One of the many despicable legacies of the twentieth century, Modernism was an æsthetic of elitism and contempt for human scale (but exsanguinated of the embarrassing enthusiasms and tiresome emotions of its ideological parents, Fascism and Stalinism). The ghastly International Style of architecture is its most complete expression.

Of course, if one reads (or listens) to its apologists, nothing could be farther from their spin on Modernism's intellectual and political antecedents.

However, watch what they do, not what they say. Modernism's actual expressions—the art, the buildings!—tell the truth, and it is ugly: inhumane, elitist, and totalitarian.

Skill without imagination is craftsmanship and gives us many useful objects such as wickerwork picnic baskets. Imagination without skill gives us modern art. [ Tom Stoppard b.1937, in the The Times Literary Supplement 3 June 1977 ]

As Vincent Scully remarked about the difference between the Beaux Arts-style Pennsylvania Station, which had been designed by McKim, Mead and White, and its Modern replacement, Through the old Pennsylvania Station, one entered the City as a god; now, one scuttles in like a rat!

Good riddance!