[vandelay]

We have these debates because unlike art, which arguably exists for its own sake, buildings must be functional, lived in, and are part of the public environment.

Rather than aesthetics, it's more concrete to view the debate over preserving or demolishing as a debate over the pecuniary interest of renovating, maintaining, repurposing, or replacing a building and its cultural/historical/functional/built-in value.

Modern buildings suffer from comparison with pre-war buildings because the craft and materials involved in the construction of pre-war buildings are irreplaceable or extremely cost prohibitive, whereas economy and scalability define modern construction methods.

The debate over brutalism encompasses a lot of these issues. Those buildings are reaching the age of superannuation.