What's the most shameful monstrosity ever built in your city?

[nath05]

Instead, here's a looker....

http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/yyy/0oministryt.jpg

The Ministry of Transportation, in Tbilisi, Georgia.

Actually, I kinda like it.

And as a follow-up to TUP's post, this is absolutely without contest the most awesomely bad building in the thread.:D

[CGII]

That building is to architecture what 300 is to movies:so awesomely bad it's kickass.

[RedStripe]

Thought this might be good to post here, from the NYTimes...

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/23/travel/escapes/23rudolph.html


March 23, 2007
A Road Trip Back to the Future
By FRED A. BERNSTEIN
ONE of the high points of my childhood on Long Island — where most buildings were as ordinary as Monopoly houses — was driving past Endo Labs, a pharmaceutical company headquarters in Garden City made of undulating surfaces of corduroy-textured concrete. Endo was part medieval castle, part flying saucer and unlike any building I had ever seen.

Much later I learned that it was the work of Paul Rudolph, a Kentucky-born architect who, in the second half of the 20th century, produced a remarkable series of buildings, virtually all of them of concrete poured into shapes so complex that users were both exhilarated and mystified, often at the same time. When he died in 1997, he was lauded as a homegrown talent who had adapted the ideas of European modernists — like Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe — into a uniquely American body of work.

But just a few years later, much of that work is in danger. In January, a Westport, Conn., house was bulldozed, joining several other Rudolph buildings in architecture’s junkyard. Right now, at least three buildings — a high school in Sarasota, Fla.; the Orange County Government Center in Goshen, N.Y.; and an office building in Boston built for Blue Cross/Blue Shield 45 years ago — are threatened with destruction. Still others face death by neglect.

If Rudolph’s buildings aren’t as highly valued as those of some of his contemporaries, that’s in part because they aren’t as well understood. But it isn’t difficult to become familiar with Rudolph’s prodigious output. In a Rudolph-themed road trip last month, with New York as a base, I was able to see nearly a dozen of his buildings in three days.

Rudolph’s earliest buildings are in and around Sarasota, where he worked in the 1950s after studying architecture at Harvard and serving in the Brooklyn Navy Yard during World War II. His final works are in Singapore and Hong Kong, where he was welcomed after falling out of favor with American developers. But much of his midcareer output is in the Northeast, where I made my pilgrimage. (Manhattan, Rudolph’s home for decades, has three Rudolph buildings, all town houses, but two are never open to the public and the third, completed after his death, offers only a glimpse of his talent.)

The largest of Rudolph’s works in the United States is the campus of the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, in southeastern Massachusetts, built in the 1960s, after Rudolph’s tenure of six years as dean of the Yale architecture school. As a young man, Rudolph had visited medieval towns in Europe, and at Dartmouth he created the equivalent in poured concrete: two vast, twisting buildings circle a campanile. At a time when modernism was largely about mass production, Rudolph went the opposite route, sculpturing a seemingly limitless variety of forms. Inside, the trip from one room to another can take you up and down six different stairways.

AFTER four years here, you get to know your way around,” Rob Dellibovi, a senior who was leading a campus tour, said. “I didn’t like it at first, but over time I’ve come to love it.”

Alan Bates, a chemistry professor, told me that no matter how much money the university spends to fix the roofs, “we’ll have puddles in the hallway if it rains tomorrow,” yet he said he was proud to work in such a distinctive setting. Friendly librarians let me tour the media center, where the screen savers on dozens of computers display the very building that contains them.

Ashley Sweeney, a high school senior from Webster, Mass., taking Mr. Dellibovi’s tour, pronounced the buildings “cool.” And they are cool, representing Rudolph’s astonishing ability — working in an age before computers — to conceive structures as complex as anything drawn by M. C. Escher and then to realize them in three dimensions.

Sixty miles to the north in Wellesley, I visited one of Rudolph’s most successful buildings. Commissioned by Wellesley College to design an arts building overlooking a collegiate Gothic courtyard, Rudolph responded with a remarkable mix of creativity and restraint. Exterior details of his Jewett Arts Center are subtle references to Gothic brickwork and tracery. Still, Rudolph’s trademarks are there: the concrete columns, shaped like four-leaf clovers, are like no others in the world, and the indoor sculpture court is a complex, multilevel space.

Some of the exterior features — like stairs to nowhere — are confounding, but a Rudolph wouldn’t be a Rudolph without puzzle pieces that don’t quite fit. At a time when most new buildings hid their guts behind glass “curtain walls,” he prodded people to notice how his buildings were assembled.

In Boston, the Government Center, designed by Rudolph and a team of associated architects, is a vast fortress-like complex of corduroy concrete sweeping around a huge site at the base of Beacon Hill. The building is overwhelming: its facade is nearly a third of a mile long. Though some find it off-putting — it may be the high-water mark of a style known as Brutalism — it represents Rudolph’s efforts to express government authority without resorting to historical motifs (though the corduroy concrete does recall the fluting of classical columns). Far more inviting is First Church in Boston, in Back Bay, which replaced a Gothic building that burned in 1968. Rudolph left the remains of the old steeple, but added his own angled sanctuary. And here the corduroy concrete is given a function: Names of church members, some from as far back as 1630, are written on strips of copper foil that nestle in the crevices lining the sanctuary.

Somewhere between the off-putting Government Service Building and the inviting church is Rudolph’s 13-story Blue Cross/Blue Shield Building, a commercial building wrapped in crisscrossing concrete struts. It is now threatened by a developer backed by the city’s mayor, who would like to put an 80-story building on its site in the city’s financial district. On March 13, the Boston Landmarks Commission issued a 90-day demolition delay, so that the developer could explore alternatives to demolition, said Roysin Bennett Younkin, the architectural historian for the commission.

From Boston, it’s a two-hour drive through Sturbridge and Hartford to New Haven and Rudolph’s most famous building: the Art and Architecture Building at Yale. Although parts of it are closed in preparation for a renovation starting this summer, it’s possible to see a lot, starting with the ground-floor architecture gallery (where a sign warns visitors to beware of unexpected steps, a trademark hazard of Rudolph’s architecture). The building, though only seven stories high, is said to have 37 separate levels. Across the street, Louis I. Kahn’s Yale Art Gallery is a model of modernist simplicity; the contrast couldn’t be greater, and yet each building has its place in the history of architecture. They are reflected in each other’s windows.

Rudolph designed half a dozen other buildings in New Haven. At his Temple Street Parking Garage, the lampposts are concrete curlicues. The Mansfield Street Apartments, owned by Yale, are a kind of hill town of brick and concrete blocks.

But it was depressing to discover that Rudolph’s 1968 Oriental Masonic Gardens complex, an experiment in prefabricated housing featured in many architecture books, has been demolished. And at his Greeley Memorial Lab, soaring spaces supported by treelike columns have been broken up into a rabbit warren of offices, a virtual shantytown within what was meant to be a light-filled pavilion. Dorie Baker, a spokesman for Yale, said, “The administration is well aware that something needs to be done.”

Another two-hour drive took me from New Haven west to Goshen, the seat of Orange County, N.Y. Goshen prides itself on quaintness, which makes the vast Paul Rudolph building in its center something of a shock. “If I took a poll in town, the building would be demolished tomorrow,” Edward A. Diana, the Orange County executive, once told me. The building is startlingly complex, a series of concrete boxes piled atop each other, creating, by Mr. Diana’s count, 87 separate roofs — all of which, he said, leak. Richard Mayfield, a spokesman for Mr. Diana, said recently that while the future of this 40-year-old building is still being debated, demolition is its most likely fate.

Ten years after he completed the Orange County Government Center, Rudolph (working with Jerald L. Karlan) sent corduroy concrete shooting 40 stories into the air in his Tracey Towers in the Bronx. Right angles are rare; the floor plans of these apartment buildings near Van Cortlandt Park suggest palm fronds drawn on a child’s Spirograph. In the words of Robert A. M. Stern, Thomas Mellins and David Fishman, authors of “New York 1960,” they are “New York’s ultimate example of futuristic design.” But they are best known for an event that made headlines in 2005: a Chinese food deliveryman was stuck in an elevator for three days. It is just possible that the architecture, which confuses even longtime residents, hampered the rescue efforts.

The lobby incorporates half a dozen levels, not always sensibly; ramps lead to stairways that lead to ramps — to nowhere. But Rudolph’s use of curves, in both plan and section, makes this one of the city’s great interiors. On three visits, I had no problem getting into the lobby (despite the presence of guards meant to turn nonresidents away). I even rode the elevators, where I told people that I had come to see the architecture. Most of them were shocked. Not one person I spoke to recognized the name Paul Rudolph.

VISITOR INFORMATION

THE University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth is near Exit 12 of Interstate 195, just south of New Bedford, Mass. A schedule of tours is at www.umassd.edu/admissions/tourschedule.cfm.

The Jewett Arts Center is at Wellesley College, 106 Central Street, Wellesley, Mass. (781-283-1000; www.wellesley.edu). (A convenient place to eat is the restaurant Blue Ginger, at 583 Washington Street, Wellesley; 781-283-5790. At lunch, a burger with mango chutney and papaya-mint salad is $16.)

In Boston, the Government Service Building hugs four streets: Cambridge, Staniford, Merrimac and New Chardon. Another view is from the Bulfinch

Hotel (107 Merrimac Street; 617-624-0202), which has double rooms starting at $189.

Worship services at First Church in Boston (66 Marlborough Street; 617-267-6730) begin at 11 a.m. on Sundays; other times, if you ask at the neighboring Park House, someone will let you in. Rudolph’s Blue Cross/Blue Shield Building is at 133 Federal Street.

In New Haven, Rudolph buildings include the Yale Art and Architecture Building, 180 York Street; a parking garage at 11 Temple Street; the Mansfield Street Apartments; and Greeley Memorial Laboratory, 370 Prospect Street.

The Orange County Government Center is on Main Street in Goshen, N.Y., about 60 miles northwest of New York.

The Tracey Towers are at Mosholu Parkway and Jerome Avenue, the Bronx.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/03/23/travel/yale-650.jpg
The Art and Architecture Building at Yale, designed by Paul Rudolph, who was dean of the school of architecture. Just a few years after his death, much of his work is in danger.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/03/23/travel/oc-govt-650.jpg
The Orange County Government Center in Goshen, N.Y. A county official says that the building has 87 roofs, and that all of them leak.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/03/23/travel/boston-govt-courtyard-650.jpg
His Boston Government Center, with his characteristic stairwells.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/03/23/travel/dartmouth-exterior-650.jpg
The exterior of Rudolph’s campus for the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, which is done in his customary concrete.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/03/23/travel/towers-650.jpg
Tracey Towers in the Bronx.

[Visiteur]

The building where I spend most of my academic life:


http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/6463/0001437os5.jpg



Bradfield Hall, built in 1968, and designed by Ulrich Franzen and Associates. For the first ten years, bricks popped out of the walls, so most of it was walled off at the bottom. You won't find this building in any campus brochure. Even the ad for my major shows the other, more attractive buildings in the school. On the bright side, I'm on the top floor (Yay atmospheric science!)

But that's not all! Ulrich designed this beast, an upside-down trapezoid call Martha Van Rensselaer North Hall, the following year. It was torn down in 2001 because it was found to be so sturcturally unsound, it was liable to topple over onto the parking lot and street below. Oops.
http://www.fs.cornell.edu/imgfac/1015N.jpg

[Derek]

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/03/23/travel/towers-650.jpg
Tracey Towers in the Bronx.

those dont look that bad...show me a different angle and i might change my mind...

[Derek]

ok...well they arent the greatest designed buildings...but the Tracey Towers in the Bronx fits in with its surroundings

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d1/emoelmo88/traceytowers.jpg

[stockjock]

I'd have to add San Diego's Cortez Blu to the list. In my view, it would be pretty unattractive without the giant fruit bowl/satellite dish looking thing on the roof to add insult to injury.

http://www.mc-architects.com/images/_HOUSING/Cortez_Blu/Cortez_Blu_FULL_1.jpg

http://home.san.rr.com/winefinds/cortez1.jpg

http://home.san.rr.com/winefinds/cortez2.jpg

[tackledspoon]

Jetsetter posted this in the Neo-classical Architecture thread and I thought that, though I don't live in White Plains, it would be wrong to deprive this thread of this monstrosity:
http://img440.imageshack.us/img440/6709/uswhitepcourthouse1291mo3.jpg

[GVNY]

That is hardly the worst building in White Plains. How about the disaster to the right of it?

Compared to a lot of crap going up, that is a neoclassical masterpiece.

[the urban politician]

http://img440.imageshack.us/img440/6709/uswhitepcourthouse1291mo3.jpg

^ Sorry, but it's time we adjust our thresholds over here. We only allow very ugly buildings in this thread.

Pretty (or even average-looking) structures NOT ALLOWED :gtfo2:

[tackledspoon]

^ Sorry, but it's time we adjust our thresholds over here. We only allow very ugly buildings in this thread.

Pretty (or even average-looking) structures NOT ALLOWED :gtfo2:

It's not as brutal as most of the buildings in this thread, but this thing is the architectural equivalent of a confused teenager. It has no idea what it wants to be, so it grasps at straws and comes out as a hideous, acne-covered, nipple hair sprouting mish mosh of architectural styles... maybe I took that metaphor too far. Either way, I think it's pretty damned ugly.

[holladay]

^ Sorry, but it's time we adjust our thresholds over here. We only allow very ugly buildings in this thread.

Pretty (or even average-looking) structures NOT ALLOWED :gtfo2:

who among us gets to monopolize their opinion of what a very ugly building is?? i agree with tackledspoon on this. that white plains building is both a crime against architecture and a crime against humanity. there's as much room on here for people who hate cheap fake ornamentation as there is for those who hate blank concrete walls and sterile modernism.

[wheelscomp]

^It says at the bottom of that picture Copyiright SOM. Does that mean that Skidmore Owings & Merrill designed that. I have no problem with the building in the first place, but nothing designed by them belongs in this thread

[holladay]

architects aren't infallible. just because SOM's name might be attached to it doesn't increase its worth as a building. in fact, if your realization is correct that SOM were the architects then that actually makes me lose respect points for them.

[olga]

It's not as brutal as most of the buildings in this thread, but this thing is the architectural equivalent of a confused teenager. It has no idea what it wants to be, so it grasps at straws and comes out as a hideous, acne-covered, nipple hair sprouting mish mosh of architectural styles... maybe I took that metaphor too far. Either way, I think it's pretty damned ugly.

Agreed! :tup: :haha:


who among us gets to monopolize their opinion of what a very ugly building is?? i agree with tackledspoon on this. that white plains building is both a crime against architecture and a crime against humanity. there's as much room on here for people who hate cheap fake ornamentation as there is for those who hate blank concrete walls and sterile modernism.

Agreed! :tup: :haha:

IMO that White Plains building is hideous, while I really like lots of the brutalist or modernist buildings posted in this thread. Like this one:

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/03/23/travel/oc-govt-650.jpg

[Derek]

I'd have to add San Diego's Cortez Blu to the list. In my view, it would be pretty unattractive without the giant fruit bowl/satellite dish looking thing on the roof to add insult to injury.

http://www.mc-architects.com/images/_HOUSING/Cortez_Blu/Cortez_Blu_FULL_1.jpg

http://home.san.rr.com/winefinds/cortez1.jpg

http://home.san.rr.com/winefinds/cortez2.jpg

i have always liked the Cortez Blu...

[mountsac]

Rather than going all out brutalist-slab-of-concrete (think: nearby Millenium Centre), it goes soft on you. those penthouses on top. those spires. It's the worst kind of PoMo imaginable.

You just might be the first person on the forum to ever like these buildings. Honest. The picture actually makes them look a bit better than they look - you may really have to see them live (but pray you don't). They are just horrible. Maybe we are spoiled in Chicago. But honestly, they (counting them as one) are one of the three ugliest buildings downtown, you have to see the setting - maybe a good part is in the context. And I work in the Sun-Times building posted in #21 (I tell people I work in the ugliest building in downtown Chicago). Again, the picture ALMOST makes it look good, but it on a piece of land where the Chicago river spilts and faces one of the best buildings in Chicago (333 W. Wacker) and a lot of other great buildings. Let me tell you, the Sun-Times (or the Apparel Center) has great views, but they (people in those buildings) all have to look at us. The other building in Chicago is a set of apartments at Lake and Dearborn. Ugh.

i think grand plaza is more boring than ugly. it's just a regular residential tower(s), and it doesn't really stand out. i was surprised to see people having strong reactions to it...

i also think that context is less important to me unless it looks horrible. for example, i think the trump tower chicago is pretty okay, even though i think it totally doesn't fit in to where it is being built.

personally, i think he marina city looks ugly, but i know it's a city symbol, and people love it and will lynch me for not liking it. so i'm gonna pick the UIC library tower for chicago's ugliest highrise.

[Ex-Ithacan]

The building where I spend most of my academic life:


http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/6463/0001437os5.jpg



Bradfield Hall, built in 1968, and designed by Ulrich Franzen and Associates. For the first ten years, bricks popped out of the walls, so most of it was walled off at the bottom. You won't find this building in any campus brochure. Even the ad for my major shows the other, more attractive buildings in the school. On the bright side, I'm on the top floor (Yay atmospheric science!)

But that's not all! Ulrich designed this beast, an upside-down trapezoid call Martha Van Rensselaer North Hall, the following year. It was torn down in 2001 because it was found to be so sturcturally unsound, it was liable to topple over onto the parking lot and street below. Oops.
http://www.fs.cornell.edu/imgfac/1015N.jpg


I was gonna mention Bradfield, but I knew it has a special place in your heart Vis. ;)

[3madjack]

^^^ The podium looks like this plant stand I made in grade 10 shop class.

PS - I got an F!

[Derek]

im sorry you spend your academic life in prison, Visiteur :(

[BnaBreaker]

These look like masterpieces compared to some of the pure crap on this thread, but here are some of Nashville's worst:

(from Emporis.com)
http://www.emporis.com/files/transfer/sixwm/2005/09/395717.jpg

SunTrust Building
http://www.emporis.com/files/transfer/sixwm/2005/07/379288.jpg

Union Planters Building
http://www.emporis.com/files/transfer/sixwm/2005/09/392914.jpg

Baker Building
http://www.emporis.com/files/transfer/sixwm/2005/10/402912.jpg

Oxford House
http://www.emporis.com/files/transfer/sixwm/2005/08/388105.jpg

Lewis House
http://www.emporis.com/files/transfer/sixwm/2005/08/385330.jpg

Cordell Hull Office Complex
http://www.emporis.com/files/transfer/sixwm/2005/07/384514.jpg

Metro Manor Apts.
http://www.emporis.com/files/transfer/sixwm/2005/09/400575.jpg

Olin Engineering Building
http://www.emporis.com/files/transfer/sixwm/2005/09/395714.jpg

Leah Rose Residences
http://www.emporis.com/files/transfer/sixwm/2005/06/372931.jpg

McKendree Towers
http://www.emporis.com/files/transfer/sixwm/2005/11/415995.jpg

1808 Building (I actually like this one, but I'm in the minority)
http://www.emporis.com/files/transfer/sixwm/2005/10/403982.jpg

AT&T Building
http://www.emporis.com/files/transfer/sixwm/2005/09/398254.jpg

Imperial House
http://www.emporis.com/files/transfer/sixwm/2005/07/383868.jpg

EDIT: For whatever reason, these aren't showing up anymore. I thought we were allowed to link to emporis.com now since they had their photos watermarked. Maybe not?

[texcolo]

The Executive Inn Tower

http://www.denverskyscrapers.com/images/downtown/buildings/executivetower/executivetower_06.jpg

http://www.denverskyscrapers.com/images/downtown/buildings/executivetower/executivetower_05.jpg

The Matrix
Not really that ugly, but I keep wanting to decide on the red or the blue pill...

http://www.denverskyscrapers.com/images/downtown/buildings/matrixcapitalbank/matrixcapitalbank_04.jpg

[Halifax Hillbilly]

^^^^ I kind of like that. The Matrix haha.

[holladay]

1808 Building (I actually like this one, but I'm in the minority)
http://www.emporis.com/files/transfer/sixwm/2005/10/403982.jpg

Imperial House
http://www.emporis.com/files/transfer/sixwm/2005/07/383868.jpg



you arent alone on liking the first one. i really dig it as well. the second one also has some cool 60s retro appeal.

[3madjack]

Executive Tower? More like P.O.S. Tower. It's not that bad of a building; let's face it there are hundreds of similar ones out there but to paste "Executive Tower" down the side of it which I might add, can't be centered on the building because of windows, is just sad. "Tower of Crap". I would move if I had to look at that crap logo every day.

[mudvayneimn]

This is definately one of the ugliest buildings in Louisville, KY:
http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/6981/pncsj9.jpg

[Derek]

^dont worry, the ugliest one (IMO) just got approved in Louisville...the one above isnt too bad actually...

[holladay]

louisville is lucky to be getting a building by rem koolhaas! you may think it's awful now but i think it's going to blow people away when it's done

[GVNY]

I highly doubt that.

More than likely, as soon as it is built, it is going on this list.

[Derek]

I highly doubt that.

More than likely, as soon as it is built, it is going on this list.

i agree:yuck:

[TransitEngr]

The New Orleans World Trade Center....:yuck:

It actually resembles a vertical prison... all of the windows have a thick grill (bars?) over them.... it is absolutely positively one of the most hideous structures I've ever laid my eyes upon.... and the fact that it's right there on the banks of the beautiful muddy mighty Mississippi River.... what a contrast....oh, not to mention that it is also visible down Canal Street!!! :yuck:

What SHAME :yuck:

http://www.canalstreetcar.com/lookingdowncanal1_600.jpg

[SJTOKO]

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6c/Ryugyong_Hotel_-_May_2005.JPG

[tackledspoon]

^ Winner. That building is the most menacing thing ever built. It's design is surpassed in hideousness only by the ideology behind its construction.

[entheosfog]

From Calgary, this gets my vote: The Remand Centre. Also note the ugly yellow covering on the elevated pedestrian walkway. (Or as we call it here, a plus 15)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v372/entheos_fog/remandcentre.jpg?t=1177607397

[Independence]

^ Winner. That building is the most menacing thing ever built. It's design is surpassed in hideousness only by the ideology behind its construction.


hehe, that's just what I was thinking, except for one thing: Can we really call it "built"? :haha:

I also wonder when that crane will come down and hit someone beneath.
It's surely rotten....as well as the fugly pile of shit it sits on.

Whatever, awesome work, dear North Koreans! :tup:

lol

[BigKidD]

Guys, the North Koreans told me the Yu-kyung hotel tower does not exist. So, I'm going to take their word on it.
http://www.orientalarchitecture.com/pyongyang/105tower01.jpg

[ajknee]

Guys, the North Koreans told me the Yu-kyung hotel tower does not exist. So, I'm going to take their word on it.
http://www.orientalarchitecture.com/pyongyang/105tower01.jpg

Isn't that the Ryugyong Hotel, though? I've never heard Yu-kyung before.

[BigKidD]

Isn't that the Ryugyong Hotel, though? I've never heard Yu-kyung before.
Probably. I could have mixed up some names.

[rriojas71]

Isn't that the Ryugyong Hotel, though? I've never heard Yu-kyung before.
OMG, this is hands down the winner of the worst monstrosity ever created by the human race. Is it still under construction or is that just the way the final design is supposed to look? It has no redeeming qualities what-so-ever. Think of all the concrete that was wasted on this piece of crap. No wonder there is a worldwide shortage.

[peanut gallery]

Here's the story:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryugyong_Hotel

BTW: it appears both of you got the name right (see link).

[muppet]

thats just the poured concrete right? the cladding glass etc has (pretty)obviously not been added. They ran out of money during the 90s famine.

[Urban Zombie]

^
Yeah, personally I think it wouldn't be too shabby had it been finished. Oh well, maybe someday.

[Stephenapolis]

^ It is structually unsound. If this is by North Koreans standards then it is a surprise that it is still standing. A decade + of neglect probably has not helped it either.

[Bender]

Amid the majestic beauty of Boulder, Colorado I present you these towers of crap:

http://www.dlese.org/annualmtg/2003/Website/images/willvill.jpg

http://www.iloveidaho.com/blog/shinya/archives/williamvillage.jpg

I especially loved how the elevators would shimmy, shake, and groan on my way to my room on the 11th floor. :yuck:

[DizzyEdge]

From Calgary, this gets my vote: The Remand Centre. Also note the ugly yellow covering on the elevated pedestrian walkway. (Or as we call it here, a plus 15)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v372/entheos_fog/remandcentre.jpg?t=1177607397

The best part about that piece of crap is it's slated to be torn down!! :banana:

[stranger]

This building is called the "Physical Sciences Center" at the University of Oklahoma, and it was built with riot protection in mind (notice the complete lack of windows on the first four floors). When you walk inside this thing, you get lost in the maze of hallways. I've been late to so many classes because there are like 15 winding hallways.

http://cheminfo.ou.edu/~raw/images/PHSC.jpg

[West_aust]

3.
http://img394.imageshack.us/img394/517/img5959gr8.jpg


You have to consider that this building, is a grain elevator, and was built in the port of montreal, left unused since 1995 if i recall correctly. It's utilitarian way before being beautiful.

I agree it's now ugly, but some people managed to get this monstruosity placed under the patrimonial protection act, thus can't be completly demolished.

There are various proposal for it's revitalisation/transformation into a museum, condos, hotels.. and we'll know someday what the final proposal is.

[Bender]

^^

I didn't realize that would-be physicists were so prone to rioting. :haha:

[stranger]

For the most part, the University of Oklahoma has amazing architecture... but the Physical Sciences center a couple posts above and the School of architecture (irony?) are just hideous. I wish I could find a picture of the architecture building -- I think a bunch of the students are protesting it's ugly-ness and trying to get a new one built.

[dktshb]

http://www.caminandosinrumbo.com/brasil/brasilia/Brasilia_5.jpg

http://www.caminandosinrumbo.com/brasil/brasilia/Brasilia_1.jpg

http://www.caminandosinrumbo.com/brasil/brasilia/Brasilia_4.jpg

I nominate everything ever built in downtown Brasilia, and everything thereafter.......they just can't get it right in that place.

Note: For more information on Brasilia's architecture, consult the original planners:
http://www.frc.org/img/blog_images/planet-of-the-apes.article

I like it... :shrug:

[DizzyEdge]

Yeah I actually think those are cool, especially the 2nd one.. the other two seem more like building-sized sculpture.

[ikcyzrteip]

Now I have to disagree....I really like these buildings. Why do you dislike them so much ?

oh my god I hava always hated those ugly pos's

[Daquan13]

I've have to say that the most shameful monstrosity ever built in Boston is the BOFA Building (formery the First National and Bank Boston).

It's been dubbed as the Pregnant Building because of the buldging lower part of it.

[Strayone]

Everytime I see this grotesque obomination I shudder. It blocks one of the nicest views of DT from Pease Park, which is just North of it. This is the Blackwell Thurman Criminal Justice Center. This is the county jail and it is located downtown. Some people may say it's not bad for a jail, but this photo doesn't show it's correctional copper green tops. It probably blocks the view of the Capitol dome for alot of people in the trendy Castle Hill area just west of DT. The inmates may have one of the best views in town. I can thankfully say I've never set foot in the facility.



http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p302/strayone61/CJC.jpg

[m0nkyman]

I nominate everything ever built in downtown Brasilia, and everything thereafter.......they just can't get it right in that place.

I love every single building in Brasilia. It's putting them all together in one place that is a tragic mistake.

[SapphireBlueEyes]

http://www.designboom.com/portrait/mies/l1.jpg under construction, 1950/51
lake shore drive apartment building
Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe
© Hedrich-blessing
courtesy: Chicago historical society

[bnk]

:previous:


:koko:

[m0nkyman]

Yeah. He designed some nice furniture....

[UglymanCometh]

This building is hated by many in Halifax, but I sort of like it:

http://static.flickr.com/108/284579766_180606750b_o.jpg

I love it!

For me, it would have to be the Blue Cross Blue Shield Building.
http://static.flickr.com/24/59126870_5d418361b6.jpg

[UglymanCometh]

I will throw my two cents in for the city of Spokane..

This 18 floor hotel montrosity would not be so bad with the exception that is was just completed a few months ago. It includes an all concrete 1970s Communist feel, visible air condition vents by each window, and to top it off inside has that ever so unique to frozen Spokane "Safari" theme to it complete with cheetah, zebra and tiger print everywhere.


http://farm1.static.flickr.com/175/369537404_0c77f1269c.jpg?v=0

we may have found a winner, folks.

[DecoJim]

For me, it would have to be the Blue Cross Blue Shield Building.

I have to agree with you. I had thought that Detroit, whatever its other problems are, had largely avoided being saddled with horrible architectural monstrosities and that there are at least a few nice examples of skyscrapers from all eras... but then I had forgotten about that BCBS building.

Of course the three permanent Casinos are still under construction...
The parking garage attached to the MGM is pretty monstrous for example.

[UglymanCometh]

Of course the three permanent Casinos are still under construction...
The parking garage attached to the MGM is pretty monstrous for example.

I think that Greektown's parking skyscraper might not be SO bad, all things considered (location, design, etc)... but yeah, MGM's Casino is looking more like an homage to parking garages than anything else.

Motor City's wouldn't look so bad if there was anything of substance surrounding it.

[firstcranialnerve]

The ugliest new building, currently under construction. You have to see the back of this to appreciate how hideous the building looks atop a huge parking garage. This is a render, its still under construction.

:yuck: :yuck: :yuck: http://img157.imageshack.us/img157/4797/thefairbanks6de.jpg

55 west wacker is also ugly
http://www.chicagoarchitecture.info/Images/TheLoop/55WestWacker-001.jpg

And how about the Hyatt Regency...eek!
http://www.chicagoarchitecture.info/Images/TheLoop/HyattRegencyChicagoII-001.jpg

Luckily there are plenty of beauties under construction in Chicago, to help overshadow the few monstrosities.

[firstcranialnerve]

This Building was vby Sydneysiders in Australia, as the worst building in the country. It houses some Engineering departments of the University of Technology in Sydney.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/c/cb/UTS,_Sydney.JPG/180px-UTS,_Sydney.JPG

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/90/256121252_597a5180c5_m.jpg

It's so hideous, I can't even find a large picture of it online.

[Latoso]

http://www.designboom.com/portrait/mies/l1.jpg under construction, 1950/51
lake shore drive apartment building
Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe
© Hedrich-blessing
courtesy: Chicago historical society

I guess black boxes are only pretty to you if they have x-bracing and you live on the 91st floor of them. :P

[UglymanCometh]

This Building was vby Sydneysiders in Australia, as the worst building in the country. It houses some Engineering departments of the University of Technology in Sydney.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/c/cb/UTS,_Sydney.JPG/180px-UTS,_Sydney.JPG

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/90/256121252_597a5180c5_m.jpg

It's so hideous, I can't even find a large picture of it online.

Ugh.

I remember seeing that thing everyday when I caught the bus to Coogee Beach... yikes!

She's NOT apples, mate....

[CGII]

http://www.designboom.com/portrait/mies/l1.jpg under construction, 1950/51
lake shore drive apartment building
Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe
© Hedrich-blessing
courtesy: Chicago historical society

eh?

[firstcranialnerve]

^ I think this anti Mies guy is either joking, unappreciative of archie history or perhaps just a little bit eccentric. Its all good, most of us know Mies was the shiznat.

[firstcranialnerve]

I guess black boxes are only pretty to you if they have x-bracing and you live on the 91st floor of them. :P

I never thought of that. You live in an X-Box!:D

[Latoso]

I never thought of that. You live in an X-Box!:D

I don't, but sapphireblueeyes does.:)

[UglymanCometh]

I'd like to live in a Playstation2....

[Independence]

If I had the chance to build my own skyscraper, I'd consider it to be a black box.
I just like black boxes! They're so modern, timeless and classy!!!

Don't wanna agree? Well, let me explain it to you:

BLACK METAL!:thrasher:
lay down your soul to the gods rock `n' roll
For black metal....ooh black metal!:drummer:
:righton:

[BKOTH97]

This is the "Holy Comforter" (old people storage) in Gadsden, Al. It was built in 1971 and is by far the tallest building in that city. It is a horrible monstrosity...

http://www.emporis.com/files/transfer/sixwm/2006/03/439433.jpg

:yuck:

BKOTH97

[Tom Servo]

The ugliest new building, currently under construction. You have to see the back of this to appreciate how hideous the building looks atop a huge parking garage. This is a render, its still under construction.

:yuck: :yuck: :yuck: http://img157.imageshack.us/img157/4797/thefairbanks6de.jpg

55 west wacker is also ugly
http://www.chicagoarchitecture.info/Images/TheLoop/55WestWacker-001.jpg

And how about the Hyatt Regency...eek!
http://www.chicagoarchitecture.info/Images/TheLoop/HyattRegencyChicagoII-001.jpg

Luckily there are plenty of beauties under construction in Chicago, to help overshadow the few monstrosities.

You can keep going with this list! :) MOST of the skyscrapers that fill this city deserve the title of 'monstrosity'...

[gatt]

for Gatineau it have to that thing.:yuck:

http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/7747/gatineau15mars2007014oy3.jpg

[Awkab]

^ the trailer on top is a nice touch

[Sol_Invictus]

^ the trailer on top is a nice touch

Indeed. We should put trailers and a million small antennas on top of all future buildings as well. :tup:

[coruna]

It's kind of hidden and isn't that tall, but this is by far the ugliest building in Miami.

http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x312/coruna-miami/111.jpg

http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x312/coruna-miami/112.jpg

[krudmonk]

http://www.emporis.com/files/transfer/sixwm/2006/03/445522.jpg

[rockstar]

In Boston, I'd have to vote for the Prudential Center. It is the ugliest building in the city.

[Tom Servo]

π∏π∏π∏π∏π∏π∏π

[UglymanCometh]

Houston House wouldn't be that bad if it wasn't sitting on that God awful podium....

[GeneW]

More brutalism from Pittsburgh, Wean Hall on CMU's campus. I spent three years of grad school in that cold ugly heap of concrete. The inside is just as bad as the outside. The worst part is that it is on a campus mostly made up of handsome early twentieth century white brick buildings with hipped roofs, Wean stands out like a sore thumb.

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1169/750229524_c779452154_o.jpg

[Comrade]

For Salt Lake City I've always thought this one was ugly.

http://blocku.com/images/admin/2651731_SLC1966SStateBldgNW.jpg

Of course some people like it. What's worse is that it's located out of downtown in a residential neighborhood, so it sticks out like a sore thumb.

[dmc]

[QUOTE=AdrianXSands;2932662]i don't live in houston anymore. but i did grow up there... and i always HATED this building as a kid, and i still do.
http://www.houstonarchitecture.info/HAI/Images/Buildings/Downtown/HeritagePlaza-001.jpg

I love this building. It's a great example of 80's post modernism. What about it exactly bubbles up the hatred inside you?

[northbay]

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1169/750229524_c779452154_o.jpg

i like the graffiti on the top of the building

[northbay]

whoops. double post

[GeneW]

i like the graffiti on the top of the building

Um, I'll just say that the photo is from the first week in November of '04 and leave it at that.

[rockyi]

A bright, happy name like "Sunset Heights" can't hide the fact that this Rock Island commie block is butt ugly and also sits adjacent to an industrial area.
And I swear to God, it's always cloudy above this building. Always!!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v420/rockyi/DCP_0781.jpg

[Front_Range_Guy]

http://www.larsongp.com/images/ministry/fotf_admin_ext.jpg

[soonermeteor]

^ :haha: I wonder how many people will get it.

[m0nkyman]

http://www.larsongp.com/images/ministry/fotf_admin_ext.jpg


We have a winner.

[Front_Range_Guy]

^ :haha: I wonder how many people will get it.

:D

[Darthreun]

Quebec Hôtel-Dieu Hospital

That thing was built right in the midle of the Old Quebec City.

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m69/darthreun/galerie-membrecanadahopital-hotel-d.jpg

[vjhe]

To be fair, this is the "back" of this building.
It is condos all the way up, and the stairways and other support necessities are crammed against that back wall.
The Other side is where the condos are, they feature large windows and balconies.
This building is certainly nothing special, but there are much worse in houston.http://houston.condodomain.com/files/developments/1114/no1_tmb.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/mancusoj/image/24485229.jpg

What do you mean by "be fair"? Yes it's the back side of the building but the back side FACES/and is only 3 blocks from the busiest freeway in Houston. Believe it or not, the location of the building is worse than the actual design because it is in such a high profile place and can be seen for miles. There was actually a local news story on how ugly the building is and how the leasing office actually receives calls from people complaining about the appearance of the building. There is no excuse for this terrible design.

That building is only like 3 or 4 years old and I still cringe when I pass it. Driving up the Southwest Freeway, the building appears to sit to the immediate left of Williams Tower, which takes away from the majesty of Williams.:irked:

It is a scar on the entire Houston skyline, nothing more, nothing less, plain and simple.

[anecdoto]

In my city San Sebastian fourty years ago it was built this house apartments house

The pic's talking

http://img169.imageshack.us/img169/5412/1000475ot6.jpghttp://img487.imageshack.us/img487/3584/1000474kw9.jpg

http://img365.imageshack.us/img365/3678/1000480pn2.jpg

In my opinion this building is the most shameful mostruosity in my City, in this thread, and in the world also

I'have got pic's more explanatory about this eyesore and i'll post editing

[Derek]

I love this building. It's a great example of 80's post modernism. What about it exactly bubbles up the hatred inside you?

I like it too.

[Derek]

And how about the Hyatt Regency...eek!

***UNCREDITED PHOTO***

Luckily there are plenty of beauties under construction in Chicago, to help overshadow the few monstrosities.

Reminds me of the downtown jail we have here.

[Distill3d]

The best part about that piece of crap is it's slated to be torn down!! :banana:

not torn down, but renovated and added to Bow Valley College. and btw, the Calgary Remand Center is closer to the Calgary Correctional Center (Spy Hill) in the NW corner of Calgary (close to the Royal Oak Shopping Center with the Wal Mart and Sobey's). The building you are making reference to is the Provincial Court House.

[CEO]

Very entertaining thread! :D I agree with theurbanpolitician's top 7 picks earlier. jmancuso posted some nasty stuff!

Most people in Dubai hate the Toyota building on Sheikh Zayed Road. It's just across the road from the Burj Dubai complex:
***UNCREDITED PHOTO***

This apartment complex, also on SZR... will be torn down soon:
***UNCREDITED PHOTO***

I personally hate this building on SZR, Sheikh Essa Tower... ugly red stripes:
***UNCREDITED PHOTO***

This building is still under construction, but it's an eyesore even before it's finished... the Bavaria Executive Suites. Worst building in Dubai, IMO:
***UNCREDITED PHOTO***