In a Metropolis Magazine interview with Martin Pedersen, pathbreaking architectural critic Ada Louise Huxtable (and still among the best still working, thanks to her historian’s “long view” and clear style) lambasts the navel-gazing turn in architecture that has undermined its sense of responsibility:

bq. Having lost its sense of social responsibility, architecture must answer to something broader than just being the latest thing–edgy, trendy, chic. All this really turns me off. There’s something missing in architecture criticism today, which is a way of measuring the buzz against something bigger and more important. And there’s a kind of sycophantism. I find it kind of sickening, because so much is being missed that is important.