The reason that destruction of old buildings fills me with such anger is the near complete inability America has shown over the last few decades to build anything lovely

Every cornice and stained glass window and facade of frolicking demons in bas relief is just gone

It’s not purely about money either- stunning ornate buildings are still built, elsewhere. Check out the Massalikul Jinaan mosque in Dakar, or on the cheaper end, the column decked, candy colored houses so many working class Puerto Ricans build for themselves

It’s an ideology that says ornament is embarrassing, vulgar and tacky. That the poor don’t deserve it and the rich shouldn’t want it. It’s so sad... instead we build cheap disposable boxes that are unliveable without electricity and start to fall apart in a few decades

Sometimes, in New York, historical destruction is justified by bringing up the need for “affordable housing”. Yes! We do need affordable housing. But no old building is ever torn down to build NYCHA housing. It’s torn down to build an ugly glass luxury condo

There is zero reason to keep defacing our city in order to build ugly glass luxury condos so that billionaires can launder their money. Ugly glass luxury condos don’t bring down housing prices. They don’t house poor and working people. They just make everything uglier and worse

La Perla is an extremely poor neighborhood in San Juan, and yet more beautiful than any new glass Manhattan tower because the people who live there have some style and taste

I love every day Puerto Rican architecture so hard- the color, ornament, individuality. I love the grand stuff too of course, but god my heart aches for all the style, flair and swagger that working people put into the homes they build. I wish everyone would learn from them