# What's the Least Aesthetically Pleasing Campus? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 2, 2005, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-least-aesthetically-pleasing-campus/292564 "2005-03-02T06:17:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Millit\_the\_Frail](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/51bf81/32.png) [@Millit\_the\_Frail](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Millit_the_Frail)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2005, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-least-aesthetically-pleasing-campus/292564/21 "2005-03-02T20:49:06Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > [This thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=304566) covered the nicest campus. It looks like the University of Chicago wins - nice because I just finished paying \*!&%$@ dollars to keep the place up. ☹ Woohoo! Coming to you LIVE from the most beautiful campus…I’ll second UIC and IIT. If they were in interesting neighborhoods I could forgive them, but…no. ---
**Author:** ![yanceylebeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yanceylebeef/32/12290_2.png) [@yanceylebeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yanceylebeef)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2005, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-least-aesthetically-pleasing-campus/292564/22 "2005-03-02T21:13:18Z")
The area it is located in is beautiful, but the Air Force Academy buildings are the ugliest I’ve seen on any campus. I’d link to some web cam shots, but they have all been taken down in the name of security, so you’ll have to take my word for it. Designed in the late forties, it is very square, metallic and cold. Like many military designs, this place would not look out of place in Soviet Russia. On the other hand the area in and around Colorado Springs is gorgeous. Someone once described it to me as “like working in a postcard”, and that is the best summation I’ve found. Shame about the architecture, though. ---
**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:** [March 2, 2005, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-least-aesthetically-pleasing-campus/292564/23 "2005-03-02T23:59:54Z")
As I posted in the other thread, I go to the Univ of South Florida. The Tampa campus of the university is an aesthetic nightmare. The [SunDome](http://usfweb2.usf.edu/tourusf/sundome.html). Our [Rec Center](http://www.sciencemasters.org/images/usf_photo1.jpg). The [bookstore](http://www.sciencemasters.org/images/usf_photo1.jpg). And a mighty fortress is our [library](http://usfweb2.usf.edu/tourusf/library.html). The old parts of campus have a serious post-Stalinist Soviet apartment bloc feel, and the new parts are the terribly clichéd late-'90s red brick numbers with green roofs. I wish I could find a good picture of the college of business admin, which we call the business bunker. It’s a perfectly square building with the entry points are on the four corners, no windows, and the first floor completely underground. ---
**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:** [March 3, 2005, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-least-aesthetically-pleasing-campus/292564/24 "2005-03-03T00:02:03Z")
Forgot to add, that [this](http://usfweb2.usf.edu/tourusf/business.html) is the only picture of the bunker I can find. That block sticking up out of the grass at the top of the picture is the 3rd floor. The second is underneath all that grass, and the first is underground. ---
**Author:** ![bonzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@bonzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bonzer)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2005, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-least-aesthetically-pleasing-campus/292564/25 "2005-03-03T00:23:41Z")
> [@ccwaterback](#): > > For many of the same reasons, U of Illinois Chicago Campus, on the near west side. Issues of safety aside, I felt that the mid-90’s adjustments to the UIC campus were a bad mistake. Granted, my tolerance for 1960’s brutalism may have been high in the first place, but I felt that the scars left by the demolition were just that. > [@yanceylebeef](#): > > The area it is located in is beautiful, but the Air Force Academy buildings are the ugliest I’ve seen on any campus. Possibly worth noting that the chapel at Colorado Springs is the other famous work by the original designer of the UIC campus, Walter Netsch. ---
**Author:** ![TV\_time](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f17d59/32.png) [@TV\_time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TV_time)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2005, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-least-aesthetically-pleasing-campus/292564/26 "2005-03-03T02:55:54Z")
Alumns are incredibly loyal and will probably disagree, but off all the universities I have seen, and I have seen quite a few, Texas Tech is an incredibly ugly campus. It takes urban sprawl to an academic level. In addition it has no consistent style of construction, no consistent building material nor any landscaping style that links it together. As I said the alumns are rabidly loyal and see no reason for those things and in fact will argue that such things detract from the beauty of a campus. ---
**Author:** ![scott\_evil](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/91b2a8/32.png) [@scott\_evil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scott_evil)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2005, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-least-aesthetically-pleasing-campus/292564/27 "2005-03-03T03:13:48Z")
> [@MrFantsyPants](#): > > The worst I’ve been to is McGill, in Montreal. Perhaps someone more knowledgeable than me can fill us in, but from what I recall, a large part of the architectural design philosophy was about quelling violent student protests. True or not, the one time I visited, the place was butt-ugly. > > A quick look at their main [Campus Scenes](http://www.mcgill.ca/photos/) webpage shows a distinct attempt to avoid showing the campus. No. McGill is _not_ ugly. Concordia is ugly. (I’m an alumnus of the former and currently attend the latter.) U of Ottawa is fugly, too. ---
**Author:** ![Priam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/77aa72/32.png) [@Priam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Priam)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2005, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-least-aesthetically-pleasing-campus/292564/28 "2005-03-03T03:34:44Z")
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you [Northern Kentucky University](http://access.nku.edu/campusplan/NKU%20Aerial%202003.JPG), otherwise known as “We’ve got parking lots! And concrete! Oh and see that track field in the upper right corner? Yeah. It’s a parking _garage_ now!” Maybe not the most aesthetically displeasing, but you’ve never been up on that hill in breezy weather… see, they cut down all the windblocks to fit in more PARKING! For CARS! Did we mention the cars yet? We’ve got lots and lots of &\*^@ing cars! I couldn’t find a picture that adequately expresses the true desolation you feel when you come on-campus. Perhaps an anecdote will help… The main entrance to NKU is at a fairly busy intersection off one of our highways. In order to reduce confusion, I suppose, the county posted a marker right off the main entrance indicating via a large arrow and a smaller sign that the “Campbell County Detention Center” was further along the way. The arrow fell off. Standing outside our main entrance was a sign indicating for all the world to see that the prison for Campbell county was apparently _right here at NKU_. No one noticed. ---
**Author:** ![anu-la1979](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/47e85d/32.png) [@anu-la1979](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anu-la1979)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2005, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-least-aesthetically-pleasing-campus/292564/29 "2005-03-03T05:23:33Z")
Poor McGill…if you stand in front of the Roddick gates in summer/autumn and look straight in front of you to Moyse Hall, McGill’s urn (yes, his remains are in there) with Mont-Royal as a backdrop, the water tower, the peaks of Victoria’s?? towers edging out (it’s been a while, I think that’s the hospital’s name), Strathcona and some of the old-school buildings with the oxidized copper-roofs…and the leaves and the grass still in place, it’s very pretty. If you come in winter and the Leacock building and the horror that is McLennan Library and that chem building on the right side and the grass is all gone and the Nudes aren’t streaming water…then it is a hideous place. And aside from the old part of RVC and the old boy’s dorm (I think it’s Bishop Hall), the dorms are freaking hid. McGill, an exercise in how a beautiful campus can be systematically uglified by building nasty 70s-esque architecture among gorgeous historic buildings. I will always have a soft spot in my heart for McGill, though, since it’s kinda my alma mater. Also, you get to go to school in Montreal…it more than makes up for having to study in McLennan. Also, they do own another campus for the Ag & Environmental Sciences that is supposed to be quite pretty. ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2005, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-least-aesthetically-pleasing-campus/292564/30 "2005-03-03T06:16:27Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > On the assumption that the winning candidate does not have to be from North America, i humbly offer, from my home town, the [University of Technology, Sydney](http://www.muenster.de/~locher/kalender/mae/16/uts.jpg). Of the Australian unis that I know, \*\*UTS \*\* was the one that immediately leapt to my mind too. ---
**Author:** ![Ms\_Macphisto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b487fb/32.png) [@Ms\_Macphisto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms_Macphisto)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2005, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-least-aesthetically-pleasing-campus/292564/31 "2005-03-03T06:30:53Z")
I only made it out to McGill’s MacDonald campus once in my four years there, but it seemed quite nice. The main campus does have a bit of a split personality between the gorgeous old buildings and the hideous, hideous stuff they built in the 60s and 70s, but I think I’m going to have to go with **scott evil** ’s assessment of Montreal’s english universities. I’m also a bit torn on which thread my other alma mater belongs in. On the one hand, the natural setting of UBC is stunning, what with it being on a peninsula with a forest between the campus and the city and all. On the other hand, a good chunk of the buildings were once again built in the 60s and 70s, and are about as attractive as you’d expect. Actually, I think the main problem is that, like the rest of Vancouver, they just kind of decided that hey, we’ve got the ocean and mountains, so who cares about architecture! ---
**Author:** ![Ooner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/c67d28/32.png) [@Ooner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ooner)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2005, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-least-aesthetically-pleasing-campus/292564/32 "2005-03-03T07:42:59Z")
I don’t know if it’s the ugliest ever, but I’m pretty unimpressed with my school, [UNLV](http://www.library.unlv.edu/arch/graphics/unlv/) The newer buildings are kind of nice, the Boyd Law building and the Lied Library. Everything else is just boring and ugly. The tallest building on campus is the third photo on that site, the FDH Humanities building. That hideous thing is what you see from the street. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Omega\_Glory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/7c8e57/32.png) [@Omega\_Glory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omega_Glory)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2005, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-least-aesthetically-pleasing-campus/292564/33 "2005-03-03T13:16:37Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > My choice for least aesthetic is **RIT** (Rochester Institute of Technology) outside Rochester, N.Y. I came in to add this one too. IMHO, it was only made worse with the addition of the [sentinel](http://www.rit.edu/~930www/paley/webcam.html). The campus is nice in the spring when all the trees and flowers are in bloom, and the animals start coming around though. ---
**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:** [March 3, 2005, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-least-aesthetically-pleasing-campus/292564/34 "2005-03-03T13:30:10Z")
> [@](#): > > I came in to add this one too. IMHO, it was only made worse with the addition of the sentinel. Good God. It reminds me of Nevelson’s **Transparent Horizon** on the MIT campus, with its castrating point placed groin-high. At least they didn’t build it out of those damned bricks. ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2005, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-least-aesthetically-pleasing-campus/292564/35 "2005-03-03T14:25:30Z")
> [@Red Stilettos](#): > > I vote for the north campus of the University of Buffalo. It was built by Rockefeller to be the flagship of the SUNY system, but it is awful. Every building is brown brick. Most Dopers have probably heard the urban legend about how some post-1960s college campus was designed so it would be “riot-proof.” Mark Goldman, the author of two books documenting the forces behind the economic decline of Buffalo, actually verfied that the UL was _true_ for the UB North Campus. Academic buildings are laid out in a “spine” with no central gathering area. In the administration building, the only way to get to the President’s office is to take an elevator; no stairs inside the building lead directly to the floor. If there’s a riot, the elevator can be shut down, preventing sit-ins. There is an emergency stairwell from the President’s floor, but it leads directly to the outdoors; that, too, is reinforced. The Ellicott Complex was intended to house many distinct residential colleges, in a failed scheme to emulate Oxfird and Cambridge. This, and an architectural trend of the day that made blocky, complicated-looking buildings fashionable (Habitat in Montreal is the textbook example), were the major influences in the design of Legoland. ---
**Author:** ![scott\_evil](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/91b2a8/32.png) [@scott\_evil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scott_evil)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2005, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-least-aesthetically-pleasing-campus/292564/36 "2005-03-03T14:37:16Z")
> [@Ms Macphisto](#): > > I only made it out to McGill’s MacDonald campus once in my four years there, but it seemed quite nice. The main campus does have a bit of a split personality between the gorgeous old buildings and the hideous, hideous stuff they built in the 60s and 70s, but I think I’m going to have to go with **scott evil** ’s assessment of Montreal’s english universities. I don’t disagree that McLennan, Burnside, Bronfman, and the upper res buildings (among others) are horrible, horrible buildings. But as **anu-la1979** said, when you stand at the Roddick Gates (McGill College/Sherbrooke) in any season but winter and look up, the view is breathtaking. In the winter, instead of looking up, sit on the steps of the Arts building and look down to Place Ville-Marie… the wide sidewalks on McGill College, the lit trees, the Christmas tree of lights at PVM. Concordia’s Hall building is ugly. They scrubbed it down a few years back, and put big banners up as part of their “Real Education for the Real World” campaign. (Enrollment has gone up substantially.) The McConnell building, which houses the Webster library, went up across the street in 1992. It’s kind of interesting. There’s a new Engineering/Computer Science/Visual Arts building nearing completion on Guy and Ste-Catherine, an imposing glass behemoth, that looks pretty neat. It’s better than the empty lot that was there before, but I find it gives me a claustrophobic feeling every time I walk past. ---
**Author:** ![anu-la1979](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/47e85d/32.png) [@anu-la1979](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anu-la1979)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2005, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-least-aesthetically-pleasing-campus/292564/37 "2005-03-03T16:26:28Z")
Is that the Concordia building with the escalators? I thought that one looked kind of cool. I used to study there sometimes because I lived on Drummond…McLennan was closer but sometimes I just needed to take a break from the bunker. The last time I was there they had upscale-malled-up Les Faubourgs and I was all confused. _sniff sniff_ Now you’re making me all nostalgic for a good old shopping trip to Bedo **scott evil** capped off with a Ristretto Creme Brulee at Second Cup. ---
**Author:** ![Poonther](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Poonther](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poonther)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2005, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-least-aesthetically-pleasing-campus/292564/38 "2005-03-03T17:40:52Z")
I’ll agree with **Bambi** that USF in an ugly school, but it is only the second ugliest campus in Florida. The ugliest by far is Florida Atlantic University (FAU) in Boca Raton. The school was built on the site of an old Air Force base so the landscape is barren and there use to be parts of the old runways everywhere. All the native landscape was removed and there isn’t a bump in site. Yeah I know South Florida is a flat place, but this campus takes that to the extreme. To top it all off, the architecture of most of the buildings is plain and square. It could double as a big prison. The only redeeming feature on the campus are the tall royal palms and graceful coconut palms…otherwise it’s a pit. ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2005, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-least-aesthetically-pleasing-campus/292564/39 "2005-03-03T17:56:44Z")
Cal State University - Monterey Bay was hastily thrown together in 1994 to glom onto the abandoned Fort Ord army base. In all fairness, I can say only that from the highway it looks like it’s still primarily army barracks. It’s probably telling that the [virtual tours](http://csumb.edu/virtualtour/htm/essp.html) on their web site are all taken from inside buildings. ---
**Author:** ![Airblairxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Airblairxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airblairxxx)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2005, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-least-aesthetically-pleasing-campus/292564/40 "2005-03-03T18:41:43Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > The part of UCLA I saw was pretty dreadful, but there might be a good building hidden somewhere, so I won’t nominate it. Hey! That’s my alma mater you’re talking about there! I will admit there are some ugly-ass buildings, starting with Bunche Hall, and the medical center is so fricking huge it’s off-putting, but I submit that the overall campus is a hugely pleasing agglomeration of smaller “neighborhoods” with a number of little quads that help break up what could be an overwhelming urban campus (even though in terms of space it’s actually the smallest of the University of California campuses). Heck with this noise, I’m going over to the other thread and stick up for my school there. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-least-aesthetically-pleasing-campus/292564.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-least-aesthetically-pleasing-campus/292564.md?page=3)