I wish to present to the members my personal nominee for the ugly building award. There has to be one, (right). Visit, and let’s see if you agree, or better yet you have a candidate.
http://wwwjohnmihelich.com/
Well, maybe you should get an “ugly url” or “ugly OP placement” award.
(Just being a wiseass - you missed a period in your URL - http://www.johnmihelich.com , and this sounds to me like IMHO material (a poll). Some mod may move it.)
That aside, that’s ugly, but I’ve seen lots uglier.
APOLOGY http://www.johnmihelich.com/
There’s a building in London that appears to have the plumbing on the outside. I can’t recall the name, but it appears in the ELO video, “Calling America”.
bojon, opinions and polls belong in IMHO.
Please read forum descriptions carefully before you post your next question. This is moved to IMHO.
Thank you and welcome to the boards.
-xash
General Questions Moderator
Is it this one?
Lloyds of London
The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) Expansion:
http://www.timms.ca/pix/rom.html
It looks like someone took a crystal-shaped dump on the original building. I don’t think it gets any uglier.
Pah, certainly ugly but pales in comparison to the original and permanent champeen of the world:
http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Centre_Pompidou.html
Other contenders include:
http://www.sydneymasoniccentre.com/
This actually looks like a huge concrete toilet bowl when viewed from street level. It is not nearly as colourful as portrayed here, just a dirty washed-out grey.
And the award for world’s worst residential building, and most egregious insult to its immediate environment, goes to the Blues Point Tower on Sydney Harbour:
http://www.dinkumaussies.com/..%2FARCHITECTURE%2FHarry%20Seidler.htm
and
http://www.archsoc.com/kcas/Humour.html
Imagine building on Sydney Harbour and putting in tiny little windows lik ethat. Apparently in some cases you have to stand on furniture to get a view.
If Lloyds and the Centre Pompidou are ugly, then I’ll take “ugly” over “boring” any day. At least those buildings are playful and fun to look at.
I would nominate one of those dreadful mid-20th century buildings for the “ugliest” award. You know the kind: those concrete, characterless slabs erected during the 50s and 60s, under the principle of form following function. You can see a lot of these structures in London, especially in the City (which, of course, needed extensive rebuilding after the Second World War) and in complexes likethe South Bank Centre.
Such structures are depressing to look at, demoralizing to work in, and frustrating to walk around.
We have this hideous peice of poop as our cultural centre http://www.queenstreet.co.nz/queenstreet/history/buildings/aotea.asp and the pic on that site is a truly flattering one. I think the talents that designed this would be best served designing public loos.
I’ve already noted the Ray and Maria Stata Center at MIT, designed by Frank Gehry:
http://web.mit.edu/buildings/statacenter/
http://www.cdm.lcs.mit.edu/people/psz/stata/Default.html
I go past this once every week or two, and I’m still amazed at it. It’s still under construction, and is currently late.
Busáras, the coach station in Dublin.
For some reason it’s hailed as an architectural marvel.
It is in me arse.
The Asahi Beer Hall in Tokyo, otherwise known as the golden turd:
The U.S. embassy in Ottawa (Not the best picture of it, either).
It looks like a battleship, and its among several other very beautiful buildings, including parlement.
This thread is going to give me nightmares, but I have to say, CalMeacham, that … structure … at MIT looks like Tokyo after leaving Godzilla’s bowels.
Lord, that’s hidious.
Oh yeah.
I used to pass this building frequently, and it never ceased to amaze me how completely devoid of aesthetic merit it was.
I also agree with you about Blue’s Point Tower. I particularly love the way that Seidler gets all huffy when anyone criticizes it, and calls them stupid or uneducated.
Before anyone says “oh those wacky Japanese”, that golden turd is the work of Philippe Starck, isn’t it?
Here’s some pretty good candidates:
http://www.indiablox.com/ugliestbuilding.htm
And the Pro Football Hall of Fame is probably one of the ugliest building’s I’ve personally seen:
http://www.profootballhof.com/index.cfm?section=info&cont_id=182109
Experience Music Project in Seattle is the conception of ass-architecture, I’ve always thought. Interesting textures aside*, the whole building is like a random blob of various materials. From above, it looks like a guitar (the monorail track is the neck). This doesn’t excuse the “papier mache” effect of the main building.
*that metallic-purple wall is all neat and shiny
Hell, that’s not even the ugliest library in your own state! That award goes to Denver Public Library, AKA Moscow Apartment Block circa 1978, with Heliport.
I cant wait until they plop this down right next to it. I think I saw this on the cover of a Jefferson Starship album once. Or maybe on Battlestar Galactica.