A few years ago I wrote Facebook notes with my ten favorite (and least favorite) state capitol buildings. In case you may find them mildly entertaining, here are my ten worst:
10. Arizona
This one is not half bad. The materials are good and well-presented. And the color scheme is soothing (not to mention appropriate to the Sonoran Desert setting). Just a few misses. The building could use a little more detail. Perhaps a few more articulations. And the portico seems "filled in" on the outside, making the pillars effectively just decorative.
9. North Carolina
The main problem here was the use and presentation of building materials. There is very little ornament at all, lending a flat, blank lack of personality. And the entrance at the bottom looks like it had to be shored up by piles of stones. Poor choice. The overall effect is dreary.
8. Louisiana
There are a few deficincies here. The building is situated on an isolated rise, and has a parking lot in front of it, effectively cutting it off from the street or any relationship to other buildings. There isn't much intimate detail to invite the eye, and the tall center tower is out of proportion to the very low side wings. We'll skate right past any phallic jokes for the sake of good taste.....
7. Oregon
Here we see what could have been a decent building if not for the poisonous influence of modernism. Almost all of the ornament is absent, lending a series of blank surfaces to the facade. Throw in some fake grates over the upper windows, a replica of a volume knob to the roof, cap it off with a gold G.I. Joe action figure on top, and you get the perfect recipe for a capitol building that fails to live up the the stunning natural setting of Oregon's Willamette Valley.
6. Tennessee
Well here is a series of tragedies unfolded in stone. The hilltop setting is exacerbated by placing the building on a large, undefined platform without any kind of defined edge. Just drops off like a cliff. The lack of detail sucks away any life and character that could have been. This is compounded by the porticos that are too short and stunted for the scale of the oddly-proportioned building. The grand finale is the odd cupola, which looks like it was designed by Basil Marceaux himself.
5. New Mexico
What happened here? Did they take an old Montgomery Ward's slap some tan stucco on it, apply an entrance with a huge blank wall above it, and slap the state seal on it? Sadly, the vacuous entrance wall is the only way they could have defined ANY sort of front or back to the formless building it fronts.
4. North Dakota
Wow. They had a blank slate to work with, literally. Just the flat prairieland of our nation's extreme north. And what did they choose to build? A generic 19-story office tower surrounded by similarly milquetoast buildings that resemble a community college campus or the Int'l headquarters of a computer company. Sadly, I have been to Bismarck, and their state capitol still had MORE charm than most of the rest of town, which seems built to the the specifications of a gas station.
3. Alaska
Straight from the land that brought us the Palin, the Moose, and meth! Actually, the capital city of Juneau is not without charm. It's small, situated on a gorgeous island amid Alaska's breathtaking panhandle region. It isn't even as cold as the rest of the state, with average January lows warmer than Denver or St. Louis. But the state capitol doesn't really capitalize on any of this. It's a standard-issue 1930s office building with a completely flat front, an entrance a half story above grade (destroying some of the buildings relationship to the sidewalk), and an applique, kitschy portico done in marble that doesn't match the rest of the stone on the building. Yet Alaska DOES contain civic buildings that look much more horrific. Ever seen Wasilla's City Hall?
2. Ohio
The perfect storm of odd proportions, a blank front, a meaningless lawn to separate it from the street, bad color selection, staining, and the Prom Queen gets to wear a tan sandstone tiara to complete the depressing ensemble. I will give the architect credit. The building is about as pleasant as living in Ohio is. Mazel tov!
1. Hawaii
and we get to the Grand Poohbah of ugliness and dysfunction: Hawaii! The state of Hawaii was founded in 1959, at the height of the modernist's ruination of cities everywhere. And the state capitol in Honolulu delivers like Dominos! No relation to the street, the building has all the hallmarks of midcentury modern junk architecture: big expanses of glass, a precarious mix of different grates, wood coverings and cement articulations, and concrete building materials that stain and wear when they get wet (did the architect assume it never rains in Hawaii? Hello????). The setting fits the building's style: a formless space without any defined center of edges. A modernist's dream. An agoraphobe's nightmare.
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