Editing Postmodern Architecture (section)

== Decline and Assessment ==

Postmodern architecture's dominance faded during the 1990s as architects moved toward other approaches: deconstructivism, sustainable design, and contemporary modernism that learned from postmodern critique without adopting its historicist vocabulary. The movement's reliance on applied ornament and historical quotation came to seem as arbitrary as the modernism it had challenged. Postmodern buildings lost their novelty, their once-provocative references becoming familiar and even dated.<ref name="jencks"/>

Assessment of postmodern architecture remains contested. The movement's theoretical contributions—its insistence on meaning, context, and historical continuity—have been absorbed into mainstream practice. Its buildings occupy more ambiguous position: neither old enough for historical appreciation nor new enough for contemporary relevance. Philadelphia's postmodern buildings document an important period in architectural thought, their significance tied to ideas as much as aesthetics. The city's role in postmodernism's theoretical development ensures that Philadelphia will remain central to any historical understanding of the movement.<ref name="venturi"/>