essay titled “The Generic City,” which is one of those short pieces of writing that you read once and it never leaves your mind. Its sharp declarations of aesthetic and architectural theory have proven prophetic in the twenty-first century. “Is the contemporary city like the contemporary airport—‘all the same’?” the essay begins. “What if this seemingly accidental—and usually regretted—homogenization was an intentional process, a conscious movement away from difference toward similarity? What if we are witnessing a global liberation movement: ‘down with character!’ ”
