Edifice Complex - Societies and Buildings

Fascinating article on Slate on globe-trotting star-chitects, collosal buildings and their link to a society's state. Here's the rub: you get massive buildings when communities (and corporations) are in decline.

The truth is that individuals and institutions usually turn to architecture at moments of decline... "During a period of exciting discovery or progress there is no time to plan the perfect headquarters," he wrote. "The time for that comes later, when all the important work has been done. Perfection, we know, is finality; and finality is death."