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Ugly Buildings

I actually liked that one. But only because it reminded me of a stave church.
Urnesstavkirke.jpg

(There are stave churches that look more like the pic in the post above.)
 
I don't have a pic (google images yielded nothing) but our old law school building, the Seely Mudd school of law, was really, seriously bad.
We used to use it to give directions. "Just go down this road till you get to the ugly concrete building, and turn right..."
Made in what I am told was the "fortress" school of architecture, it was a huge block of raw concrete. No facings, no finish. In fact, there were prominent holes cast into the concrete exterior, which would lead one to presume that there were supposed to be facings, but they had merely forgotten to put them on.
Not so, we were told, that was part of the "fortress" effect.

The interior was not much better; angular cast-concrete balconies and such, accented with green paint in places.
Fortunately, it has been torn down and replaced with a new building in the now-standard "Campus Gothic" style.
 
Bob Blaylock said:
The Community of Christ has a “Temple” in Independence, Missouri, that looks, more than anything else, like some evil villain's lair out of a really, really bad science fiction movie.
Click to expand...

It's the Tower of Babel!


I know the Carillon in Naperville has been derided by many.

img_Naperville_Carillon_remc_1006.jpg
 
Safe-Keeper said:
I actually liked that one. But only because it reminded me of a stave church.
[qimg]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/09/Urnesstavkirke.jpg[/qimg]
(There are stave churches that look more like the pic in the post above.)
Click to expand...

That looks like something from the mind of H.P. Lovecraft!
 
Bob Blaylock said:
The Community of Christ has a “Temple” in Independence, Missouri, that looks, more than anything else, like some evil villain's lair out of a really, really bad science fiction movie.
Click to expand...

CommunityofChrist_Independe.jpg

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Image: CommunityofChrist Independence.jpg

The Wikipedia page says
The Temple was designed by Gyo Obata and evokes the spiral shell of the Nautilus.
Click to expand...
Maybe, but it looks more like it was inspired by a Nautilus on drugs.
Or, inspired by the top of a soft serve ice cream cone made by a shaky hand.

IchabodPlain

Care to share your opinions on any specific ugly building?
Click to expand...
For the most part, I totally agree with the ugly-list. I don't have a particular ugly-building in mind to share, but I do find the ice-cream cone looking building to be "ugly."
 
It is all about context i'd say. Most of those buildings stand out from the surrounding environment. I have driven around the Scottish Parlament in a sightseeing bus and it is COMPLETELY out of context in that area AND off course the guide knew alle the stories about the horrible expensive pieces of bamboo that is symbolising curtains and ... ;)
The one building i think REALLY stands out is the "pyramid" at Louvre. I recognize the need for a new entrance but to place "a gold tooth in a perfectly normal set of dentures" is absurd.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Louvre_at_night_centered.jpg

Clearly the architect should have been placed in the Bastillie and then led to "Madame Guilliotine"
 
It's weird. Every single ugly building shown so far actually looks pretty cool to me.

I am truly pathetic. v_v
 
Lonewulf said:
It's weird. Every single ugly building shown so far actually looks pretty cool to me.

I am truly pathetic. v_v
Click to expand...

Just post the buildings you like most, maybe you can winn the treath :D
 
I always kind of liked the Guggenheim museum in New York, but back in the 80's they put an addition on. I was discussing its inappropriateness with an artist friend, and he put it very succinctly, by taking out a picture of the new edifice and drawing a flushing handle on the addition.
 
No list of ugly, or just poorly designed buildings is complete without a discussion of SUNY Buffalo. The campus might not seem that bad, until you remember that these buildings were placed next to Lake Erie. One building was built by mistake. The building that was supposed to be built was the same footage as another building being built by the same firm at a University in Phoenix, and they mixed them up. So there is a Buffalo freezing constant wind design building in the desert, and a desert design building in winter's favorite crapper.

And then there are these. http://flickr.com/photos/16988923@N00/133592991
http://flickr.com/photos/16988923@N00/132913918/

Yes, they are one of the worst designs for heat retention. UB did a study some years back to find it out. They look like someone got drunk with some LEGO blocks. There are more bad buildings there, but at least the columns are cool. http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM3WAG

Also, it is odd that Buffalo, with the beautiful city hall and the amazing, if underused, terminal, has this brutalism example. http://picasaweb.google.com/high.priest.of.good.times/Buffalo#5202456874893719362
 
Lonewulf said:
It's weird. Every single ugly building shown so far actually looks pretty cool to me.

I am truly pathetic. v_v
Click to expand...

How about a "dunkin' donuts" building?
Or a "Crystal" hamburger joint?
or, a "Dollar General"?
"Family Dollar"?
"Burger King"?

Burger Queen?
Ace of Burgers?
Burger Jack?

Three of Clubs Burger Emporium?

Need I go on?
 
How about the Ontario College of Art and Design in Toronto? Is it a building or is it a monster destroying the city? You decide.

thum_214124922febd3607d.jpg
 
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