From the day I arrived here, I have been lamenting the poor housing and general architecture, city planning in the US.
Everyting I see here is cheap and quick. It seems like the Ford T-bird approach has never disappeared. I have seen office buildings being constructed in weeks, to months, while in many European countries this takes so much longer.
In the Netherlands, since there is so little space, there are lots of restrictions for building, and it's quite a proces to get all the permissions from your local gvmt to build what you want. In most cases, you are not allowed to build a home that does not 'fit/match' its surroundings ie other homes.
First of all, the building material for homes is mostly brick and stone, compared to wood here, which they sometimes try to cover with 'brick panels' in order to give it an authentic brick look. Masons, craftsmen, do all the work, not people who understand how to knock up a frame and nailgun some panels against it. No wonder every hurricane here destroys whole villages, as the homes are not stronger than an average shed! On top of that, now I also know why Americans use so much more elctricity per person comared to Europeans. The wooden homes don't insulate as well against cold and heath. This means ACs are necesarry as well as lots of heating in the winter.
The insides of houses here are made of dry wall, something people in the Netherlands would only use in case they rearrange the house, and divide up a room with an extra wall. You can't attach anything to such a wall, unless you are lucky to find a stud.
City planning or community building invariably starts with the construction of a parking lot! I went to the national harbour in MD, and the although the location and some of the buildings are actually nicely designed (ha with images of las Ramblas in Barcelona, where the architects drew their inspiration), but still, the first thing you hit is an ugly garage.
I must admit, car access in and to cities is much more developed, as compared to historical European cities/villages. That's perhaps because of the car friendly culture. Perhaps you are refering to some of the images you see from Italy, and obviously those quaint villages have been there forever, and grew organically built around churches, initially driven by agricultural demands. If you want to move in there, some of these places are really degenerated as well, and need some interior redoing... The outside, stone walls, are usually still very usable.
I have always said that in 1000 years from now, archeologists will still find the adobe houses from Indians in NM, but no traces from the vanished US civilization. Why do you think the colloseum is still visible and accessible... It was built to last!