The Ugly Canada Thread

[esquire]

Originally Posted by O-tacular

That last one's brutal!

[MolsonExport]

what an ugly pile of gravel-colored puke.

[MolsonExport]

Ain't she a honey?

ottawacitizen

Soul-sucking, crushingly fugly:

robfordland.tubofpoo

[O-tacular]

Originally Posted by esquire

:p

[ssiguy]

Ya the Sandman Vancouver is pretty bad but {unfortunately} fits in well with the other monstrosities in the area...........Canada Post, CBC, Queen Elizabeth Theatre. That area of Georgia/Dunsmuir near the Viaducts would give Stalin wet dreams.

[SignalHillHiker]

Clapboard Tim Horton's on Torbay Road.

[Hali87]

Source

Armoury Villa in Halifax. The paper has since come down off the windows, but it doesn't look any better. The worst part is that it's across from the Commons so it's actually visible from really far... along with this one, its equally bad neighbour:


Source

[lio45]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

Clapboard Tim Horton's on Torbay Road.

That's actually one of the best-looking detached Tim Horton's ever... (keyword being "detached", obviously)

[Hali87]

Originally Posted by The_Architect

I too don't think the Laval building is as ugly as it gets ripped for. The awful puzzle piece commie blocks in Waterloo are worse. As are those London ones.

I didn't think it was that bad until I noticed it's not even symmetrical, instead having.. whatever's going on in the top right corner.

Think of it this way: if you remove basically any one architectural element from the Laval Clocktower, it becomes a marginally better building.

[SignalHillHiker]

Armoury Villa just confirmed for me that a handful of proposals here are going to look awful when completed. A lot of them have that glass/brick thing as appears on the left of the Armoury.

It's not THAT bad, though. I do like the shape, and the stairs leading down to the sidewalk. Not well suited to such a prominent location, and God the siding around the balconies... but not bad. I wouldn't cry if it went up in the suburbs here.

[someone123]

One of the developers of Armoury Villa came onto SSP and got upset at the posters who called the building ugly. Maybe he'll come back.

I really hate the little decorative columns. They must have been on sale at Home Depot.

[SignalHillHiker]

One of many delights along Kenmount Road.



Newfoundland Hydro generates the power and sells it to Newfoundland Power, which then sells it to customers. Most of them. There are a handful that Hydro sells to directly. It's a near Soviet level of bureaucracy. And the building to match.



U-Haul on Kenmount Road.

[O-tacular]

Originally Posted by Hali87

Source

That's just weird!

[O-tacular]

Originally Posted by someone123

One of the developers of Armoury Villa came onto SSP and got upset at the posters who called the building ugly. Maybe he'll come back.

I really hate the little decorative columns. They must have been on sale at Home Depot.

Somehow the cornice on the top corner makes it even worse. Like it's not enough that it's a plain yellow stucco box, the builder slapped on some fake stone window sills and a fancy cornice on top and called it a day. All it does in the end is emphasize how shapeless and ugly it is. I think I know what might fix it though... Grecian statues.

PS I remember that guy coming on here to defend his 'hard work'.

[O-tacular]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

One of many delights along Kenmount Road.



Newfoundland Hydro generates the power and sells it to Newfoundland Power, which then sells it to customers. Most of them. There are a handful that Hydro sells to directly. It's a near Soviet level of bureaucracy. And the building to match.



U-Haul on Kenmount Road.

I actually don't mind 1 and 3. I'm surprised you haven't given your 0.02 in the debate about the Rooms we had going a couple pages back.

[SignalHillHiker]

I never saw it, but just went back and literally belly-laughed at this:

Originally Posted by O-tacular

Seriously, it looks like two houses fucking an 80's office building.

I hate talking about it. I've tried defending it here - mostly in an attempt to convince myself.

All I can say for certain is:

1. It's hideous.

2. It was purposely relocated by a predominantly rural, predominantly Anglican provincial government to reduce the prominence of the Roman Catholic Basilica. As initially envisioned, it was supposed to be on the waterfront.

3. It does a very good, almost literal, job of depicting the traditional fishing rooms found throughout rural Newfoundland and Labrador. Again, the fact something rural was chosen to dominate views of the city wasn't an accident.

4. It offers some of the best views of the city. As Lio joked that's probably because it's the only place from which you can't see The Rooms.

[lio45]

Reading the discussion about The Rooms again, it seems that we actually agree that the building's true architectural crime is its disfiguring effect on that St. John's hillside.

"It's like the architect took a massive dump on the city's nicest area. That alone should elevate it on the list I think. Come to think of it I have a hard time coming up with anything nearly as insensitive or ugly plopped onto such a beautiful old part of a city."



If this thing was located in a random suburban office park -- pics below -- I am absolutely sure it wouldn't make anywhere near top ten on these lists... Real ugliness comes from the treatment of architectural details (Laval Clocktower and all other examples). The Rooms is a very clean / pure building, it's so simple it can't really be ugly. An even better example of architectural simplicity would be the gigantic cube that's the VAB in Cape Canaveral (the world's tallest single-story building). It's just a cube. It doesn't make anyone's "ugliest buildings" list, in fact it's a listed heritage building (!) but if you put it in the place of The Rooms, everyone would hate it and say it ruins the cityscape. (They'd be right!)

But it wouldn't be the building itself that would be the problem... it would be the location. A bland, pure cube can't be ugly in and of itself.

Originally Posted by Trevor3

http://static.panoramio.com/photos/large/16667972.jpg

Originally Posted by O-tacular

Originally Posted by O-tacular

[esquire]

^ The Rooms wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't practically the defining feature of the St. John's skyline. And I agree with SHH's point, it's a blown up rural landmark which basically looks out of place in an urban context. It would be like if one of the Portage and Main skyscrapers in Winnipeg was built to resemble a big grain elevator... it would be ridiculous.

[lio45]

Originally Posted by esquire

^ The Rooms wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't practically the defining feature of the St. John's skyline. And I agree with SHH's point, it's a blown up rural landmark which basically looks out of place in an urban context. It would be like if one of the Portage and Main skyscrapers in Winnipeg was built to resemble a big grain elevator... it would be ridiculous.

That's actually a very good example: no one would ever think of putting any of the largest existing grain elevators in the country on an "ugliest buildings" list. But if a gigantic caricature of a grain elevator stood out by being visually dominating (taller/bigger than everything else) in downtown Winnipeg, everyone'd complain about it, rightfully. They'd hate it, and wish it was demolished.

In fact I'm fully okay with The Rooms as a top ten ugly for "ugly in context" or "most hated buildings" but not for "ugly in a vacuum". There are TONS of buildings uglier than this inoffensive, super simple mix of basic geometric figures.

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by lio45

That's actually one of the best-looking detached Tim Horton's ever... (keyword being "detached", obviously)

I've always found this one in central Kitchener to be well above average looking: