A survey of Americans' favorite 150 buildings and structures placed the Bellagio, a gild-encrusted Italianate behemoth with its choreographed fountains, at a lofty No. 22 on the list, tucked between Philadelphia City Hall and New York's Saint John the Divine Cathedral. WSJ | the list
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OK first: the results are skewed from the get-go because people were asked to rank their favorites from a selected set of images (selecting 3/5's of what they saw!). One could get a much better sense of how people feel about their built environment by asking them to name their favorite buildings themselves. I think one would find that they would be almost ALL emotional attachments: my grandma;s house, my pub, the church where I got married, etc. But that would be a better portrayal of what people find significant about their built environment, which might be a better place for us to start.
Also, I tend to agree with Ed Feiner that people picked the buildings that are symbolic in meaning not necessarily aesthetically pleasing in form. People like all the DC buildings because they feel all warm and fuzzy about those buildings.
What I'd like to see now is those same 2,000 people asked "Now that you've spent some time thinking about architecture in reviewing these 250 buildings, what do you see in your built environment that intrigues you or you dislike?".
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