The deci­sion to remove the mon­u­men­tal mural Tele­phone Men and Women at Work from the art deco New Eng­land Tele­phone build­ing at 185 Franklin Street speaks to a depress­ing lack of taste on the part of Com­mon­weatlh Ven­tures, which recently acquired the build­ing from Ver­i­zon. How many marble-walled build­ings out there come with stun­ning 190-foot murals? Col­or­ful, hand-executed works that cel­e­brate the achieve­ments of those for whom the build­ing was constructed?

Atroc­i­ties such as the 1963 demo­li­tion of the orig­i­nal New York Penn Sta­tion may seem unthink­able by cur­rent stan­dards, but evi­dently even today, appre­ci­a­tion for art and archi­tec­ture in har­mony together is not universal.

At least Ver­i­zon claims to have pre­served it some­where. May telephone-inspired archi­tec­ture con­tinue to thrive elsewhere.