No. Actually, it's important. What I notice most is the shrinking and deletion of public spaces that would, classically, either surround or lead to a public building.
I know little about Stalinist style. Most of the buildings I saw from that era seemed more influenced by art deco than anything else. But I do know about the modernist and pomo (mannerist) buildings that have gone up in the U.S. and there's nothing much memorable there. The pomo/mannerist style is a little more discursive -- a plaint or reminder of the beauty that can no longer be. But the truth is that there's not much of grand western architecture that appeals to me. I WAS dazzled by the way the enormous stone weight of Versaille seems to simply float on the landscape, but that's kind of it. On the whole, renaissance and post renaissance architecture seems mostly to be there to proclaim the power and status of its builder. I didn't even realize this until I saw the Alhambra palace in Grenada. It was the first time that it occurred to me that a building could effect infinite sensual pleasure; that it could be built to tickle the senses rather than the ego.
Anyway,
Joanna B.