I've always wondered, what's the best looking website of the 1990s? Was there anything that people would deem as "good" as some of today's top designs?
I feel like there had to be at least someone with a very refined sense of aesthetic making awesome websites back then.
Drudge Report. Even if you don't like the political "lean" of it (I, personally, don't), you have to appreciate a design that has (basically) stayed the same since it was founded in the mid 90s. The "minimalism" from Drudge had a big impact on a lot of modern web design.
At the time the web was only a couple of years old and it was yet to even hit the "lets get serious" radar of just about everyone.
Essentially, no. There was no one with a very refined aesthetic making websites at the time. Even the Louvre's website (one of the first art museum websites I remember popping up) was extremely ugly.
I feel like there had to be at least someone with a very refined sense of aesthetic making awesome websites back then.