Tastes do indeed vary. Part of the reason I took my last job was because the building used to be a 19th century factory and there was so much cool looking exposed brick and timbers. The atmosphere was so different from the cubicle hell of the last job that I actually felt energized going into the office every morning.
Weird. I mean, when you criticized concrete I could see that as a complaint about brutalism, and I'd have agreed.
But if you're talking about buildings from the 19th or the first half of the 20th century, normally there's something good about them, IMO.
"De gustibus non est disputandum", of course.
Now I'm wondering what the better alternative is, though. Naturally good things can be done in many styles (there are also good modern contemporary and minimalist buildings).
I just am not a huge fan of this mixture of balloon framing, sheet rock, and cladding, that you see a lot of. It's probably better than brick or masonry for earthquakes, but apart from that it just seems flimsy. Or, consider your typical strip mall or big box store. What's to recommend them? It'd be a shame to knock something down if that's what's going to get built in its place.
I guess tastes vary. The old brick factory buildings converted to residential can look really cool. Our city office is also an old factory building. I'll take it over our suburban office park building anytime.
