May 12, 2000

In Sweden, a Feisty Aversion to Monopoly

By ANDRE SCHIFFRIN

Stockholm has changed enormously in recent years, but unlike alterations in many other capitals, the changes have been for the better. It's impossible to erase completely the follies of the 1960's, when much of the town's historic center was destroyed and replaced with a series of exceptionally ugly scaled-down skyscrapers, but Stockholm is doing its best. Each year, the city runs an architectural competition to see what might be done to salvage the remaining older