Swiss Re, "The Gherkin," London
The Pentagon
Great Hall of The People, Beijing
Citicorp Center, New York
Portland Public Services Building, Portland, OR
Palace of Justice, Brussels
Russian Parliament Building, the "White House," Moscow
Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, SpainNo anonymous comments will be accepted.
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The Gherkin? More like "The Anal Suppository."
ReplyDeleteYes, I have to admit they are all ugly except The Gherkin and the Guggenheim in Spain. The Gherkin is hideous, yet "phallic" leaps to mind before "ugly". I always wonder whether people give these things any thought while looking at the drawings.
ReplyDeleteAll of the other buildings are just brute ugly, and I'd like to nominate "The Diet" in Tokyo (their parliament) for this group - hideous brute architecture; great slabs of concrete laid end-to-end.
The Guggenheim, however, is just so incredible it surpasses ugly and travels on to incredibly playful. It's kind of like Las Vegas in my state; if it were done in a double-wide trailer, it would be simply glaring poor taste. But done on such an immense scale it somehow transcends poor taste and becomes iconic.
Assorted horrors, for sure ;=)
ReplyDeleteI was going to nominate the Hundertwasserhaus in Vienna until I re-looked at pictures of it. I guess it has grown on me over the last twenty years.
ReplyDeleteHey, I like the Gherkin!
ReplyDeleteThe Bilbao Guggenheim is wild and crazy, and I like it. But then, I'm wild and crazy.
ReplyDeleteThe Gherkin is phallic all right, but, to me, very ugly phallic. Yuk!
I'm willing to give the Bilbao Guggenheim the benefit of the doubt. I've never been to Bilbao, or to Spain. But so far in all the pictures I've seen, it looks like steel Jello.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite spoof of architect Frank Gehry was by Gehry himself making an appearance on The Simpsons. He wadded up Lisa Simpson's letter asking him to design a new concert hall for Springfield, and threw it on the floor. The wadded up letter immediately inspired him with a new design.
The Gherkin just looks silly to me, and usually I'm a big fan of Norman Foster's buildings.
What? Nobody loves the Pentagon?
This is UGLY http://www3.delta.edu/phy/facilities_files/Planetarium.jpg.It's the Delta College Planetarium in Bay City Michigan.
ReplyDeleteMuch of Bay City, MI. is late 1880's Victorian, and this monstrosity...makes me ill, ...right on the riverfront no less.
The Dancing House, Prague? Dr Caligari retro. Less interesting in daylight. The Bilbao Guggenheim is stunning.
ReplyDeleteOne persons ugly is another persons dream!!
ReplyDeleteThe Portland Building?! :-0
ReplyDeleteOh man, it was brand new when I moved to Portland in 1986 ("Portlandia"---big bronze Goddess o' the City of Roses---had just been dedicated on its west side). It was all the rage, as the very definition of the new "Post-Modern" architecture.
OK, full-disclosure: I neither got WHY it was the bee's knees then, NOR do I get why it makes your ugly building list now. It's just kind of interesting, and playful. That's all.
sasasasdasda you cant judge architecture, really now. you have no right, it's a crime.
ReplyDeleteBuildings designed for money are ugly, like a lot of those in my country, Romania. My country's architecture is ugly, not this. These buildings are designed with passion and represent the spirit of their times, carrying a message for generations to come, speaking about the past. And all I can see is that future generation call these masterpieces pieces of shit.Shame.And I suppose you have no degree in architecture, not any minor study in it.So, you are really not in the position to call these works ugly.
ReplyDelete