionprovincialcoruna.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/11078169_826488684094615_4656949509388678756_n.jpg https://antiguaprisionprovincialcoruna.files.wordpress.com/2... Was replaced with this: http://www.elidealgallego.com/media/idealgallego/images/2015/07/21/2015072122390958244.jpg http://www.elidealgallego.com/media/idealgallego/images/2015... And I wonder, what were the people of the 60s and 70s thinking? Did they really think that was a sensible change? Did they really think any of the horrible soulless masses of concrete that they gave us were actually nice? People from that period were not savages, that time gave us the Beatles, some awesome movies, the first more or less useful computers, computer networks... So why, dammit, why did they do this? I honestly would like to go there for an hour or two and ask people in the streets, to see if there was a collective hallucination or something.

duncanawoods 11y ago
It does seem mad doesn't it. I guess its just the madness of fashion where quality is defined more by novelty and contrast so it does not remain static. I imagine that at the time, art-deco looked like a man dressed in lace and velvet - an eye-sore of ornamentation and in contrast, the office building was the clean modern lines of a Hugo Boss suit with the authenticity of function. Too many clean lines and you get bored and you swing into something new. Ironically lace and velvet was back-in fashion for men in the 50's... briefly.
cylinder 11y ago
This was a worldwide phenomenon. The ugliest most boring buildings are all from the 60s and 70s in NYC too. Same in Australia I've seen. My high school in TX was built in the 70s and intentionally modeled after a prison: they thought eliminating all windows and keeping students in a contained, dark environment would be best for their learning and development. What were people thinking in the 70s?!
- Grishnakh 11y ago
  I don't know, but I find it interesting that the 70s, when buildings looked horrible and so did cars (at least American ones), were also the time that produced some of the greatest music, such as Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd. Contrast that to today, where we rightfully recognize that 70s architecture was crap and cars look pretty good in general, yet all music made since 2000 is utter crap and there's definitely nothing coming out as seminal as Led Zeppelin IV or Dark Side of the Moon.
- pradn 11y ago
  Are you referring to Westwood High School?

duncanawoods 11y ago

It does seem mad doesn't it. I guess its just the madness of fashion where quality is defined more by novelty and contrast so it does not remain static. I imagine that at the time, art-deco looked like a man dressed in lace and velvet - an eye-sore of ornamentation and in contrast, the office building was the clean modern lines of a Hugo Boss suit with the authenticity of function. Too many clean lines and you get bored and you swing into something new. Ironically lace and velvet was back-in fashion for men in the 50's... briefly.

cylinder 11y ago

This was a worldwide phenomenon. The ugliest most boring buildings are all from the 60s and 70s in NYC too. Same in Australia I've seen. My high school in TX was built in the 70s and intentionally modeled after a prison: they thought eliminating all windows and keeping students in a contained, dark environment would be best for their learning and development. What were people thinking in the 70s?!

Grishnakh 11y ago
I don't know, but I find it interesting that the 70s, when buildings looked horrible and so did cars (at least American ones), were also the time that produced some of the greatest music, such as Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd. Contrast that to today, where we rightfully recognize that 70s architecture was crap and cars look pretty good in general, yet all music made since 2000 is utter crap and there's definitely nothing coming out as seminal as Led Zeppelin IV or Dark Side of the Moon.
pradn 11y ago
Are you referring to Westwood High School?