that was then, what now?

I had expressed skepticism in a post last month about the influence of iconic buildings. Now that it's March, I am going to qualify that skepticism a bit. Exceptional examples of architecture may not have much of an impact on the day to day activities of a modern human but they serve as important historical markers that will inevitably shape people's perception of history. Significant buildings can be used to summarize the achievements of a culture and a geographic region--perhaps unfairly, but analysis of the quality of life that people led depends more on anecdotes than statistics. A large building is a fitting anecdote, and in ancient times a monumental architecture would speak volumes about the priorities of a society. Now, we build larger structures more frequently and with lower up front costs. Their impact is blunted.