What was unfortunate about the modernization programs that American starforts went through in the latter decades of the 19th and early 20th centuries is that...those modern improvements were hideous. Starfort and polygonal fort construction, while by its nature utilitarian, also had a sense of style. The masons who built those forts were artists of a sort, and at the very least, the clean symmetry of brick or granite construction was a thing of beauty. But the additions made at the end of the century were all about utility with zero consideration for appearance. Case in point: The soulless pile of concrete on the right.