The Most Beautiful City of the Twentieth Century

Friday, February 27th, 2004

I enjoyed “recovering architect” John’s The Most Beautiful City of the Twentieth Century — especially the intro:

Santa Fe, New Mexico is the most beautiful city of the 20th century. This simple statement requires some explanation.

First of all, you have to realize that Santa Fe is not the equal of Renaissance Florence or Baroque Rome. But neither are the other cities built in the 20th century.

After 1930 or so, the 20th century was the century of Modernism, and the principles of Modernism never produced, and probably never will produce, a beautiful city.

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