Architecture becomes political

For some people architecture has always been political (see Soviet Realism). As a person with a strong affinity for modern architecture but with roots in an ueber-classical collegiate environment, I do sometimes struggle with pinning down my taste precisely. I don't know how many New Repub's think abou this at all, so I'll keep this brief...

The NYT has an article that discusses how the re-emergence of classicism is drawing interest -- and some of the interest is coming from committed lefties who believe it signals a return to a class dominated society that is anathema to the Great and the Good.

He [the director of this new classical movement] is not, he said, a fan of many modern houses. 'They are much better photographed than lived in,' he said. 'I get mad at architects who overemphasize how something looks rather than how something works as a home.'

But others are quick to point out that nostalgia for 18th-century buildings may have more to do with unspoken nostalgia for the 18th century than for the building. 'Reviving the classical forms is not the same thing as reviving the culture,' said Terence Riley, the chief curator of architecture and design at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. A 2000 Georgian mansion might be impossible to differentiate from an 1800 one, but the social climates that created the two are two centuries apart.

Thoughts?