English with joy and inspiration

Phrases to describe buildings and areas of a city. Yesterday, my husband and I, we were driving through the centre of Moscow, crawling bumper-to-bumper more like, to be honest. Huge traffic jams everywhere. And just as I was starting to feel bored and annoyed, my husband said: "Hey, why don't take advantage of the situation and enjoy the architecture. It's beautiful around here". And then this phrase from the English course he attended a few months ago came out of his mouth. He said: "Look, every building here is an architectural monument". And that's true. I adore Moscow, Saint Petersberg and European cities for their architecture. I love walking around cities, looking around and soaking up the atmosphere. So, apart from the phrase "Every building here is an architectural monument" (which might also come in handy), how else can we describe buildings and areas of a city? Here are a few phrases that you might want to use. 1. Some of the buildings in the HISTORIC centre DATE BACK OVER 600 years.(N.B. not historal - historic) 2. It's an UP-AND-COMING area. Lots of businesses are SPRINGING UP there so property prices have SOARED (=gone up). 3. The whole area is really RUN-DOWN. It really needs to be renovated and given some investment. 4. They built this huge skyscraper a few years ago. It really DOMINATES the city. 5. It's a rough part of the city. I'd steer clear of it after dark if you don't want to be stabbed.