From the Editor

I have a secret. One I’m not exactly proud of, but here it is: I like postmodern architecture. Sure, plenty of people treat it as a punchline–those oversized Greek pediments balanced on cartoon characters, or building entrances shaped like giant binoculars. But for me, postmodernism was the gateway drug that got me hooked on architecture in the first place as a kid. There’s something irresistible about a building that winks at you, lets you in on the joke, and still manages to make you smile.

For a long time, I thought I was alone in feeling this way. But the tide is turning. The buildings that once made architects groan are now showing up in coffee table books, inspiring preservation campaigns and even earning spots in serious academic lectures.

This issue dives into that unlikely transformation–how postmodernism’s unapologetic mash-up of history, pop culture, and humor went from architectural heresy to heritage. We’ll revisit the icons that defined the movement, meet the people fighting ti preserve them, and ask some uncomfortable questions about taste, nostalgia, and what we choose to value in the built world.

If postmodernism has taught me anything, it’s that architecture’s reputation is never set in stone. Yesterday’s eyesore can be tomorrow’s landmark. And the styles we laugh at today? Give them a few decades–they might just end up in the canon.