Yeah, I think this does win. My God this is bad.
I actually like the look of it. From the pictures I’ve seen, Pyongyang is a good looking city. Obviously it’s just a facade, but it’s a pretty facade.
Moving thread from IMHO to MPSIMS.
I agree with treis. It’s an interesting design, and I like its uniqueness. Its main drawback is the way it looms monstrously over the rest of the tiny skyline. Imagine it surrounded by skyscrapers 2/3 to 3/4 its height, and it starts to look considerably better.
I like how it’s on it’s own. Makes it look more impressive and dominating. I think it would look great at night with some spot lights or something shining on it from the base.
Second worst is the Ministry of Roads building in Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia. A friend worked there when I was living in Tbilisi.
(not my photo)
Oh, I had one of those in Jenga. Couldn’t figure out which block to pull next.
A while back The Ontario Academy of Art and Design (OCAD) built this monstrosity in Downtown Toronto. Another angle
I cringe every time I look at the damn thing.
Ok, that is a hideous abomination unto the gods of… well… everything.
But the building in Desert Nomad’s link is awesome.
Tbilisi has some real gems.
“Andropov’s Ears” http://www.travel-images.com/georgia40.jpg
I am pretty sure in Soviet civil engineering “Strength of Materials” classes, the discussion is all about concrete. 
I think the Pyongyang Hotel and the Ministry of Roads buildings are both badass. The triangular tower can be destroyed with a nuclear bomb in the video game Mercenaries.
That’s going to be difficult to top.
I present, for your consideration, the now-demolished Tricorn Centre in Portsmouth - voted the ugliest building in Britain in more than one poll, IIRC.
Crikey, yes. Doubly so, given the designated purpose of the building.
I don’t know if these would qualify, but…
One, the building for the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs in The Hague. This photo doesn’t even begin to do justice to the weirdness that is that building.
Another building in the centre of The Hague, whose name unfortunately I can’t remember:
http://bart.users.balpol.tudelft.nl/hhf/129-2909_IMG.jpg
The Agbar skyscraper in Barcelona (several images). What the heck is with suspiciously shaped buildings nowadays???
General landscape where the Agbar tower stands
BTW: For extra irony, “Agbar” means “AGuas de BARcelona”, the municipal company that supplies water to Barcelona. Nowadays, when I am there, I drink ONLY bottled water. Oh, poor Barcelona, city where I lived for 5 years, why did they have to do this to you?
Finally, let us not forget “The Gherkin” in London
Are architects nowadays overcompensating much, or what?
Just my 2 eurocent!
JoseB
Treis – Having spent a couple of weeks there, I can say without equivocation that Pyongyang is not a good looking city. If you like block after block of pre-formed concrete panel buildings, or are somehow excited by hideous Soviet-style city planning and construction, then Pyongyang is the place for you. Having lived in Eastern Europe, it was pleasantly familiar for me, so I wasn’t as overwhelmed by the crushing, depressing, ugliness as my colleagues were.
The triumphalist structures – there is actually a scaled-down copy of the Arc de Triomphe in Pyongyang – are spectacular in their awefulness. Add to that the fact that the buildings all have some direct relation to Kim Il Sung – the Ju che tower has as many stones as the days in Kim’s life, the plaque at the base is 15 meters by 4 meters – Kim’s birth date – and it goes beyond bad to being surreal.
The hotel in the photo dominates the city from every view. My North Korean counterpart was clearly deeply embarassed by it when we spoke of it. I got a close-up look (though they don’t allow folks to get too close to it, as pieces keep dropping off) when I was on a quest for desk lamps and visited every electronics store in Pyongyang.
There are a few pretty impressive Socialist Realism statues in the city, which I liked given my background in Soviet policy and politics. The parts along the rivers aren’t bad, either, especially along the Potonggang.
All-in-all, however, “good-looking” is not the phrase I would use to describe Pyongyang.
The Pyongyang Hotel is fucking gnarly on Google Earth 3-D. I’m subscribing to this thread so I can check out if the rest of them are too.
The Pyongyang Hotel reminds me of the headquarters for an evil government/dictator, or a mad scientist’s lair before it blasts into space. Either way, not giving off friendly, welcoming vibes, at least IMHO.
It reminds me of how much North Korea is apparently a whole country based on some circa-1952 John Bircher’s paranoid fantasies of how life is like in the Soviet Union. Turkmenistan is the same John Bircher’s paranoid fantasies about China come true.