> Abandoned power stations found in the middle of rural California built by nameless workers simply using pattern books are more aesthetically significant buildings than most high end projects today
I would say that the time will tell.
I bet it will definitely hold true for some cases (as you are imo correct, there are plenty of awful high end projects out there), but I am not so sure if it will hold true proportionally (i.e., the ratio of aesthetically significant to non-significant buildings among nameless abandoned power stations vs. high end projects).
A lot of it is also just about the tastes of time. I remember when brutalism felt overplayed to hell by the end of the 20th century (in eastern europe especially, which is where I lived at the time), and I was somewhat sick of it myself. But as the time went, brutalism fell out of favor, and the dust was settling, I reversed my opinion on it. I disliked it because it was overplayed and annoying, but in balanced amounts, I really appreciate certain aspects of it now.
Brutalism will never be anything more than an eyesore to the vast majority of people. Architecture is as much about agreeability as anything, which is the problem: most architects (and most intellectuals) have an adversarial relationship with the majority of the people they share an aesthetic space with.
I would say that the time will tell.
I bet it will definitely hold true for some cases (as you are imo correct, there are plenty of awful high end projects out there), but I am not so sure if it will hold true proportionally (i.e., the ratio of aesthetically significant to non-significant buildings among nameless abandoned power stations vs. high end projects).
A lot of it is also just about the tastes of time. I remember when brutalism felt overplayed to hell by the end of the 20th century (in eastern europe especially, which is where I lived at the time), and I was somewhat sick of it myself. But as the time went, brutalism fell out of favor, and the dust was settling, I reversed my opinion on it. I disliked it because it was overplayed and annoying, but in balanced amounts, I really appreciate certain aspects of it now.