Architectural Horrification

That facade is a security feature.

"The Rock." Wellington Airport, New Zealand. Yikes!!

[quote]That facade is a security feature.

What in the world is that foghorn facade protecting it from?

Frank Gehry at his worst in Australia.

I like the US Embassy in London. It's different.

Well I suppose the London US Embassy looks better than the old one, which looked like a Reichstag edifice.

The old one was far worse.

Yikes! The so-called "Dancing House" in Prague.

Any Frank Gehry building.

The old US embassy was also cruelly plopped down on one of London's loveliest squares without any attempt at architectural harmonization.

2 Columbus Circle was an abandoned art gallery/travesty that finally got a facelift a few years ago over the vociferous protests of "preservationists".

I don't think the embassy is bad at all for a small cube of a building which would otherwise be a glass square. Have you seen London architecture? Walkie talkies, shards, buttplugs etc. It's pretty horrendous.

Ah 2 Columbus Circle, so ugly. Horrendous. Wasn't it the Huntington Hartford Building before he lost all his money? It truly was an eyesore, even worse than the old NY Coliseum across the circle, now the Time Warner building.

OP thinks Trump Tower, any Trump property really, is the height of architectural magnificence and elegance.

The old US Embassy is a Grade II listed building.

Does anyone think this travesty is an improvement, R11? It looks like they took a bunch of cheap, builders grade aluminum siding and nailed it to the original.

Say what you want about the original design, it appears they used expensive materials. The "revised" version looks like crap at the returns desk at Home Depot or Lowe's.

"Any Frank Gehry building."

Gehry kind of works on the University of Minnesota campus, given the overall setting and the fact that it's an art museum, not an office or residence. I mean, it wasn't necessary, but I don't think it looks awful or anything.

In fact, I think the US Embassy is one of a very small number of concrete buildings that have been listed for historical and architectural importance in the UK.

R16 is correct. The Edward Durell Stone building at least had something gracious about it that connected it with earlier traditions. The replacement, like contemporary architecture in general, looks like it came out of an Ikea box. They're all built now to be replaced, and what style they have is strictly determined by anodyne novelty. Architecture's main criterion is to be tax write-off.

This is currently my favorite topic on DL. Anything to distract from the horror of 2020 which still has a little under a month to go.

Columbus Circle has never caught a break. The ugly old Gulf & Western Building was retrofitted with gold tainted windows and became a Trump Hotel. The ugly old New York Coliseum became the insipid Time Warner Center. 2 Columbus Circle? It requires real imagination to create something that ugly. Even the residential building at Central Park South and Columbus Circle is ugly.

And now the Columbus statue itself is at risk of cancelation.

Columbus, for all his grotesque sins, never deserved to have stare at all that ugly.

The horrors of McMansionism.

The Hearst Headquarters in New York. It looks better in real life.

McMansion murderization.

This brand new apartment tower in St. Louis, just around the corner from Dockers Dan and Polo Patty's place, is quite ugly.

Ugh R26. Looks like a sad attempt to give everyone 3D bay-window type rooms with views.

I think the pencil-thin oligarch apartment towers in NYC are destroying the city's skyline... and more than most cities, the skyline IS NYC.

I also think the Salesforce Tower just destroyed the skyline of SF. A building whose scale just ate the city. Size, not just the questionable shape (not a Trans America Tower memory).

Žižkov Television Tower in Prague, Czech Republic.

Complete with giant baby sculptures crawling up it like architectural lice.

Absolutely, R28. NYC relinquished its century-long status as an iconic skyline when they let the first one go up. Anyone remember when plutocrats actually built nice things?

My favorite among all ugly buildings. Absolute horror!

The Slovak Radio Building in Bratislava.

And it took over 15 years to complete.

Tempe City Hall

Some Le Corbusier stone cold buildings are so heinous.

[quote]I also think the Salesforce Tower just destroyed the skyline of SF.

In fairness, the SF skyline was always disappointing, including those ugly Portman buildings near that water.

It was the Golden Gate and the natural setting that made the city.

Okay. So this is actually a KFC. In Los Angeles.

Borg cube in Salt Lake.

I agree about the SF skyline, generally. If focused on the buildings and not primarily on the GG and natural surroundings, it can look good if shot from closer up and concentrating on smaller section of buildings. Once you pan out, the broader buildings skyline isn't great. But, again, since it can't really be divorced from the incredible natrual setting and the GG, it probably doesn't matter.

Empire State Plaza in Albany.

The modern buildings in London are hideous and clash terribly with the beautiful classic buildings. The whole city is a visual mess now thanks to all that ugly modern shit.

Dont't forget me!

R3 the steel mesh facade protects the building from electronic surveillance and eavesdropping . Many Federal buildings now have mesh facades, as well. Those buildings that don't have that feature always have one or more secure rooms in the interior of the building, made of steel-reinforced concrete, that prevent spying.

Let's not forget America's "filing cabinets" or as some critics called them, "the boxes that the Empire State Building and Chrysler Building came in."

R40 Is Prince Charles still tilting at windmills.

The problem with the new American embassy in London is its location. It's in the equivalent of Queens. A real no man's land. God knows where the embassy workers go for lunch. Nowhere fancy, that's for sure.

The San Francisco Federal Building is an eyesore. It's like something the Galactic Empire would've built.

Brutalist architecture, like the Rebecca Crown Center at Northwestern University.

R47, I went to Northwestern and IMO, RCC actually doesn't look that bad in context. That said, they could have opted for something more befitting of the campus. I do like the walk-through from Clark Street up the steps and back down to the traditional and lovely sorority quads/Willard/Scott Hall/Cahn

The main library and Norris Center are also fairly bleh in isolation, but sort of work in context. But, again, they could have built something more traditional and matching, or better complementing, the older buildings.

Museum in Graz

I've wondered what the purpose of this structure is. The "centerpiece" of Hudson Yards called "The Vessel." It looks like a wasp's nest and serves no purpose except to be pointed out in threads like this.

The Vessel from the inside. A collage of confusion.

We had a thread on the appalling Hudson Yards. The "Vessel" was intended to be a money-making Instagram honeytrap. Supposedly visitors relinquished all rights to their inevitable photos in favor of the owners, or something.

R37,It looks like it has a jail on the top

R33, that's not that bad. And it's probably the nicest building in Tempe

R42 Thanks for that info. I remember reading part of that ages ago.

R45 I wonder if they meet up with their near neighbours?

R2 That literally looks like shit.

R23 SO ANNOYING! I HATE THESE!

[quote]I think the pencil-thin oligarch apartment towers in NYC are destroying the city's skyline.

I agree with you. These things are popping up and completely ruin what semblance of a skyline NYC has. Driving in from Long Island, you begin to see the skyline in Queens and these things just look ridiculous. Reminds me of the "Sliver" buildings from the 80s. They were railed against by cooler heads and you stopped seeing them after a while. I mean, what is the point? The penthouse on one of these things is going for $83M. Imagine they put just one apartment per floor so snobs can say they have an entire floor in midtown. If Jackie Kennedy was alive she'd probably come out against these stick buildings.

Frank Lloyd Wright birthed some clunkers.

R24 The Hearst Building should have been twice as tall to make a statement. It looks blunted or they ran out of material and just walked away. I have to stare at from my kitchen window on West 55th st all the time and it makes me crazy.

R45 all American embassies have dining rooms and cafeterias available for American as well as local employees, usually part of an employee recreation association managed through the DOS. They also have commissaries.

Ranier Tower in Seattle

R50 the Vessel is like a garden folly on a grand estate. It's decorative and this one gets people moving, socializing, and gives different impressions of its setting. It's not bad - it's unusual.

This is bad:

TT is really a horror.

ghastly

The Helmut Jahn designed Trump Tower on 5th is an attractive building.

The atrium is another story but the exterior is nicely done.

I'd rather still have Bonwits there but TT is worthy of 5th.

Another view of the Kunsthaus Graz (see R49), Austria, Peter Cook & Colin Fournier, 2003.

It's vilely organic, like a Surinam toad "becoming" within the skin of a petroleum black slug.

Olympic Tower is OK. Trump tower isn't that attractive, plus it's tacky, and remember the trees? Vulgar.

The old Commodore Hotel next to Grand Central Station was bought by Trump and the Pritzker family who only gave it a outside layer of dark reflective glass with cheap brass trim and renamed it the Grand Hyatt. Boring and typical Trump. Even so, it took him out of Queens and made him in NYC real estate circles.

R46, that building [italic]screams[/italic] Thom Mayne. We have a similar building in DTLA, the CalTrans District 7 Headquarters.

The Commodore Hotel and the Vanderbilt Hotel were not masterpieces but they were solid examples of massive city hotel architecture of their era. Steel and masonry. In their dotage, they felt comfortable and homey and permanent. Many cities had 1 or 2 of these hotels and New York had a plethora: When they are all gone, you are going to miss them. Look at the massive flags they once flew.

R70 Completely off topic, I stayed at the Commodore Hotel in 1972, still in college, alone...entrance directly into Grand Central Station as I remember it. I remember a guy followed me into hotel, I thought he was going to mug me but now I think he was just cruising me. Tiny rooms and the roar of the city all night kept me awake, restlessly. The streets were dark with something more than night.

Frank Gehry kitsch in Venice, CA.

^^ Oops. Wrong link.

This one:

R74 Pretty big for Venice....

R75 Used to be Chiat/Day advertising agency. Had a friend who worked there. The inside was really unusual "disruptive" for "creative" people... like all the crazy Silicon Valley workspaces, 20 years earlier.

I think the Cité du Vin in Bordeaux is hideous. It's supposed to look like wine being poured into a glass.

It looks like a snake is throwing up R78

RE: the pic in OP's post

[quote] That facade is a security feature

It will scare everyone away. At least everyone with taste

R69 The trees on the Trump Tower were actually ahead of their time and were a nice touch. The exterior of the building is sober and tasteful. The only thing vulgar about the exterior is the horrible gold Trump sign. Here is the NYTimes architecture critic Paul Goldberger writing about TT in 1983:

Why all the visual gimmicks? Why not just design a building for people going inside and doing stuff?

One World Trade Center is so offensively boring.

You beat me to it, R49 and R68.

Seattle Central Library - bulky and ugly.

The Haas house, located right next to Vienna's iconic cathedral. I don't mind modern architecture in old town centers but this building is just plain ugly and sticks out like a sore thumb.

Edward Durell Stone=bland "brand name architecture at its worst.

Different horror--the Canadian Embassy in DC looks like "contextualism" on drugs. It's even uglier in person.

The Italians have it right: Florence, Rome, Venice... no modern architecture in the historic centers.

Russian embassy in Havana

Oriental Pearl Tower in Shanghai

Some of you bitches have such plain, basic, and boring taste. A lot of these are cool, unique, and interesting.

The understated elegance of the Pixel Building in Melbourne, Australia.

The MSP Building of the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh.

The vessel in nyc is a sculpture that merely cost 200 million. I think it was donated by some rich cunt, if my memory serves.

The apt in downtown nyc that looks like jenga tower game. The base/ lobby of it is soooo fucking ugly, looks like a shitty office.

R87 Wrong! Riverbank houses in Florence (around Ponte Vecchio) look pretty awful. The original houses were blown up by the Krauts and for some reason they were replaced with hideous modern constructions.

I personally don't mind The Vessel. It's weird that you chose to focus on that when 1 WTC exists.

R88 Was it able to launch missiles to Florida?

Ryugyong Hotel.

Can you fatasses imagine starving to death and having to look at this every day? "Really?! We had to starve just so you could build a hotel that looks that stupid?"

The National Library in Buenos Aires.

R71 Oh GOD! It's garbage! Ugh! Garbage.

National Fisheries Development Board Building in Hyderabad, India. Does it have to be so literal?

House of Soviets, Kaliningrad

R101 is silly and fun. I wouldn't call it really ugly.

Shouldn’t it be Whorification?

Pussy Towers is horrible.

R95 I disagree completely. Those replacement buildings in the center of Florence along and around the Arno are are very intelligently done. Simple, honest, humble, the right materials and color. They blend in with the surrounding historic buildings very well. The fabric of the city is uninterrupted by them.

Lol R97. It looks like it could launch missiles.

I wonder if it was the Russians who were focusing microwaves on employees of the U.S. embassy in Havana.

[quote]I think the Cité du Vin in Bordeaux is hideous. It's supposed to look like wine being poured into a glass.

Or a freshly landed dog turd in aluminium, R78.

R36 if you want to see KFC architectural horror take a gander at their outlet in Marietta, Ga., a suburb of Atlanta, known locally as "The Big Chicken". It's been used for years as a guide point by pilots landing at Dobins AFB not far away. And yes, the chicken's beak does open and close.

For decades when someone asks an Atlanta local how to get to Marietta the answer has always been "head up 41 and turn left at the big chicken".

The Marcel Breuer designed Atlanta Central Library. 40 years of pure ugliness.

A library that looks like a Supermax prison.

The Saudis do Big Ben by way of Disney and their tacky, gaudy taste and it is as dreadful as you would imagine.

[quote]A lot of these are cool, unique, and interesting.

Yeah, in a 3" x 4" photo, but not when you're walking around it or forced to stare at it from miles around.

Speaking of San Francisco, don't forget about gay Nazi Philip Johnson's hideous Neiman-Marcus store. They've tweaked it in the past few years and it's slightly less horrible than it was when it opened in 1982, but considering it replaced the lovely and gracious City of Paris, it's still a blight on Union Square.

I like the big chicken. It’s kitsch, and being at the crossroads of two 4 lane highways full of Jiffy Lubes and tired strip malls it’s not making a beautiful setting any more ugly.

The collision of lots of money and absolutely no taste.

I know it’s not a “major” piece of architecture, but the standard issue American McMansion is hands down the definition of Architectural Horrification. Most of the above are at least somewhat coherent and make an effort. The architects of the modern American McMansion are the true horrors - defiling every acre of undeveloped nature in the US with these incoherent, appalling, mish-mash structures of vinyl siding and fake brick/stone.

Frank Lloyd Wrong.

The Ascent, Covington, Kentucky.

I really like the FLW house at R118.

Don't forget me!

R121 is silly but I don't think it ranks as a horror.

Picnic's over

What a surprise. They couldn't find a buyer for the picnic basket building.

[quote]. I thought the US might be represented by a classy, understated look

Can't think why

The hideous mid 70s I.M. Pei designed penthouse addition to the 17 story Lamar building in downtown Augusta, Ga. built in 1918.

The Royal Ontario Museum is not worthy of its name.

The worst part about that monstrosity R39 is they tore down some glorious victorian piles and 100s of townhouses from the early 1800's .

"Can only be described as Butthole-esque." LOL !!!

R129 I don’t know, it can neither be described as coin slot or starfish? Maybe rosebud though?

And the inspiration for many of these horrors.

Shrubs huddled in fear. Embrace the void.

R123 I wonder what happened. Last year it was reported that the picnic basket was being turned into a hotel

I've always thought Bunche Hall at UCLA (named for Nobel Laurate Ralph Bunche) was ugly as hell! Especially compared to the beautiful original quad-buildings (and other early campus buildings). It looks like a fucking waffle-iron! Not to mention....the way it sits up on legs/stilts always made me a little nervous, as a child of earthquake country. (spent a lot of time in that building, as a history major).

Here's a cool photo of Kareem with Dr. Bunche (who deserved a better-looking building), in front of it.

R134 We students called it "the waffle iron", probably because it looked like one, eh?

But I didn't (and don't) hate it. Sort of a graceful minimalism.

Inspired by the recent posting here, I created a thread asking about the worst building on your college or university campus. This thread is great for well known buildings, but what about the little lost ugly buildings nestled on our academic campuses? Here’s a chance to expose and lament their terrible existence!

[quote] …what style they have is strictly determined by anodyne novelty…

I would describe very few of these as anodyne, R19. I think they range from silly to provocative to monstrous.

R123, that picture is actually a fake. The building is intact.

I’ve always wondered why a picnic basket company needed a 7 story HQ building

These residence halls at Ohio State. Gross.

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

Federation Square, Melbourne - a glorified commercial centre with food retail and a 7-11, masquerading as 'a public place, the people's place'.

There's a reason it never appears on Melbourne postcards. It has no 'good side'.

R139 I always thought so too, but apparently it had $1B in sales annually at its peak, down to $100M at it's lowest. I think it sold a range of luxury and homegood items, beyond picnic baskets.

This stupidity called "Wonder Works" in Orlando. Something like this is only fit to be in an amusement park, not part of the cityscape.

Agreed, R140. It's like something out of Soviet Russia Breathtaking in its ugliness.

All the new Arizona State University dorms along Apache Boulevard in Tempe look like communist era buildings. I told a visitor that we had imported all the former East German architects and given them jobs. Not worth a picture, they're just boring and plain.

R144 Wonder Works in Orlando IS an amusement park.

Then it should be off the street where their stupid construction won't offend the eye of the general population.

R87, they were not blown up by the Krauts but bombed away by the Americans. Like Monte Cassino.

The Fed building, Indianapolis. What is it about Brutalism and government administration buildings?

[quote] What is it about Brutalism and government administration buildings?

Most government entities are not going to spend huge sums of money on fancy architectural design and construction. They go for utility over looks.

[quote]Most government entities are not going to spend huge sums of money on fancy architectural design and construction

Brutalist architecture was anything but cheap (those architects had bills to pay), and it wasn't all that utilitarian, either. It was all about the look, which dated quickly. I still like some of them, though—the more monumental ones that put one in mind of a Piranesi.

Brutalist architecture has seen a major revival recently (see the Phaidon atlas) and has its own appeal. At least it is honest. As opposed to postmodern architecture with its silly citations, bullet windows, colorful pediments. Uggggh. The 80ies were the absolutely worst period in the history of architecture. And the Haas house in Vienna cited above wasn't the worst example... Having said that, the architecture department building at UC Berkeley is pretty bad :)

R127 - I can't stop laughing at that monstrosity! It looks like a spaceship crashed into the side of a building.

Soldier Field.

No Sanjay. That is not the right picture. One architecture critic said that the new Soldier Field in Chicago looks like a spaceship crashed into a Greek temple.

R126 I was going to post that one. What makes it especially horrendous is that it was added to a perfectly nice building. So what I.M. Pei did was to literally take a shit on and ruin another person's work.

R157, isn't that, more or less, what I.M. Pei did to the Louvre. Parisians hated it at first.

Brutalist buildings looks nice in glossy black and white coffee table book photos, but in real life they look depressingly drab and forbidding.

I.M. Pei designed something much better for the Louvre. It works on a lot of levels. I don't love it but I respect it.

The first one is a complete failure and should be removed.

Parts of Milan are breathtakingly beautiful and truly underrated due to the attention heaped on other Italian cities like Rome, Venice and Florence. Then again, maybe it's deserved looking at buildings such as the horrific Torre Velasca.

Tour Montparnasse, Paris, France.

Centre Georges Pompidou - Paris, France

African Independence Architecture - The Kenyatta Convention Center in Nairobi, Kenya.

The Romans supposedly hate this monument. But I think it's a magnificent construction, especially seen in real life. Sometimes people hate for no reason.

It's a confection, R165, born out of 19th-century nationalist enthusiasm and the typical eclectic overreach of that period's architecture. People make fun of it as "the wedding cake," and like a wedding cake maybe its exuberance and excess should be forgiven and indulged. But unlike a wedding cake, it dominates the Capitoline Hill and has stayed up there for a century plus.

R162 you are so right about Tour Montparnasse. It sticks up like a giant middle finger, completely ruining the otherwise gracious Paris skyline

R167 looks like something that would have been built in downtown Los Angeles in 1975

Ugh R167. Tear it down, along with all those stick buildings that are ruining NYC's skyline.

Haven’t gone through the thread yet, but I assume someone has posted that horror up in Canada by that architect first name Daniel? High-profile architects have been terribly indulged in recent years. Wouldn’t it be nice if someone designed something in a traditional, beautiful way?

I’m really surprised Parisians allowed the Tour Montparnasse to go up. I know the Eiffel Tower wasn’t well received when it first appeared, but it’s since become a beloved feature of the city. The Tour Montparnasse has absolutely zero charm.

And with all the limestone quarrying that took place beneath Paris over the centuries, I’m surprised such a tall building is able to stand right in the middle of it.

I not so wild about la Grande Arche either.

Habitat 67, Montreal, Canada.

What is it with architecture firms using + in their names. Is that just a trendy convention or does it mean something?

The previous mentions of the Seattle Public Library are correct. It's designed to be hideous on the inside as well. Lurid greens and chartreuse abound. A sloping ramp throughout the stacks makes everything feel off-kilter and psychologically distressing.

R172 Yes, the whole La Défense area is full of awful architecture, more befitting Texas than Paris, but at least it's some distance away from the center of Paris, so it can be more easily ignored. Tour Montparnasse is right in the middle.

Agree La Defense is pen for the worst - because it defiles an otherwise beautiful architectural city. I remember thinking that upon my first visit 30 years ago - when it was still somewhat newer. An abomination.

"El Mirador" in Madrid.

The elephant building in Bangkok goes beyond La Defense.

Habitat67 in Montreal was designed to give every unit views, privacy and other amenities in the context of urbanism. A rare academic thesis that was actually built. Apparently it works as planned and people still want to live there.

Kaden Tower in Louisville, Kentucky reminds me of granny's antique lace tissue box cover.

Portland Building by Michael Graves

Liberty Place in Philadelphia. The spires are silly and ugly.

Harold Washington Library in Chicago.

What do you call this style in the 80s where they nod and gesture toward traditional designs, but in a perfunctory way, and the whole thing comes across as looking like they didn't want to spend the money?

R184 Postmodern? It's often a basic box in design, with some cheap basic adornments to make it look like it's not just a basic box.

The former Central Bank of Ireland building on Dame Street in Dublin is an ugly 1970s intrusion in a quarter filled with 18th and 19th century buildings. It's currently being redeveloped into and office/retail complex, but it still sticks out like a sore thumb.

Let's try that link again -

R187 - looks like a car park.

The 1984 Phillip Johnson ATT building in NY was one of the first postmodern towers. It’s basically a brick box with an unusual roofline that resembles a grandfather clock or a chippendale dresser. I like that it is brick. This would never be built today when everything is cheap glass curtain wall.

R184 R185 I remember it being called Postmodernism or "Neo-Ornamentalism". But a Google search didn't bring up much of the later. I do remember it as very much aligned to the zeitgeist... turning away from, resolving, modifying, rescuing us from stark and simple modernism. Like the other "what's New Wave?" thread. Something was happening in the 70s to 80s universal unconsciousness. Things needed to be new. I guess that's always true. But often "here's the New!" later looks "that was really stupid!"

I find most post-modern buildings twee and precious.

This is the top of a 50 story building in Atlanta.

I imagine Rolf and Liesl dancing about in the golden pavilion at the top.

R191, that one at least has little fake Gothic thingies all over it. Most in that style are really spare to the point where you wonder why they bothered.

I think Detroit's is beautiful. Others will be horrified. I haven't seen the Detroit-filmed Batman movie, but I hope it's featured prominently.

R191 That has always been one of my favorite buildings in Atlanta's skyline.

Penn Station in NYC is horrifying once you see what used to be.

"Gotham Tower", Brisbane, Australia.

Postmodernist-GothLite.

This thing in Toronto. Barf.

Ugliness happens to houses, too. This one is in Belgium.

I work in the One Atlantic Center building at R191. Well, I did up until the pandemic.

The tallest building here is the B of A tower. While it looks good from afar at night I think the top pinnacle is a hot mess that looks ugly and unfinished by day.

R199 I agree for years whenever I saw it I wondered when they were going to finish construction, then I figured out they meant for it to look like that.

Hey Stanny White at R195, even that's a cheap knock-off.

I couldn't disagree more, R183. I think the building is spectacular and classic.

R201, knock off it may have been. Cheap it was not.

RMIT University, Melbourne. What a mess.

[quote]I couldn't disagree more, R183. I think the building is spectacular and classic.

Nope. The roof looks terrible and the roof decorations are really over the top, like SJP wearing a dress with a huge floral decoration.

R2 looks like a giant cockroach!

China's Tianzi Hotel. So grand.

R207 - funny, I think that looks totally cool!

Cool if you were in the Chinese version of Vegas.

r208 r209

Yeah, or a theme park. "Taoist World"... the Immortals Ride!!