# Ugly, ridiculous, impractical buildings that you still think are awesome **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 29, 2014, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-ridiculous-impractical-buildings-that-you-still-think-are-awesome/696877 "2014-08-29T16:16:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2014, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-ridiculous-impractical-buildings-that-you-still-think-are-awesome/696877/1 "2014-08-29T16:16:53Z")
The [Ryugyong Hotel](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryugyong_Hotel) in Pyongyang gets a lot of well-deserved criticism. NK doesn’t have the money for it, Pyongyang probably doesn’t really need 3000 hotel rooms, it’s never going to be finished, it’s basically a glorified cell tower at this point, etc. All in all, it’s an abomination. But I still think it just [looks](http://ryugyonghotel.com/ryugyong-hotel-tower.jpg) cool. I kind of love the sci-fi B-movie aesthetic of the awful thing. What terrible, awful, no good buildings do you still love? ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2014, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-ridiculous-impractical-buildings-that-you-still-think-are-awesome/696877/2 "2014-08-29T17:36:45Z")
[The CN tower](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CN_Tower) is essentially a monument to cement. It might have been a good idea in a place where there is actually something worth seeing from such a high vantage point. But Toronto is one of the least scenic cities in North America. Flat as a pancake. Nothing but suburban sprawl as far as the eye can see with a huge equally dull looking lake to the south. To say that I love it would be a great big lie. But hey, they built this thing and it’s an impressive engineering feat of yesteryear and it’s still standing. So yeah, CN Tower! ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2014, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-ridiculous-impractical-buildings-that-you-still-think-are-awesome/696877/3 "2014-08-30T03:52:34Z")
[This](https://www.google.com/search?q=basket+building+ohio&client=safari&rls=en&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=CkkBVJHfEs6mggSW-4KQCg&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAQ&biw=1070&bih=1038#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=kbWrpt1huZ5f7M%253A%3Bb_mTLttKg62lMM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Finnovativebuildings.net%252Fwp-content%252Fuploads%252F2010%252F07%252Fbasket_building.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Finnovativebuildings.net%252F2010%252F07%252F01%252Fthe-basket-building%252F%3B1500%3B998) is the Home Office of Longaberger’s Basket Company, in Newark, Ohio. ---
**Author:** ![Sarabellum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sarabellum/32/3492_2.png) [@Sarabellum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sarabellum)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2014, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-ridiculous-impractical-buildings-that-you-still-think-are-awesome/696877/4 "2014-08-30T04:24:17Z")
> [@Bayard](#): > > The [Ryugyong Hotel](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryugyong_Hotel) in Pyongyang gets a lot of well-deserved criticism. NK doesn’t have the money for it, Pyongyang probably doesn’t really need 3000 hotel rooms, it’s never going to be finished, it’s basically a glorified cell tower at this point, etc. All in all, it’s an abomination. But I still think it just [looks](http://ryugyonghotel.com/ryugyong-hotel-tower.jpg) cool. I kind of love the sci-fi B-movie aesthetic of the awful thing. > > What terrible, awful, no good buildings do you still love? I’m not saying that I like it, either… but it HAS improved substantially since they installed all the glass on the exterior a couple years ago. The removal of the giant crane at the top helped quite a bit, too. Hard to believe they’ve been building that thing for coming up on 30 years. If I ever visit Pyongyang and have my choice of hotels - fat chance!! - I’d definitely stay there! As for my love-it-because-it’s-so-awful personal favorite building, it’s a residential house in my hometown. It was a 1-story home, built in an odd combination of French Provincial and modern, probably in the 60s or early 70s. It was a hideous house, with the flat roof, white stucco finish, statuary niche with a naked lady statue in front, and a rock garden instead of a lawn - all neighborhood oddities by the time I first saw the home in the 80s. Apparently the owners keenly felt how odd their house looked compared to the rest of the neighborhood, because eventually they decided to add a peaked roof to it, (even though the house had been built without any overhanging eaves!) plant a Bermuda lawn, added shutters, removed the naked lady, and painted the whole thing dark green. It looked worse. So much worse. It’s located on the corner of a major neighborhood thoroughfare, so it was fairly common to give and get directions that included things like, “take a left at the Ugly House”… But you had to admire that they’d made the attempt - surely it wasn’t cheap. They just made an ugly house even uglier. It was just so ghastly you had to love it. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2014, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-ridiculous-impractical-buildings-that-you-still-think-are-awesome/696877/5 "2014-08-30T06:07:37Z")
In D.C. the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial and the Jefferson Memorial. Architecturally thousands of years out of date and mostly decoration. The Washington Monument has a great view from the top, but boy is it ugly with it’s non-matching marble and dangerous with it’s reinforced masonry. The Lincoln Memorial is probably the best example of an ancient Greek temple in the world, with Lincoln in statue form just as Athena or Zeus would be in their temples. Lincoln, who was certainly an atheist until he was president and starting invoking God in speeches (and may have remained an atheist) would have been utterly appalled and embarrassed. But the thing is exquisitely grand and competently done. The Flintstones house in Hillsborough, California visible from I-280 is just preposterously ugly and cool. Went through once when it was for sale. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2014, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-ridiculous-impractical-buildings-that-you-still-think-are-awesome/696877/6 "2014-08-30T06:40:30Z")
[Do oil refineries count?](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/51/Anacortes_Refinery_31911.JPG) ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2014, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-ridiculous-impractical-buildings-that-you-still-think-are-awesome/696877/7 "2014-08-30T06:46:58Z")
> [@Sarabellum1976](#): > > I’m not saying that I like it, either… but it HAS improved substantially since they installed all the glass on the exterior a couple years ago. The removal of the giant crane at the top helped quite a bit, too. Did they finish all the exterior with glass, or just one side (and make sure it’s only photographed from that side)? ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2014, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-ridiculous-impractical-buildings-that-you-still-think-are-awesome/696877/8 "2014-08-30T08:13:45Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > [Do oil refineries count?](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/51/Anacortes_Refinery_31911.JPG) I wouldn’t call them impractical. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2014, 9:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-ridiculous-impractical-buildings-that-you-still-think-are-awesome/696877/9 "2014-08-30T09:12:29Z")
On a much smaller scale than some of the others here… the Tricorn Centre in Portsmouth (England) [![](http://www.abacusarchitects.co.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Tricorn.jpg) ](http://www.abacusarchitects.co.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Tricorn.jpg) Now demolished (except for one little bit that still forms the fire escape for an adjacent building), this was a bold, hideous, brave, stupid piece of brutalist architecture. People loved it and people despised it, there were no fence sitters. I’m personally sad to have seen it go. I won’t be very surprised if history judges its destruction as a tragedy. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2014, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-ridiculous-impractical-buildings-that-you-still-think-are-awesome/696877/10 "2014-08-30T19:25:07Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > I wouldn’t call them impractical. But neither is the hotel in the OP. It’s a perfectly fine hotel; it’s just shaped weird. (Practical, huh? Ever try to hold an Elks Convention in an oil refinery? Nothing but problems!) ---
**Author:** ![GusNSpot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gusnspot/32/436_2.png) [@GusNSpot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GusNSpot)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2014, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-ridiculous-impractical-buildings-that-you-still-think-are-awesome/696877/11 "2014-08-30T20:28:00Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#): > > [The CN tower](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CN_Tower) is essentially a monument to cement. It might have been a good idea in a place where there is actually something worth seeing from such a high vantage point. But Toronto is one of the least scenic cities in North America. Flat as a pancake. Nothing but suburban sprawl as far as the eye can see with a huge equally dull looking lake to the south. > > To say that I love it would be a great big lie. But hey, they built this thing and it’s an impressive engineering feat of yesteryear and it’s still standing. So yeah, CN Tower! Makes it easy to tell what city the series was shot it. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![GusNSpot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gusnspot/32/436_2.png) [@GusNSpot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GusNSpot)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2014, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-ridiculous-impractical-buildings-that-you-still-think-are-awesome/696877/12 "2014-08-30T20:31:45Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > [Do oil refineries count?](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/51/Anacortes_Refinery_31911.JPG) That one actually looks good IMO. Come to the S/W and see some really ugly old refineries . :eek: ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2014, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-ridiculous-impractical-buildings-that-you-still-think-are-awesome/696877/13 "2014-08-30T20:52:26Z")
DC is filled with cold, imposing, brutalist buildings that many think are hideous, but I kinda like 'em. I think the [FBI building](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Edgar_Hoover_Building#mediaviewer/File:Fbi_headquarters.jpg) looks cool. It _should_ look imposing! ---
**Author:** ![K364](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k364/32/5_2.png) [@K364](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/K364)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2014, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-ridiculous-impractical-buildings-that-you-still-think-are-awesome/696877/14 "2014-08-30T21:58:21Z")
> [@DCnDC](#): > > DC is filled with cold, imposing, brutalist buildings that many think are hideous, but I kinda like 'em. I think the [FBI building](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Edgar_Hoover_Building#mediaviewer/File:Fbi_headquarters.jpg) looks cool. It _should_ look imposing! The strange looking [Eisenhower Executive Office Building](http://www.aecom.com/Where+We+Are/Americas/Building+Engineering/_projectsList/Eisenhower+Executive+Office+Building+(EEOB)) ---
**Author:** ![Elemenopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b5e925/32.png) [@Elemenopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elemenopy)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2014, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-ridiculous-impractical-buildings-that-you-still-think-are-awesome/696877/15 "2014-08-31T18:13:29Z")
I’ve always kinda dug the [Metropolitan Correctional Center](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_Correctional_Center,_Chicago) in Chicago. A gazillion tons of concrete with [arrow slits](http://www.dailydot.com/crime/guilty-plea-video-assault-facebook/) instead of plate glass squares. It’s certainly functional, but is a an architectural eyesore compared to nearby buildings. ---
**Author:** ![LawMonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@LawMonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LawMonkey)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2014, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-ridiculous-impractical-buildings-that-you-still-think-are-awesome/696877/16 "2014-08-31T18:40:17Z")
I’ll admit to digging Stalinist architecture generally, which I think is not generally held in high regard; the [Moscow State University](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow_State_University#mediaviewer/File:Moskva_MGU_1.jpg) probably is the most familiar example. ---
**Author:** ![Iggy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iggy/32/3364_2.png) [@Iggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iggy)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2014, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-ridiculous-impractical-buildings-that-you-still-think-are-awesome/696877/17 "2014-08-31T18:59:05Z")
Just this morning I was listening to a BBC program that interviewed [Moshe Safdie](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moshe_Safdie), the architect responsible for my nominee fro this thread, [Habitat 67](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habitat_67) in Montreal. It looks like a giant spilled his toys along the riverfront. [Panoramic image from Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habitat_67#mediaviewer/File:Habitat_panorama.jpg) The Wikipedia article notes that “Bloggers have reported it as one of the top 10 ugliest buildings in North America and the world.” Agreed. Though perhaps it is not entirely impractical and people still live there some 40+ years after it was built. ---
**Author:** ![polar\_bear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ec9cab/32.png) [@polar\_bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/polar_bear)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2014, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-ridiculous-impractical-buildings-that-you-still-think-are-awesome/696877/18 "2014-08-31T19:06:39Z")
> [@LawMonkey](#): > > I’ll admit to digging Stalinist architecture generally, which I think is not generally held in high regard; the [Moscow State University](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow_State_University#mediaviewer/File:Moskva_MGU_1.jpg) probably is the most familiar example. That’s actually one of seven pretty much identical buildings in Moscow. They’re called the seven sisters. ---
**Author:** ![Lsura](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7993a0/32.png) [@Lsura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lsura)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2014, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-ridiculous-impractical-buildings-that-you-still-think-are-awesome/696877/19 "2014-08-31T19:13:09Z")
> [@Elemenopy](#): > > I’ve always kinda dug the [Metropolitan Correctional Center](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_Correctional_Center,_Chicago) in Chicago. A gazillion tons of concrete with [arrow slits](http://www.dailydot.com/crime/guilty-plea-video-assault-facebook/) instead of plate glass squares. It’s certainly functional, but is a an architectural eyesore compared to nearby buildings. That looks remarkably like the building I work in, and I’m not in Chicago. I hate it. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2014, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-ridiculous-impractical-buildings-that-you-still-think-are-awesome/696877/20 "2014-08-31T20:57:40Z")
[The Nott Memorial](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nott_Memorial). Sixteen sides, expensive to heat, and the college spent over a century trying to find a use for it (since it was the symbol of the school, it had to stay). Students called it “the nipple.” Now they have a performance space inside (though the acoustics are terrible) and some art galleries. Anyone who went to Union thinks of it fondly. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-ridiculous-impractical-buildings-that-you-still-think-are-awesome/696877.md?page=2)