corbusier polemic

Towers of Ilium does not regard Corbusier favorably. His architecture is sculptural, often abstract, devoid of warmth, and hard to renovate. I'm wondering how influential he still is, and if there is anything positive than can be distilled from his writing or his design. His status as a revolutionary pales in comparison to Mies, and his reputation as a designer in popular culture has been on the wane for decades. He is trotted out in design school because he is historically significant as a figure of modernism, but no architecture student attempts to reproduce him stylistically.

The most dangerous thing about Corbu is that for too long he reinforced the false image of architect as world-maker--as a heroic Howard Roarkian figure (he was one of the models for Ayn Rand's idiotic hero, I believe) who existed to refashion and reform humanity through bold gestures. He promised a destruction of history, and its replacement with a bombastic and ludicrous approximation of the future--all rendered in concrete and steel windows that would rust shut after a few years.