When Grand Architectural Visions and the Real World Meet

"Accidental Architecture: Cutting Buildings To Suit the Economy"
treehugger (April 22, 2009)

"In hard times, it can take a while to finish a building. The Norman Foster designed Hearst Tower sits on top of the original Hearst building designed by Joseph Urban, but cut off halfway up by the Great Depression. While it got topped off in a green tour de force, we are not always so lucky...."

That's one of the illustrations that goes along with the post. This is a pretty good, informed - and illustrated - introduction to the facts of architectural history. Unlike some rather visionary (or goofy, depending on your point of view) treatises on Architecture (with a capital A), this post is written from a common-sense point of view.

It ends with "...Certainly it is better to seal up and finish what you have, instead of just letting the frames rot, exposed to the weather, which seems to be happening all over right now."

I think this is a good, short, easy-to-read discussion of what can happen to grand designs: and a pleasant (for me) look at what architects would have done, if conditions had been right. Or different, at any rate.