Simplicity and Moderation

In today's architecture we are bombarded by, what I like to call, "POP Architecture". That is to say, Architecture that is simply there to look good. We've all seen it, we've all been walking down the popular streets in our own cities and seen the Architecture that tends to be overly complex in it's design and shape.
I've begun to wonder why that is? Is it necessary in an architectural expression to add on layer upon layer of artifice to make the edifice? What has happened to the audacity and simplicity of the modern movement? Architects like Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe, Peter Eisenman and Richard Meier have shaped their individual times and locals with built works that are beautiful in their simplicity and economy of form and space. Take into consideration Meier's Ackerberg House in Malibu, California. At first glance all of Meier's work appears similar almost to the point of being carbon copies. Even the chosen color, always white, has in it myriad variations as the sun makes it's trek across the sky. And this is something that hasn't been seen since the days of the Villa Savoye.
Is it the clients? Have our clients become ingendered with this apathy towards good design versus the cost of construction? Is everyone of the mind that high design comes with a high cost? Recently I attended a lecture hosted by my local AIA chapter by Marlon Blackwell. For those of you not familiar with his work, visit his website for more information.
I recently came had a discussion with some coworkers about "architecture". The breadth of the discussion was mostly about the difference in taste between architects like Frank Gehry and, say, Paul Rudolph. I bring up Rudolph because during the discussion one of his works at Emory University in Atlanta Georgia came to mind. It came to me because this simple chapel is an example of architecture that I think embodies a vertain amount of the purity of design, the simplicity and moderation that I've been discussing here.

In the image you can see the simplicity and honesty that i'm referring to. There you can see the exposed concrete, the rough lines of the forms used to shape the walls and even exposing the connection of the roofing at the archway. These are honest and true expressions of an architectural language. And this is the true nature of Architecture: To be honest and true in the representation of Material, Connection and Craft in today's environment.