The ugliest building in your city.

[J. Wilhelm]

Yes, you read right. This is a thread dedicated to all the worst architectural monstrosities across this vast globe. I'm sure that you have a particular eyesore in mind when you read my words, so we'll pay special attention to those structures you have seen first hand,in person, but we'll not limit ourselves to first hand accounts. Any domestic building in your part of the planet is good.

This thread is meant to be a cathartic space where you can vituperate at your leisure about all things architectural, and where you can get all that aggression out of your system.  At the end of the year we'll have nominations for worst building in the Empire (just remind me of it around the end of fall, for I might forget   )

I'll start with the first contestant: a new apartment building in Downtown Austin called "SEVEN Apartments," on 7th Street. It's basically just for flats, with a rent ranging between $2500 and $8800 per month (source: local listings).

But I'm going to call it "Jughead" in honour of the Archie Comics' character, because the dented roof reminded me of Jughead's peculiar hat.

SEVEN Apartments, Austin TX (background). This is a new building??

Where to start? The rental rates are understandable, given the extreme central location of the building, but architecturally speaking it's aesthetically bankrupt. And I'm willing to bet my lunch money that the administration of the building is morally bankrupt too.

Why bother making the roof look like a crumpled piece of cardboard? It doesn't make it look any better. And those blue windows. I understand it's meant to reduce solar reflection to the ground, but the problem is that it's the same uniform color across every single rental skyscraper.

*stares at picture*

There's not even a glimmer, absolutely zero refection of the topography of the area, cultural history, or even a distant pretense of belonging to the American Southwest. And this blue-white color scheme is now very common across the sundry buildings erected in the last 5 years. It reminds me of the colors in Zurich's new business district buildings, upon which I saw those dreaded blue windows about 40 years ago. Cold and sterile, with the appeal of a blue plastic ice cube tray in your freezer.


Your turn  

[SeVeNeVeS]

I'm going back quite some time here, the first thing that springs to mind is The Tricorn Centre in Portsmouth.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tricorn_Centre

Many hated it but I actually quite liked it, brutal and ugly to be sure but had its unique design charm in a way.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=portsmouth+tricorn&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjFjIOdvZX3AhWFilwKHSbtDzgQ_AUoAXoECAIQAw&biw=1024&bih=615&dpr=1


I spent many a weekend in Basins nightclub on alternative night in my youth.

[J. Wilhelm]

I'm going back quite some time here, the first thing that springs to mind is The Tricorn Centre in Portsmouth.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tricorn_Centre

Many hated it but I actually quite liked it, brutal and ugly to be sure but had its unique design charm in a way.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=portsmouth+tricorn&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjFjIOdvZX3AhWFilwKHSbtDzgQ_AUoAXoECAIQAw&biw=1024&bih=615&dpr=1


I spent many a weekend in Basins nightclub on alternative night in my youth.

It's got a colourful, if infamous reputation. "Mildewed Elephant Droppings" is not quite a ringing endorsement, is it? But I can see why'd that brutalist building wiukd have some post apocalyptic panache among the 80s crowd.

[Synistor 303]

https://www.integralgroup.com/projects/pixel-building/#:~:text=The%20Pixel%20Building%20project%20is,first%20carbon%2Dneutral%20office%20building.

I think we have a winner here - in my own home city... Presenting the Technicolour Yawn.

[J. Wilhelm]

https://www.integralgroup.com/projects/pixel-building/#:~:text=The%20Pixel%20Building%20project%20is,first%20carbon%2Dneutral%20office%20building.

I think we have a winner here - in my own home city... Presenting the Technicolour Yawn.

They could also call it "The Confetti Palace" if they wanted to.
Kudos for the green technologies, but horrible aesthetically. Looks like they just gathered a bunch of green technologies and then covered it up in colored bits. Carbon in concrete, being during production or in the final product, isn't something that keeps me in awake at night, especially since concrete structures can last for many decades if not hundreds of years. I'm much more concerned about emissions from vehicles.

There's a really large number of innovative green architectural projects out there which looks much more decent, including vertical gardens and integrated natural spaces, plus wooden skyscrapers with wind turbines which accomplish the same task without looking like an abstract sculpture.

Anyone interested in green architecture examples should probably research the name Rachael Armstrong; she's is an architect from the UK, frequent TED presenter and a consumate futurist focusing on integrating human space into nature and blending technology and biology.

[MWBailey]

Hmmm...

Ah. Yes. The George R. Brown Convention Center.

https://assets.simpleviewinc.com/simpleview/image/fetch/c_fill,h_415,q_75,w_750/http://res.cloudinary.com/simpleview/image/upload/v1522706722/clients/houston/George_R_SkYM_XhZnixmlX9n89JBRvu18q0ABlZBh_e9a2f59f-ea43-4248-a5f4-e494e976d8d4.jpg

Not sure if it's really ugly, in the strict sense of the word, but it is certainly garishly ostentatious, and in a manner that has had Houstonians get tired of looking at it within a few minutes upon first sighting it. No, not the park and gardens adjacent to it; those are actually rather comfortable and pleasing to the eye for the most part. But that huge megaliner-like horizontal stack of boxes with those big red battleship-like ventilator horns on top... Well, it just kind of looks like somebody ran a container ship aground and remodeled and painted it white and installed plate glass to make it look like a building.

Er, kind of.

Ahem...

But, some people actually like it. Go figure...

[J. Wilhelm]

Hmmm...

Ah. Yes. The George R. Brown Convention Center.

https://assets.simpleviewinc.com/simpleview/image/fetch/c_fill,h_415,q_75,w_750/http://res.cloudinary.com/simpleview/image/upload/v1522706722/clients/houston/George_R_SkYM_XhZnixmlX9n89JBRvu18q0ABlZBh_e9a2f59f-ea43-4248-a5f4-e494e976d8d4.jpg

Not sure if it's really ugly, in the strict sense of the word, but it is certainly garishly ostentatious, and in a manner that has had Houstonians get tired of looking at it within a few minutes upon first sighting it. No, not the park and gardens adjacent to it; those are actually rather comfortable and pleasing to the eye for the most part. But that huge megaliner-like horizontal stack of boxes with those big red battleship-like ventilator horns on top... Well, it just kind of looks like somebody ran a container ship aground and remodeled and painted it white and installed plate glass to make it look like a building.

Er, kind of.

Ahem...

But, some people actually like it. Go figure...

Oh. It's ugly alright. In any sense of the word, strict or otherwise.

Here's another one. Not built in 1975 in spite of its looks. As a matter of fact it was just finished and it opened doors to the public this month.

McGinnis Lochridge office building. Complete with blue tinted windows.
Downtown Austin between 6th and 5th Streets.

[chironex]

Just getting started...

[Synistor 303]

Just getting started...

Ewwww... Thankfully I haven't had lunch yet, else there would have been a technicolour yawn...

[von Corax]

Ontario College of Arts and Design University, By bobistraveling - OCAD Ontario College of Art and Design Toronto CA 1979, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=75686715

[Sorontar]

Some brutal/cubism styles can look dated very quickly.

One of the architectural "talking points" of the past few decades has been the following RMIT University buildings in the centre of Melbourne. Judge them as you will.


Source: https://uncouthreflections.com/2013/12/12/melbourne-where-buildings-go-to-die/

Sydney has its own challenger - the University of Technology Sydney paperbags designed by famous architect, Frank Gehry. Again, some people like it, some hate it. Yes, it is supposed to look like a crumbled paperbag.


Source: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-02-02/uts-27paperbag27-building/6064198?nw=0

[Mercury Wells]

Manchester's Civil Justice Center (AKA "The Filing Cabnet")


Also Manchester's Hilton Hotel/Beethman Tower (AKA "The PS2")

[J. Wilhelm]

Just getting started...

Oh dear. Architectural mongrels I see. One of those buildings, the Trustee House, reminds me of the Scientology building next to the university here in Austin. The other has some 80s marks of blending. Art Deco glass blocks and Japanese trapezoidal profiles. Yep, that's 80s alright.  The bottom, typical bureaucrat brutalist at it's finest. I think I can smell the coffee all the way here. Nice bills they must generate trying to power wash the mold off those cement friezes. Welp. You got to keep the economy running.

[J. Wilhelm]

Ontario College of Arts and Design University, By bobistraveling - OCAD Ontario College of Art and Design Toronto CA 1979, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=75686715

Yikes. College of arts I bet people get nasty cuts if they lean on the window sills. Love the camouflaged window pattern - you gotta keep them guessing, you know? Where am I? No not here you dummy, that's just a black rectangle. I can see you...."

[J. Wilhelm]

Some brutal/cubism styles can look dated very quickly.

One of the architectural "talking points" of the past few decades has been the following RMIT University buildings in the centre of Melbourne. Judge them as you will.


Source: https://uncouthreflections.com/2013/12/12/melbourne-where-buildings-go-to-die/

Sydney has its own challenger - the University of Technology Sydney paperbags designed by famous architect, Frank Gehry. Again, some people like it, some hate it. Yes, it is supposed to look like a crumbled paperbag.


Source: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-02-02/uts-27paperbag27-building/6064198?nw=0

I just can't accept that green balloon entrance canopy on the red brick RMIT building. I'm not so bothered by the cubist structure, but the biologically inspired canopy is a no go for me on that period building. Looks like it's a set for an episode of Dr. Who. And are those green "Guernica" cows standing on the rooftop? So they really mean cubism -but green.


The UT Sidney building looks more like King Kong accidentally ran over the building and he tried to straighten it back together again.. "Sorry, sorry. There. No one will notice."

[J. Wilhelm]

Manchester's Civil Justice Center (AKA "The Filing Cabnet")


Also Manchester's Hilton Hotel/Beethman Tower (AKA "The PS2")

These are looking a lot like the types of buildings they built in the last 8 years in downtown Austin. Regarding the Civil Justice Centre, We also have a "Jenga Building" but it's taller and slimmer. The Manchester Hilton is about the typical height for buildings seen being built at the moment (read: no one can see the river now).

"The Independent" aka "Jenga Building" in Downtown Austin.
Photo, Larry D. Moore, CC BY SA 4.0

[chironex]

At the edge of the old South Yard.




Old North Yard.


Cape Pallarenda.

Magnetic Island.

[J. Wilhelm]

A genuine Victorian industrial building *painted all in black*

For the love of humanity! Is color blindness also a Covid side effect?

6th Street near Lamar Blvd. Downtown Austin.

[Hurricane Annie]

I am blessed to be living in one of New Zealand's more beautiful cities. New Plymouth is a small city in a coastal /rural region; with its own natural attractions of surf, rain forest, bucolic charm and largely untouched heritage architecture.

There are how ever a few pretentious ugly art installations and newer municipal buildings  that defy the rules of good taste and aesthetic value.

The Govett Gallery Len Lye Centre may appear photogenic in photos, up close from the ground, it  is a warped blurry mirror monstrosity that drives tourists away  and embrasses locals. {note the attractive stone clock tower from yesteryear}



Across the road are the district Court buildings. The architecture is as dubious as the judges and lawyers contained there in

[Synistor 303]

Ugh, courthouses - you just know by looking at them you are going to lose...

[Sir Henry]

Similarly, here in Leeds we had, until recently, a central police station that was known as 'the Ministry of Truth' because it was just a huge rectangular block of brick. It had tiny windows and none on the ground floor and when they took you in for questioning, the van went straight in to the basement so you didn't see daylight again until you were released.


Almost all of the buildings in this thread remind me of the motto of my favourite artist/building improver/architect, Friedensreich Hundertwasser: "The straight line was the downfall of Western civilization."

[chironex]

Take your pick from these disasters:





https://www.realestate.com.au/news/townsville-hemp-investor-buys-high-home-for-15m/
https://www.urban.com.au/expert-insights/buying/14236-cassimatis-property-for-auction-three-years-after-storm-collapse

[J. Wilhelm]

I am blessed to be living in one of New Zealand's more beautiful cities. New Plymouth is a small city in a coastal /rural region; with its own natural attractions of surf, rain forest, bucolic charm and largely untouched heritage architecture.

There are how ever a few pretentious ugly art installations and newer municipal buildings  that defy the rules of good taste and aesthetic value.

The Govett Gallery Len Lye Centre may appear photogenic in photos, up close from the ground, it  is a warped blurry mirror monstrosity that drives tourists away  and embrasses locals. {note the attractive stone clock tower from yesteryear}



Across the road are the district Court buildings. The architecture is as dubious as the judges and lawyers contained there in

I love the roof/non-roof on the courthouse. I guess it's good for the... Nevermind.

[J. Wilhelm]

Take your pick from these disasters:





https://www.realestate.com.au/news/townsville-hemp-investor-buys-high-home-for-15m/
https://www.urban.com.au/expert-insights/buying/14236-cassimatis-property-for-auction-three-years-after-storm-collapse

Definitely the top one. Nothing like a fake corner or "Flat Iron" building. People love those triangular buildings, for reasons I don't understand, but which perhaps looked interesting enough before the 1920s, and now look horrible in any modern architecture after the 1940s.

The yellow one wouldn't look out of place in the 1950-60s. It's ugly, but oddly enough I understand it.

Hotel Camino Real, Polanco Borough, Mexico City
Architect, Ricardo Legorreta, 1968

The bottom one is a museum. There's a lot of ugly structures like that in American coastal cities. Upon the water like that, reminds me of the New Orleans aquarium and IMAX complex. Hopefully it's more interesting inside, being a museum and all.

[chironex]

BCC Cinema




A row of litter along the curve of Sturt Street. One of these is the headquarters of the defunct Storm Financial (or Cassimatis Securities).


Voltage source.




Development on former Flinders Street workshops/yard.



The new Townsville Stadium. The old freight shed that used to be there probably had more architectural merit.


Ridiculous thing stuck to side of Townsville station.

This stands where the old Temperance and General used to be.

Old Commonwealth Bank building.


Hotel Grand Chancellor.

And there'll be more coming.