The race to the bottom has taken a lot of brightness out of the world, its quite sad imo.
Anecdotally, my home town replaced a three way intersection with a nice roundabout and then put up a little art piece in the center of it. People complained to the heavens about a minor expenditure on an art installation when the money could have gone to, who knows, resurfacing a half block of sidewalk? Not everything needs to be so drab and utilitarian, yet despite the supposed massive output of the economy we've built, we must scrimp and pay bottom dollar for every last thing.
> almost universally considered nicer than today's buildings
I can't agree with that. They're a fascinating curiosity, but they're also awfully gaudy (no pun intended). The ornamentation is extremely excessive by the standards of any common style since. Not because of cost, but just because of taste.
Art nouveau can be seriously intimidating, some of the interiors seem genuinely frightening to live in.
Nonetheless, it was one of the last art movements with a true vision, and most importantly staying with the theme of the article, divorced from concerns of practically and unit economics. It's unlikely we ever see something similar arise.
Not because we think modern buildings are nicer, but purely for a matter of cost.
I suspect the same is the case (even if to a lesser extent) in electric toothbrushes and other items of our daily life.