And never more so than when you have a big, run-down building, but a small budget with which to convert it into a family home.

But there's something else odd about the atmosphere in the run-down building.

Now, though, the most picturesque run-down buildings have all been taken.

The study found that the public associated beauty not only with attractive architecture and parks, but with the absence of blights such as litter, graffiti and run-down buildings.

He worked to improve the run-down buildings and unsafe conditions that had become standard in the city's aging public-housing units, and also arranged deals that improved neighborhood conditions.