This article provides a discussion of the factors that affect the “greatness” of a building over time. The examples described include Boston City Hall, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Library, the Chrysler Building, and 30 Rockefeller Plaza. The author concludes that both taste and function play a role in this process. Architectural tastes change every thirty or forty years. It is inevitable that even a “great” building will at some point be considered “old-fashioned.” It helps if a building is functionally as well as aesthetically outstanding. Another major variable of great buildings is whether the architecture captures people’s affection. It is not enough that a building be popular with the general public; it must also be loved by its owners (the taxpayers, in the case of public buildings). If owners love a building, they will put up with a certain degree of dysfunction—no building is perfect— they will take the trouble to maintain it, make repairs, upgrade obsolete technological systems, and spruce it up every twenty to forty years.
1010 Affordable Housing Architecture Asia Australia bonds Borrowing Constraints California Canada China coastal markets cold storage Colombia Commercial Brokerage Commercial Real Estate commissions Congestion consumer bias covid-19 CRE credit card market Credit Default Swaps Credit Insurance Credit Risk Transfers Culture data centers Debt Market Demand Demographics Density Development Discrete Choice disruption Diversity e-Commerce Economic Corridors economic policy economics education election studies Equity Market Ethnic Factors Europe Fannie Mae financial asset management Foreclosures France Freddie Mac general equilibrium Global global economy Global Financial Crisis great depression Great Recession healthy buildings Hedonic hospitality Housing & Residential housing boom Housing Disease housing prices Housing Supply Identity Income Inequality India inflation Inter-generational mobility interest rates Investing Lagging Regions land use regulation Language life sciences Macroeconomics Microeconomics Migration Minimum Payments Mixed-Use Mobility moral hazard mortgage insurance mortgage market Mortgage Rates Mortgages Multi-family Nation Building Non-Traditional Mortgages office sector pension funds Placed Based Policies Political Risk Price Discovery public health public policy Public Schools real estate brokerage Real Estate Investment Real Estate Investment Trusts Recession Rental Retail Retirement reverse mortgages risk management risk-shifting single family housing Slums Sorting South America Spatial Regions spillover effect stimulus package Sub-Prime Mortgages Supply Chains Sustainability Technology telecommunications unemployment United States Urban Urbanization welfare work from home