Sorry, "conservative" is not intended politically -- it's the word that the industry uses to describe itself. Not architecture in general, but definitely resid

Sorry, "conservative" is not intended politically -- it's the word that the industry uses to describe itself. Not architecture in general, but definitely residential homebuilding. There are many good reasons for this. Embodied knowledge, building for unknown future buyers, buyer preference for familiarity in expensive products, buyer hesitancy about resale, liability for inappropriate materials choices or poor execution of unfamiliar methods, etc. The commercial space is a bit more adventurous, certainly in facade but also in design. They have more leeway thanks to sturdier structural components (e.g. steel beams and floor pans) which can support a broader range of layouts, etc. I disagree with the overly-simplistic theories on symmetry though. Sure, symmetry is pleasing in general to humans, but some of the most attractive and appealing structures are asymmetrical. Your example of "imposing" skyscrapers is unfair. Of course imposing things can be stressful. You then go on with a lot of exactly what I'm talking about -- viscerally held opinions which are presented as absolutes. Boston City Hall makes you consider suicide? It's not an attractive or organic building, I agree, but that's a bit dramatic, no? I don't know anyone who loves that building. But I know many people who love other brutalist buildings. I'm a fan of Jane Jacobs and Christopher Alexander, but I think they both express well-developed opinions and reasonable conclusions, but few absolute truths. Jacobs aspires to a bit more empiricism than Alexander, and I think she fails at that despite being "correct" IMO. Buildings, cities, and humans are extremely complicated organisms. Some are failures, but describing the reasons is not simple. PS: My proposal for "the only good thing" was withdrawing from the Universal Postal Union Treaty, which made it more expensive for US businesses to ship products to US customers, than for foreign businesses to do so.