# ugly building award **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 23, 2003, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-building-award/203209 "2003-09-23T00:45:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Q.N.Jones](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/3da27b/32.png) [@Q.N.Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.N.Jones)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2003, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-building-award/203209/21 "2003-09-23T18:26:14Z")
I sit in my office and look at this ugly, aesthetically bankrupt monstrosity of brown-and-black “architecture” all day long: [The Multifoods Tower and City Center](http://www.phototour.minneapolis.mn.us/1880) I, of course, am in the beautiful Art Deco Wells Fargo Center, which you can see peeking between the two ass-ugly buildings flanking it. ---
**Author:** ![Bambi\_Hassenpfeffer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Bambi\_Hassenpfeffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bambi_Hassenpfeffer)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2003, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-building-award/203209/22 "2003-09-23T18:46:53Z")
The University of South Florida’s Sun Dome, [Here](http://www.tampagov.net/about_Tampa/local_sports/photo_gallery/images/SunDome_01.jpg) and [here](http://isis2.admin.usf.edu/tourusf/images/sundome1.jpg). The entire campus is pretty egregious – it was built mostly in the '60s in a post-Stalinist Soviet apartment block style. Witness also the [library](http://isis2.admin.usf.edu/tourusf/images/library1.jpg), and the [Rec Center](http://isis2.admin.usf.edu/tourusf/images/reccenter1.jpg). More of these monstrosities can be seen [here](http://isis2.admin.usf.edu/tourusf/), although if I were in charge, I wouldn’t put a tour online. It’s slowly being updated with newer buildings, but they’re in that soon-to-be-dated red brick and square green roof style of the early '90s. ---
**Author:** ![Shayna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shayna/32/17976_2.png) [@Shayna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shayna)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2003, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-building-award/203209/23 "2003-09-23T20:17:56Z")
I was all set to declare **CalMeacham’s** entry the winner, and then I mistakenly clicked on the link provided by **criminalcatalog**. I can only thank the stars that my eyes don’t have to be assaulted by either of those atrocities in person. \ For submission, but not nearly as bad as those (though perfectly awful in its own right), I present the [Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum](http://www.ny.com/museums/guggenheim.html) in New York. (Click the picture for a larger/better view of this giant outdoor toilet.) And apparently the Guggenheim is going for some kind of Architectural Horror Award worldwide, as is evidenced by the [Guggenheim in Bilbao, Spain](http://www.frank-gehry.com/pics-2/index.htm) and the [proposed structure](http://www.arcspace.com/gehry_new/gug_ny/gug_ny.htm) along the East River in New York (which was tanked this past January, due to budget constraints. Boo hoo.) Then there’s this lovely Gehry “Project”, [Der Neue Zollhof](http://www.designarchitecture.com/view_article.cfm?aid=194&return=articles.cfm), in Düsseldorf, Germany. (Click the first image to be truly amazed.) The mind boggles. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2003, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-building-award/203209/24 "2003-09-23T20:41:00Z")
OK, first controversy of the thread: I think I have diametrically opposed taste to **Shayna** - I think all 3 Guggenheim museum designs are absolutely fantastic, and I love Der Neue Zollhof. ---
**Author:** ![sultana\_of\_slash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@sultana\_of\_slash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sultana_of_slash)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2003, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-building-award/203209/25 "2003-09-23T21:12:47Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Skopo \* > \*\*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 like[the South Bank Centre](http://architecture.about.com/library/ucsouthbank.htm). > > Such structures are depressing to look at, demoralizing to work in, and frustrating to walk around. \*\* I’ve got to admit, that’s pretty damn ugly. ---
**Author:** ![Homebrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Homebrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homebrew)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2003, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-building-award/203209/26 "2003-09-23T21:32:04Z")
I give you [The Reed McDonald Building](http://www.tamu.edu/buildings/mcdonald.html), home to the Journalism Department at Texas A&M University. I spent many hours in that ugly building. Why would you even want to click on the “Select for larger photograph” link? ---
**Author:** ![paperbackwriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/53a042/32.png) [@paperbackwriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/paperbackwriter)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2003, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-building-award/203209/27 "2003-09-23T23:03:21Z")
Well, it seems we have two different definitions of “ugly” competing here. On the one hand, we have the Frank Gehry/Daniel Leibskind Dr-Seuss-on-acid school of architectural assault on the senses. On the other hand, there’s the stalinist architecture-as-a-means-of-depressing-the-soul school. Interesting thing to me is that while the second grew out of taking the Bauhaus function-as-form aesthetic to its logical end, the first grew out of the reactions to it. That said, I still don’t know why Gehry keeps getting major comissions. In thirty years he’s going to be seen in much the same way we regard the architects of Three Rivers Statium and all those other multi-purpose monstrosities. Even worse, I think, because those things are designed with no regard for maintainability. Just to keep in the spirit of the OP, I nominate the [Weatherhead School of Management](http://www.skyscrapers.com/re/en/wm/bu/173203/) at Case Western Reserve University. And yes, it’s a Gehry. ---
**Author:** ![Daowajan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3bc359/32.png) [@Daowajan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daowajan)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2003, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-building-award/203209/28 "2003-09-23T23:22:24Z")
Those buildings are all very, very ugly. But out of personal preference, I give you [The Mosse Humanities Building!](http://www.fpm.wisc.edu/map/building.asp?building=0469&wing=) Rumored to have been specially built during our fair city’s tumultuous period in the late 1960s so that tanks could drive onto the second and third floors (note the walls that, for some reason, are shaped like ramps!) Marvel at the top three floors, which appear to mysteriously stay elevated above the rest of the building, instead of crashing down like a carelessly arranged sandwich! Just wait, there’s more! Take a tour inside, and wonder why the first floor is in the basement, why on certain floors you must leave the actual building to reach the other side of the same floor, the rooms that appear to have been assigned room numbers by the extremely scientific Six Beers and Three Dice Method, and the Magical Disappearing Auditoriums! As I’m fond of saying, “It looks like M.C. Escher got a hold of some bad acid.” That, and the first time I visited the campus, I got completely butt-lost in it very late at night. In fact, LOTS of people get lost in it. The words “Sorry, Humanities Building” are an accepted excuse to showing up late to any class. ---
**Author:** ![Daowajan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3bc359/32.png) [@Daowajan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daowajan)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2003, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-building-award/203209/29 "2003-09-23T23:30:57Z")
For further illustration - > **[Space Management Office](https://smo.fpm.wisc.edu/)** > > The mission of the Space Management Office is to collect, maintain, supply and analyze UW-Madison facility utilization information; to identify, assign and acquire space and real property resources required for all university academic, research and... [http://www.kulichki.com/masha/stuff/citylion/konets/](http://www.kulichki.com/masha/stuff/citylion/konets/) Coincidence? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2003, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-building-award/203209/30 "2003-09-23T23:37:16Z")
I think some of your Canadians might have overlooked the [extension](http://www.ocad.on.ca/large_OCAD_ext.jpg) to the Ontario College of Art and Design. ---
**Author:** ![Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laughing_Lagomorph)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2003, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-building-award/203209/31 "2003-09-24T01:13:12Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by CalMeacham \* > \*\*I’ve already noted the **Ray and Maria Stata Center** at MIT, designed by Frank Gehry: > > [http://web.mit.edu/buildings/statacenter/](http://web.mit.edu/buildings/statacenter/) > > [http://www.cdm.lcs.mit.edu/people/psz/stata/Default.html](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. \*\* I work less than a block from this pile. I have to admit I like the Gehry Bilbao Guggenheim, but I think he is getting more derivative with each building he designs. Boston Globe columnist Alex Beam discussed his MIT building a few weeks back. I have to say, though, that this isn’t even the ugliest building in Greater Boston…that would be [Boston City Hall](http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/kallmann/kallmann.html) and its accompanying plaza. Cold, windswept and bleak in the winter, parched and treeless in the summer, the plaza is the setting for the brutalist, dehumanizing mistake you can feast your eyes on in the above link. Here is another view: [http://www.culturageneral.net/arquitectura/arquitec/bostciha.htm](http://www.culturageneral.net/arquitectura/arquitec/bostciha.htm) You may want to put on some protective eyewear. ---
**Author:** ![mblackwell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5fc32e/32.png) [@mblackwell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mblackwell)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2003, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-building-award/203209/32 "2003-09-24T01:15:59Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by mhendo \* > \*\*I think some of your Canadians might have overlooked the [extension](http://www.ocad.on.ca/large_OCAD_ext.jpg) to the Ontario College of Art and Design. \*\* Wow. I think we have a winner. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2003, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-building-award/203209/33 "2003-09-24T01:21:14Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Homebrew \* > \*\*I give you [The Reed McDonald Building](http://www.tamu.edu/buildings/mcdonald.html), home to the Journalism Department at Texas A&M University. I spent many hours in that ugly building. Why would you even want to click on the “Select for larger photograph” link? \*\* Heh… it just got uglier. I was down for the Utah game a few weeks back and a chunk of that orange shite trim about 10 feet long spalled off between the 2nd and 3rd floors right behind the snack bar facing the chemistry building. ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2003, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-building-award/203209/34 "2003-09-24T05:54:42Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by mhendo \* > \*\*I think some of your Canadians might have overlooked the [extension](http://www.ocad.on.ca/large_OCAD_ext.jpg) to the Ontario College of Art and Design. \*\* This is a proposal, right? It looks photoshopped. If it has actually been built, I agree with **mblackwell** , this is the worst of the worst. It justifies nuclear war. ---
**Author:** ![Spiny\_Norman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@Spiny\_Norman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiny_Norman)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2003, 10:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-building-award/203209/35 "2003-09-24T10:07:56Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Laughing Lagomorph \* > \*\*I have to say, though, that this isn’t even the ugliest building in Greater Boston…that would be [Boston City Hall](http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/kallmann/kallmann.html) and its accompanying plaza. \*\* That is not a city hall. That is Stalin’s tomb. ---
**Author:** ![Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laughing_Lagomorph)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2003, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-building-award/203209/36 "2003-09-24T11:37:57Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Spiny Norman \* > \*\*That is not a city hall. That is Stalin’s tomb. \*\* Hideous, ain’t it? That College of Art and Design thing is indeed an abomination. Please tell us it hasn’t actually been built. ---
**Author:** ![Angua](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8baadc/32.png) [@Angua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Angua)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2003, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-building-award/203209/37 "2003-09-24T11:41:41Z")
OK, the new “Bullring” in Birmingham. It is [hideous](http://www.virtualbrum.co.uk/selfridges.htm) ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2003, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-building-award/203209/38 "2003-09-24T13:03:46Z")
> [@](#): > > I have to say, though, that this isn’t even the ugliest building in Greater Boston…that would be Boston City Hall and its accompanying plaza. Cold, windswept and bleak in the winter, parched and treeless in the summer, the plaza is the setting for the brutalist, dehumanizing mistake you can feast your eyes on in the above link. Here is another view: [http://www.culturageneral.net/arqui...ec/bostciha.htm](http://www.culturageneral.net/arqui...ec/bostciha.htm) > > You may want to put on some protective eyewear. > > * * * When it was first unveiled, they called Boston City Hall an “Aztec tomb”. But, all of its shortcomings duly noted and agreed aupon, I still think it can’t hold a candle to the ugliness of the Stata Center. And I have to admit that the Experience Music Center that **criminal catalog** is at least as ugly as the Stata Center. ---
**Author:** ![Lissla\_Lissar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lissla\_Lissar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissla_Lissar)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2003, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-building-award/203209/39 "2003-09-24T13:04:46Z")
It’ll (OCAD) go nicely with Robarts library. The only pic I can find online makes it look kind of cool, but it was built to resemble a Canada goose. I’m not joking. it looks like an enormous concrete turkey. Let’s see if I can find a truthful pic… nope. I’ll try later when I have more time. It’s hideous. ---
**Author:** ![Homebrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Homebrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homebrew)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2003, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-building-award/203209/40 "2003-09-24T13:16:40Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Angua \* > \*\*OK, the new “Bullring” in Birmingham. It is [hideous](http://www.virtualbrum.co.uk/selfridges.htm) \*\* You win. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-building-award/203209.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-building-award/203209.md?page=3)