# 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:** 2
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2014, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-ridiculous-impractical-buildings-that-you-still-think-are-awesome/696877/21 "2014-08-31T21:16:17Z")
[Bulgarian Communist Party headquarters](https://www.google.com/search?q=buzludzha&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=Q5ADVNW3O8SUgwTL1YK4AQ&sqi=2&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ&biw=1229&bih=929) ---
**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 31, 2014, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-ridiculous-impractical-buildings-that-you-still-think-are-awesome/696877/22 "2014-08-31T23:22:51Z")
> [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](#): > > [Bulgarian Communist Party headquarters](https://www.google.com/search?q=buzludzha&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=Q5ADVNW3O8SUgwTL1YK4AQ&sqi=2&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ&biw=1229&bih=929) That is cool. Is it for sale? šŸ˜‰ ---
**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 31, 2014, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-ridiculous-impractical-buildings-that-you-still-think-are-awesome/696877/23 "2014-08-31T23:30:11Z")
> [@Iggy](#): > > 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. I see on his Wikipedia page that he did the Vancouver Public Library, which I think is absolutely stunning. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2014, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-ridiculous-impractical-buildings-that-you-still-think-are-awesome/696877/24 "2014-08-31T23:59:27Z")
> [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](#): > > [Bulgarian Communist Party headquarters](https://www.google.com/search?q=buzludzha&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=Q5ADVNW3O8SUgwTL1YK4AQ&sqi=2&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ&biw=1229&bih=929) Does the saucer section separate? ---
**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:** [September 1, 2014, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-ridiculous-impractical-buildings-that-you-still-think-are-awesome/696877/25 "2014-09-01T01:19:24Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#): > > The Flintstones house in Hillsborough, California visible from I-280 is just preposterously ugly and cool. Went through once when it was for sale. That is a full fledged eyesore. And also just awesome. The inside is too cool. The outside wouldnā€™t be so terrible if it wasnā€™t painted that Home Depot orange. ---
**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:** [September 1, 2014, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-ridiculous-impractical-buildings-that-you-still-think-are-awesome/696877/26 "2014-09-01T01:27:08Z")
> [@LawMonkey](#): > > Iā€™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. I like it! Very imposing. > [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](#): > > [Bulgarian Communist Party headquarters](https://www.google.com/search?q=buzludzha&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=Q5ADVNW3O8SUgwTL1YK4AQ&sqi=2&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ&biw=1229&bih=929) Is it really out in the middle of nowhere, like it seems in the picture? Was there ever a city around it, or did the party leaders like running the country from a concrete spaceship marooned in the middle of a wasteland? ---
**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2014, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-ridiculous-impractical-buildings-that-you-still-think-are-awesome/696877/27 "2014-09-01T01:30:33Z")
> [@K364](#): > > The strange looking [Eisenhower Executive Office Building](http://www.aecom.com/Where+We+Are/Americas/Building+Engineering/_projectsList/Eisenhower+Executive+Office+Building+(EEOB)) My God, that thing looks like it belongs in a steampunk anime movie. It almost looks out of place without a dirigible in the background. ---
**Author:** ![dofe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7ba0ec/32.png) [@dofe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dofe)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2014, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-ridiculous-impractical-buildings-that-you-still-think-are-awesome/696877/28 "2014-09-01T02:38:35Z")
The [Seattle Central Library](https://www.google.com/search?q=Seattle+Central+Library&client=ubuntu&hs=mtd&channel=fs&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=3toDVMzrAaiEjAKGo4G4Bw&ved=0CAkQ_AUoAg&biw=1017&bih=957) has often been described as ugly and impractical. I think it looks amazing. ---
**Author:** ![Wallaby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/dc4da7/32.png) [@Wallaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallaby)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2014, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-ridiculous-impractical-buildings-that-you-still-think-are-awesome/696877/29 "2014-09-01T03:23:20Z")
The [Ming Wing](http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-an14133006-16-v). The Robert Gordon Menzies School of Humanities at Monash University (Menzies was Aussie PM for about 2 million years, and nicknamed Ming the Merciless, hence the Ming Wing). Absolutely hideous. But - being built in the mid-60s, Monash Uni was waaaaaay out in the outer SE suburbs of Melbourne - there were still plenty of market gardens around. The Ming Wing was the biggest building for many miles around, and an easy landmark. If the sun was in the right quarter, the reflective capabilities made it look like the Uni was trying to beam messages to Mars. Inside it was like a cross between a public hospital and a Stalinist beaurocracy with less charm and atmosphere. The two semesters I spent in there are not amongst my educational highlights. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2014, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-ridiculous-impractical-buildings-that-you-still-think-are-awesome/696877/30 "2014-09-01T03:30:07Z")
> [@Bayard](#): > > Is it really out in the middle of nowhere, like it seems in the picture? Was there ever a city around it, or did the party leaders like running the country from a concrete spaceship marooned in the middle of a wasteland? Well, no, the Party did the actual running of the country out of a prosaic building in Sofia. This was more like for special-occasion ceremonies, on account that it was in that rural boondocks where the original Bulgarian socialists first met as an underground movement. > [@zoid](#): > > My God, that thing looks like it belongs in a steampunk anime movie. It almost looks out of place without a dirigible in the background. To be fair, it DID get built c. 1880 (for the Departments of State, War and Navy ā€“ yes, all three, it was a much smaller government). At the time that was the height of fashion for the capital of an up & coming country. Been there a few times, once you get over the antique floorplans itā€™s functionally just acceptable. ---
**Author:** ![Ostrya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/35a633/32.png) [@Ostrya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ostrya)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2014, 10:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-ridiculous-impractical-buildings-that-you-still-think-are-awesome/696877/31 "2014-09-01T10:14:06Z")
[Pals](http://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/01/54/c2/e8/exterior-of-pal-s-in.jpg), which is a fastfood burger restaurant chain of 23 stores located in northwestern Tennessee and southwestern Virginia. Pals is unique in several ways but one of the most notable being main menu items in three dimensional form presented as part of the building itself. From a considerable distance a person can tell what they can expect at Pals. One of the reasons itā€™s easy to become an admirer of Palsā€™ gaudy architecture is customer service that is as great as the burgers and milk shakes. Order accuracy stands at 1 mistake per every 3,360 transactions and this remarkable feat combines with faster service turnover rate than all other restaurants in the category. Their average gross-sales per building unit is 2 million-plus per year. [Pals - Americas least-known well-run burger chain](http://www.burgerbusiness.com/?p=11143) ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2014, 10:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-ridiculous-impractical-buildings-that-you-still-think-are-awesome/696877/32 "2014-09-01T10:35:51Z")
The Washington Monument in Washington D.C. is the weirdest building ever constructed. It was built just before the age of skyscrapers started. It has no steel infrastructure supporting it. (There is a steel infrastructure supporting just the elevator inside of it.) Itā€™s in the shape of an Egyptian obelisk, but itā€™s ten times as large as any Egyptian obelisk. It was finished in 1885 and was the tallest building in the world for four years until the Eiffel Tower was finished. Nobody since has been silly enough to build anything like it. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2014, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-ridiculous-impractical-buildings-that-you-still-think-are-awesome/696877/33 "2014-09-01T10:59:22Z")
> [@zoid](#): > > My God, that thing looks like it belongs in a steampunk anime movie. It almost looks out of place without a dirigible in the background. I love the OEOB. Great example of Second Empire style. Speaking of halls of bureaucracy, my nominee is [The Pentagon](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pentagon#mediaviewer/File:The_Pentagon_January_2008.jpg). Short, squat, and a totally boring, unattractive shape. But I love it because itā€™s one of the most efficient buildings ever designed; despite being the largest office building in the world you can walk from any point to any other in less than ten minutes, guaranteed. ---
**Author:** ![Cinnamon\_Imp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/58956e/32.png) [@Cinnamon\_Imp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cinnamon_Imp)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2014, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-ridiculous-impractical-buildings-that-you-still-think-are-awesome/696877/34 "2014-09-01T11:37:23Z")
> [@Iggy](#): > > 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 ā€œBloggers have reported it as one of the top 10 ugliest buildings in North America and the world.ā€ Agreed. Though perhaps it is not entirely impractical and people still live there some 40+ years after it was built. I love it - Iā€™d live there if I could šŸ™‚ My contribution - that [Toastrack](http://manchesterhistory.net/manchester/outside/toastrack.html), Manchester, England. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2014, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-ridiculous-impractical-buildings-that-you-still-think-are-awesome/696877/35 "2014-09-01T13:40:53Z")
The Headington Shark House in Oxford, England: [![](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Headington_Shark#mediaviewer/File:The_Headington_Shark_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1220282.jpg) ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Headington_Shark#mediaviewer/File:The_Headington_Shark_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1220282.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Cinnamon\_Imp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/58956e/32.png) [@Cinnamon\_Imp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cinnamon_Imp)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2014, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-ridiculous-impractical-buildings-that-you-still-think-are-awesome/696877/36 "2014-09-01T13:45:29Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#): > > The Flintstones house in Hillsborough, California visible from I-280 is just preposterously ugly and cool. Went through once when it was for sale. > [@Bayard](#): > > That is a full fledged eyesore. And also just awesome. The inside is too cool. The outside wouldnā€™t be so terrible if it wasnā€™t painted that Home Depot orange. [Link to the Flintstones house](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Flintstone_House), for those whoā€™d never heard of it or seen it (like me). ---
**Author:** ![Echo\_Charlie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b5e925/32.png) [@Echo\_Charlie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Echo_Charlie)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2014, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-ridiculous-impractical-buildings-that-you-still-think-are-awesome/696877/37 "2014-09-01T14:26:58Z")
The [Barbican Estate](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbican_Estate) is the epitome of British 1960s Brutalist architecture. I lived across the street from the estate for many years and began to love the sheer ugliness of its bulk. I could use the Barbicanā€™s skywalks, well above the city streets, to walk from home to the heart of the City (Londonā€™s historic centre) without ever touching the ground, crossing aerial passageways looking over water gardens and flats. Hereā€™s an aerial view: [File:Barbicanestatefromabove.jpg - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Barbicanestatefromabove.jpg) 2-bedroom flats in the Barbican now run at around Ā£1m+. I keep trying to talk my partner in looking at one, but he thinks it looks too much like a council estate. ---
**Author:** ![racer72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/racer72/32/3075_2.png) [@racer72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racer72)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2014, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-ridiculous-impractical-buildings-that-you-still-think-are-awesome/696877/38 "2014-09-01T15:10:07Z")
37 posts and no one has mentioned the [Experience Music Project?](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EMP_Museum) Went in once just to see the inside. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2014, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-ridiculous-impractical-buildings-that-you-still-think-are-awesome/696877/39 "2014-09-01T16:48:57Z")
> [@racer72](#): > > 37 posts and no one has mentioned the [Experience Music Project?](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EMP_Museum) Went in once just to see the inside. Frank Gehry is the worldā€™s worst human. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2014, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-ridiculous-impractical-buildings-that-you-still-think-are-awesome/696877/40 "2014-09-01T20:14:54Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > On a much smaller scale than some of the others hereā€¦ 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) Holy shit. Remember Lloyd Georgeā€™s quote that he wanted to build ā€œa land fit for heroes?ā€ That looks like a land fit for sex criminals. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-ridiculous-impractical-buildings-that-you-still-think-are-awesome/696877.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-ridiculous-impractical-buildings-that-you-still-think-are-awesome/696877.md?page=3)