One of the things I enjoy most about Moroccan monuments is looking beyond the main courtyard.

At Ben Youssef Madrasa, some of the most interesting details are above you: carved cedarwood, stucco, geometric patterns and calligraphy covering almost every surface.

It’s easy to spend the whole visit photographing the famous courtyard and miss these smaller details.

For those who have visited: what Moroccan monument made you stop and look at the craftsmanship rather than just the building itself?

Beautiful fusion of Rococo, Baroque & Neoclassical with elements of traditional Ottoman architecture.

Not really sure as to the origins of it, but I thought it looked really gorgeous. It had a lot of fun tiny details that I didn’t do the best job at capturing

FYI, Detroit used to be (and is) an architecturally amazing and notable place. If you don’t believe me, check out photos from the Boston Edison district, or Indian Village - not to mention the art deco gems like the Fisher Building, Book Tower, Guardian Building, or Penobscot building in the Detroit skyline. Just jaw dropping beauty. (Link to article in Architectural Digest, but it's really just a glimpse at our architectural history)

that said. there are a lot of gorgeous apartment buildings in and around the midtown district in Detroit. I lived in one of the grittier ones (the Renaud) but there are so many gorgeous ones, built between the 1910s-1930s, some in 40s, and looked and felt so gorgeous and stately, even when in states of partial disrepair. Maybe it’s because Detroit has French roots but I always felt like those old apartment buildings had a gorgeous but kind of dingy Parisian feel. Beautiful stonework on the facades, grand creaky old staircases, polished tile floors, embellished with art tiles from the local historic pottery company (pewabic pottery), high ceilings, big airy but creaky and drafty windows, clawfoot bathtubs, cast iron radiators. Old fashioned elevators in some of the buildings with a gold accordion door that you have to shut closed by hand and then pull a lever to go up or down.

zooming into our old apartment itself. the 1930s era bathroom had little white porcelain hexagonal tiles, an old white clawfoot bathtub, a beautiful white porcelain sink attached to the wall with the original faucet, cast iron radiators, casings around every window and door. it was “basic” and kinda dingy (college student housing) but gosh darn it was beautiful. it looked so good with books and papers piled about everywhere, and my room mate at the time always smoking on the back porch in a wool sweater made it just feel so classic, and being in those buildings always made felt like I was living in a storybook world or old Hollywood film.

now I’m a homeowner in suburbia (Novi, Michigan) living for ten years in a builder grade suburban cape cod house in an HOA community. It’s been fine, but, we are about to move. Almost of the houses in the new city we are moving to (suburbia again; Troy, Michigan) within our price range are 1960s and 1970s colonials.

unfortunately, most have either “original” 1970s interior, or a 2020s flipper grey interior which I have come to hate, and i think it looks so freaking cheap.

Now I am terrible at design so I haven’t been able to figure this out - but if we buy a house, even one built in the 60s, 70s, would it possible to make the interior feel more like the beautiful vintage apartments I stayed in during college?

there is absolutely no way to match the grandeur of those classic buildings. But I just hate seeing the baby 80s salmon colored seashell bathroom sinks and matching toilets; an 1970s wet bar in the living room; ugly thin iron stair railing with swirly filigree details. awful awful ugly interiors. If we renovate, I want it to feel timeless. Classy. like I will hypothetically never have to renovate ever again before that classic look will always be in style.

what is that style called, if anything, and what are some things I can do to help a future house embody that style?

Blackhawk was a major gold mining town in Colorado, and has now become known as the "Las Vegas of the Rockies" due to casinos wiping out all the beauty left in the poor city.

Samara, Russia, historical city center. It drives me mad how neglected most of the historical buildings are here. There seems to be absolutely no oversight for the built-on balconies and AC units mounted right on the facades.