Over at City Journal, I expatiate briefly on some really silly writing about architecture, touching lightly on a bit of good stuff to offset the silliness.

Why I think architecture matters, and how it differs from the others arts:

The health of art and culture can never be a matter of indifference to society. But in the case of architecture, deformation is especially troubling, because architecture is never a private pursuit, as poetry or painting, for example, can be. It is by its very nature an enterprise that impinges upon the public square. Architecture is an art that, by shaping our physical environment, shapes the temperament of our social interaction and domestic tranquility.

The whole thing is here.