The argument being made above is that it isn't fashion, it's the relative cost of labor that's the significant factor. Places like Columbo have extremely cheap

The argument being made above is that it isn't fashion, it's the relative cost of labor that's the significant factor. Places like Columbo have extremely cheap skilled labor, and also face incredibly high material costs because the domestic supply chain simply doesn't produce the necessary materials. You could produce artistic decorative elements locally very easily. If you've been inside many of these places, that's often what's inside where the design is dictated by local cultural preferences rather than political vision and whatever the small number of skyscraper architecture firms want to design.