Cathedrals Of Commerce
The Catholic Church was to the practice of Architecture what government is now.
For all those who despise religion and believe nothing good has come from it, the very least of the good things the Christian religion has produced is the greatest architecture the world has ever seen. Nothing exists more spectacular than the Catholic Cathedrals built in the Middle Age and Renaissance eras, especially when you consider that no machines were available.
Never before or since has such a collection of artists and craftsmen been brought together for one purpose than for the European cathedrals. There are plenty of buildings in the modern era both larger and taller, but no projects can attest to human will, faith, and achievement more than the churches.
St. Peter’s Basilica
Take the Florence Cathedral; it was the largest dome in the world until the modern era and remains the largest brick dome ever built. Or St. Peter’s Basilica, which is the picture of opulence on Earth; the altar is composed of 100,000 pounds of bronze. Each “painting” adorning St. Peter’s walls is actually a mosaic of tiny tiles and every piece of stone, brick, and metal was hand-carved or sculpted.
The amount of capital required for these was equally as unmatched.
The Chartres Cathedral (1194 AD) in Chartres, France, for example, is estimated to have cost over $500 million in 2011 dollars (while the most expensive modern church is only $190 million, in L.A.). The Roman-Catholic church of France is estimated to have spent around 4% of their entire GDP building Gothic churches each year from around 1100-1250. Percentage wise, that’s about as much as the U.S. spends, per GDP, on defense.
Palace of the Soviets
In the modern era, on the other hand, not even multi-national corporations can compete. Governments are the only entities that can dream of completing undertakings comparable to that of cathedrals. The best example might be the Palace of the Soviets, a massive project commisioned by the USSR whose completion was cut short by WWII. Nevertheless, Stalinist Architecture was probably the best example of unnecessary waste in government; ridiculous, garish masses meant to display the wealth and power of a nation. One of these palaces was named “a gift from the Soviet people” (a bit on-the-nose for a Communist state, wouldn’t you say?).
Furthermore, nine of the top ten most costly constructions on Earth have been at the taxpayer expense; four of those projects being architectural (six if you include infrastructure). Two of the ten most expensive belong to Saudi Arabia, costing $175 billion, jointly. The U.S. holds the two most expensive of the projects - the International Space Station and the Interstate Highway System, at costs of $150 billion and $500 billion, respectively. And the Kensai Int’l Airport in Japan, which cost $29 billion. The airport's cost included construction problems and the fact that they also had to build an actual island, which is sinking. Thank you, taxpayers, for these marvels.
If nothing else, government spending has given us one of my favorite landmarks, the Altare della Patria in Italy. When nothing else makes the case for public works projects, monuments like this, do.
Altare della Patria
It is true that no entities have contributed to the cause of architecture more than the Church and the government. If there’s one thing both the Medieval Catholic Church and modern governments around the world have done best, it’s build ridiculous, amazing things on their subjects’ dime.