[QUOTE=Askance]
I almost got whiplash nodding my head as I read the OP. It seemed that architects used to try to please the eye, now they try to please the client’s accountants.
[/QUOTE]
Well, if what I’ve been told is anything to go by (and I have no idea how true it is), today’s architects try to please themselves. Sadly, I have no cites, but I was once told–perhaps at a lecture I attended on this question–that at one time in the past, when architects accepted the job, they did what their client asked. Nowadays, they tell the client what the client will get. That’s a big difference.
So let’s say that in the early 20th century, a bank wants to build a building in a downtown. The bank wants to display how big and important (and safe) it is to depositors and the like, so it wants to build an expensive building: stone carvings created by skilled workers, special materials like marble blocks, and so on. High ceilings in the public areas (we can afford not to have a floor just up from street level), murals, mosaics, and so on. The bank asks an architect if he or she can design what they want. If the architect says “Yes,” then he or she gets to bid on the commission. If the architect says “No,” then the bank looks for another architect who will design the building they want. Since architects want the work, they will do as the client wishes.
Now, in the mid-20th century, styles and tastes have changed. But the bank still wants a nice building. They again have a rough idea of how they would like it to look, and they tell the architects who will bid on the project. This time, though, the architects say, “We don’t care what you want. Here is what we will do for you. Take it or leave it.” And all the architects the bank approaches have the same attitude.
Somewhere along the line, architects changed from being contractors-for-hire to artists with a vision. One story I also heard was that Mies van der Rohe, who designed the Toronto-Dominion Centre in Toronto had so much control over his vision that he could (and did) demand how the Centre’s tenants could use their window blinds: a tenant could be have the blind fully up or fully down only. After many complaints, Mies relented, but only a little–a tenant could also have the blind halfway (not a third of the way or three-qurters of the way) open.
We also cannot discount the influence of the Bauhaus school of architecture which basically stated that buildings serve a utilitarian, not artistic, purpose, and so they should be clean and plain. Decorative frippery must be discouraged.
Just a hypothesis anyway, as to why things are the way they are. Architects changed their attitude towards clients, and the Bauhaus was extremely influential.
Actually, I attended a convention in Baltimore five or six years back, and had a blast wandering around the downtown area, seeing the sights-- Poe’s grave(s), the Dental History Museum, etc.-- and appreciating some of your classier old buildings.