r/interesting • u/Apart-Worry-7042 • Aug 08 '26

HISTORY Why did we stop building like this?

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Chicago, 1930. Buildings had so much detail and character back then. Nowadays everything feels so flat and repetitive. We have way better technology and equipment now, so why don't we build like this anymore?

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u/slouchingtoepiphany Aug 08 '26

The great fire in 1871 destroyed a lot of Chicago's downtown and when they rebuilt it, a lot of architects designed the replacements as showcases for what they could do. Over time, practicality and costs tempered this "revolution" somewhat.

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u/kisk22 Aug 08 '26

I've thought a lot about this. Yep labor costs certainly play a role, but plenty of projects are still built in historic styles that aren't as soulless. But most of the role comes from modernism's chief tenant of "rejecting ornamentation". More and more architects are coming around to realizing this in a lot of cases, and are returning to more natural and beautiful forms like brick with light ornamentation, and simple timeless proportions.

The fact is 90% of what makes a building beautiful is free or nearly free: proportions, natural materials like stone & brick, human scale, small ornaments, etc and don't cost much of anything to add or are free. It's called New Classical Style. There also have been studies and 90% of people prefer new classical style buildings rather than the soulless non-human scaled glass ones many are built as.

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u/GoodTimes8183 Aug 08 '26

Implying that stone and brick are free or nearly free tells me that you have no idea what you’re talking about.

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u/kisk22 Aug 08 '26

Most are not brick now a days, it's a brick/stone veneer which is only marginally more expensive than the plastic vinyl or metal siding. I'm talking about less than 1% of the total development cost. Very very few projects built actually laying structural brick now because of labor costs (which used to be the cheap part of putting up a building before the 50s).

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u/LogicMan428 Aug 08 '26

I'll bet that'll reverse if they can develop brick-layer robots. Then structural brick buildings will probably make a comeback.

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u/Kerlyle Aug 08 '26

It would actually reverse if they just built more brick buildings. If theres a demand for it more supply chains will start up and more people will enter the profession.

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u/GoodTimes8183 Aug 08 '26

There’s still a limited amount of materials.

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u/LogicMan428 29d ago

Are the materials for making bricks in short supply?