In the 2010s many of our public spaces started to be molded, physically and literally, by the market advantage of luring patrons looking for highly Instagrammable shots. Businesses that once paid large sums of money to have photographs taken for advertisements that cost even more to run now had access to an army of free labor, taking pictures for... See more

Clearly the cultural pressure to achieve a unique self is old, strong, and not unique to hipsters, so why did the authenticity drive spin out of control after CE 2000? One possible reason is that the hundreds of studies on authenticity in tourism and subcultures have also been read and in many cases sponsored by business thinkers who directly... See more

Mar. 3, 2020

The Tyranny of Terrazzo

Will the millennial aesthetic ever end?

By Molly Fischer

Illustration by Fala Atelier

Illustration: Fala Atelier

This article was featured in One Great Story , New York ’s reading recommendation newsletter. Sign up here to get it nightly.

You walk beneath a white molded archway. You’ve entered a white room.

A... See more