Outside of the most well-executed instances, facadism does one of two things. It either highlights how terrible the new building behind it is, or it highlights

Outside of the most well-executed instances, facadism does one of two things. It either highlights how terrible the new building behind it is, or it highlights how terrible the old facade is in front of the new building. I think the true legacy of Facadism will be that it illuminates the ridiculousness of indiscriminate preservationism, much in the same way that Brutalism and International Style illuminated the ridiculousness of trend chasing. You can take any survey of the most beautiful cities in the world and they will all have something in common: they were beautiful long before urban planning, historical preservation committees, or design review boards existed. Their beauty is of one of evolution...the slow process of tearing old ugly things down and building new things in their place, some of which may also be ugly, but others which will become iconic to the point where nobody wants to tear them down. Democratic ideals shoved into beautification and preservation processes will only ever result in the preservation of things that shouldn't be preserved, and the construction of the lowest common denominator of putrid architecture.