Monuments Of Wit

What is it with architects? They all think they're specialists in the future. There may be no professionalsoutside of absolute dictatorsso prone to the commanding vision or the impulse to usher daily life into new arrangements. Ambitious architects are always reimagining whole cities along utopian lines, but the road to utopia has a way of becoming the path to hell. Think of Le Corbusier's Radiant City. His prescription for the ideal urban plan, isolated towers on wide plazas, turned out to be a blueprint for the deadliest kind of downtown and the worst sort of housing project.

So...