I often do image searches for cities I'd like to visit. The old European cities are more likely to be photographed from the street level showing the details of

I often do image searches for cities I'd like to visit. The old European cities are more likely to be photographed from the street level showing the details of individual buildings, while newer cities in the Americas and Asia are usually photographed from afar as a skyline. I think this indicates a change in how we measure the look of a city. Ornamentation on the 50th floor is hard to see from the street, while a medieval city is mostly flat (2-5 stories) from afar. Architecturally ornamentation is out and rarely tried now, so individual buildings don't stand out from the street perspective. Rather, the use of monumental forms (China TV building, London's Shard) are what set a building apart from the city now. And indeed the city itself has become a composition via skylines. So although the buildings we construct now are much more austere than in the past, the city as a whole has acquired a third dimension which is where the originality plays out. So instead of individual structures standing out, entire cities now stand out. On the subject of glass boxes, I can agree that they are forgettable.