MORRIS COHEN ON ART AND ARCHITECTURE. I noted in this post that “When I was asked how I know that I love a work of art, my answer was that it lets me see the world differently.” Morris Cohen made a similar point and traced the idea to Ruskin: “Now, as Ruskin has pointed out, people generally do not see beauty or majesty except when it has been first revealed to them in pictures or other works of art.”
Cohen, writing in 1919, noted that educated people would not “for a moment admit that there could be any beauty in a modern skyscraper.” Cohen predicted that in two thousand years, “our beautiful office buildings” would be regarded as a distinctive contribution to civilization. It’s surprising that skyscrapers were held in low repute so many years after some of the skyscraper masterpieces had been built.