The thing is the grand buildings and art from florence or even the gilded age are just impossibly expensive now. The renovation (not building) of the main hall at Lincoln center (now David Geffen Hall) was $550M. Projects have become absurdly expensive. We don't have thousands of low-paid masons and laborers building these huge buildings. Even in florence they were running workshops with tons of people. As you mentioned they were not getting paid the way Jeff Koons is getting $8m to make "coloring book" for the Sacramento Kings.
I'm not sure that's fully true! Yes, skilled masons and craftspeople are not so ubiquitously employed as in the past, but there are still many thousands who renovate historic structures and build anew. They just don't get in the headlines unless they're renovating Notre Dame. And Renaissance or Baroque craftsmen were still paid quite well. In cities where guilds were present, even better. Adjusting for inflation, a mason on the Duomo might've been paid $100k (Chat response, so take it for what it's worth but the math seems to check out). Even doubling those rates wouldn't be out of our grasp.
A city could came together and build a traditional core like Dresden for less than the cost of an NFL stadium. (or even supplemental to it, depending on the depth of the city's philanthropic reserves). For somewhere like Frankfurt's new old town (Dom–Römer Quarter), the cost was only a few hundred million. Comparable to a generic subdivision outside of Tampa or Dallas. https://www.cathaypacific.com/cx/en_KR/inspiration/travel/neue-altstadt-make-new-town-old.html
The thing is the grand buildings and art from florence or even the gilded age are just impossibly expensive now. The renovation (not building) of the main hall at Lincoln center (now David Geffen Hall) was $550M. Projects have become absurdly expensive. We don't have thousands of low-paid masons and laborers building these huge buildings. Even in florence they were running workshops with tons of people. As you mentioned they were not getting paid the way Jeff Koons is getting $8m to make "coloring book" for the Sacramento Kings.
I'm not sure that's fully true! Yes, skilled masons and craftspeople are not so ubiquitously employed as in the past, but there are still many thousands who renovate historic structures and build anew. They just don't get in the headlines unless they're renovating Notre Dame. And Renaissance or Baroque craftsmen were still paid quite well. In cities where guilds were present, even better. Adjusting for inflation, a mason on the Duomo might've been paid $100k (Chat response, so take it for what it's worth but the math seems to check out). Even doubling those rates wouldn't be out of our grasp.
Ruben from The Aesthetic City did a wonderful video on something similar https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5w4REl_Few, and the rebuilding of Dresden's entire historic cost took only a few billion: https://www.re-thinkingthefuture.com/city-and-architecture/a4058-rebuilding-the-city-dresden/.
A city could came together and build a traditional core like Dresden for less than the cost of an NFL stadium. (or even supplemental to it, depending on the depth of the city's philanthropic reserves). For somewhere like Frankfurt's new old town (Dom–Römer Quarter), the cost was only a few hundred million. Comparable to a generic subdivision outside of Tampa or Dallas. https://www.cathaypacific.com/cx/en_KR/inspiration/travel/neue-altstadt-make-new-town-old.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Frankfurt_Old_Town?utm_source=chatgpt.com
So have hope!! We can build beautifully and not so expensively. It's all about values.