&gt;&gt; &quot;Are there any examples of new, dense construction in North America that aren&#x27;t ugly or dispiriting to live in?&quot;<p>There are a couple of new tall buildings in lower Manhattan that aren&#x27;t totally hideous, e.g. 8 Spruce (Gehry usually makes me feel ill, but in this one case it sort of works). And it&#x27;s not particularly dispiriting inside.<p>And a tiny fraction of the new stuff going up in Williamsburg and parts of Queens is not entirely awful.