Miscellaneous Forum

This weekend while looking through a book about Paris, I started thinking about how much I hate the Montparnasse Tower--I just think it's hideous even though the view from it is great. Then I started thinking about other really ugly buildings and monuments like the pyramid outside the Louvre (I know--a lot of people love it but I hate it).

What buildings around the world do you think are really ugly?

This should be fun!
C

I agree about the tower - odd that it got built when the rest of the city centre (apart from La Defense) is free from tower blocks. The view from the top is amazing, but that's no reason to ruin the skyline!

The Pyramide is one of those oddities as well. Don't care for the Pompidou Centre much either.

Then there's that 1960s tower - part of the EU campus - which ruins the Luxembourg skyline.

The city fathers in Edinburgh allowed all kinds of atrocities on Princes St in the 60s and 70s - municipal vandalism at its worst.

I don't mean any insult to the Aussies, but I hate their Sydney tower, it reminds me of a KFC bucket!!
Then there is that "thing" in London that they call the bullet or something, but I don't want to say what it reminds me of ;-)

I've read about Princes street--is it really that awful?

Princes St is still beautiful because of the castle and gardens etc, but on the side which has shops on it, they allowed developers to pull down many of the original buildings to replace them with modern ugly ones.

It could have been more beautiful if they'd been forced to retain the original facades, but that's bad for profits as it costs more...

The London thing is called The Gherkin - suppository, more like.

I'm a huge Gaudi fan BUT I can't stand the Sagrada familia.

Oh Iain that's it "Gherkin". Doesn't remind me of a gherkin at all. And yes you got the real discription quite right hahaha.

Yikes--I just looked at it--that is ugly, Pam.

Also, there's something about the Sagrada Familia that I've never understood--are those cranes at the top? I've never seen a picture of it without them.

The ongoing construction of Sagrada is a real saga, and even has input from a Kiwi architect who has somehow 'cracked' the design and is pushing for it's completion. Will be a wee way off yet. So no, you won't see it without the cranes for a while yet.

I really don't like the Pompidou Center either. It looks unfinished to me.

I kind of like the Gherkin in London though. For some reason it always catches my attention and I now have too many photos of it.

Larry

I'd also give thumbs down to the Pompidou, but my "ugly building" award goes to the new NSW State Government office complex in Queanbeyan, not far from Canberra. Apart from being a 'basic box' shape, which would be just plain 'boring ugly', this one has been clad in flat steel sections which have been treated to give a rust finish. It is 'spectacularly ugly' and has been likened to dredging up the Titanic and parking it alongside the street! To cap it off, it seems the design won some kind of award - have to wonder at times about architecture. Some photos of it here, from far enough away to lessen the visual impact... (slow loading site) http://asset.gov.com.au/qgsc/default.asp?SI=37&PI=58

I like the ''Bullit '' as well Pam ,and I think it looks just like a bullit .
I wonder what you had in mind Pam ?
You probabbly won't share that with us eh Pam .

I am still working on an ugly building but my brain is a bit slow tonight
What the heck it's always slow ,well lately anyways .

Hansi

Hahhaha, right Hansi, no speako from me.
Hey but when you land in Sydney you'll see their tower if you get into the city.

Haha OK Pam I'll keep my camera in my hand and try to get a window seat and I will see for myself .

As they say HOW Ugly is it and I guess I will find out .

Hansi

Uglymark

Yes, there is scaffolding all over the Sagrada Familia. It is still under construction. I would love to see it.

Ugly building: The Danish parliament building from 1620, with the unicorn horn protruding from the roof, and all of those busts of ugly politicians sticking out of the walls. Yuck ! Buckingham Palace. Looks like a prison compound at least from the exterior. Eiffel Tower: god got carried away with his giant erector set.

Buck House and La Tour Eiffel are both fine architecturally admirable structures to my eye :-))

The Whitney Museum in New York gives the Pompidou center a good run for the money in the Ugliest Art Museum category.

I dislike the "Monument" aka "the Pencil" in DC. It's just there...stark, naked and surrounded now by fencing. The only thing it says to me, I'm tall. I think it's the ugliest building we have in the entire Metro DC area.~

Our new convention centre in Perth would have to take the Ugly cake! Check it out here -
http://images.google.com.au/imgres?imgurl=http://www.rbb.com.au/images/gallery/misc008full.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.rbb.com.au/projects-miscellaneous.asp&h=500&w=750&sz=132&hl=en&start=2&usg=__TuzHEo4d0wkBpyylmKhT-ySYZ3c=&tbnid=FA6uD9fAS5cnVM:&tbnh=94&tbnw=141&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dperth%2Bconvention%2Bcentre%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG
Now if they were to paint some sort of Aboriginal art work on the top, perhaps a kangaroo or boomerang, then I reckon it probably wouldn't be half bad.

I don't have to go far to find the ugliest building. It's right here in Bergen. Totally misplaced in an otherwise beautiful city, you find what many categorize as architectural brutalism. The town hall of Bergen...
http://aib.bergen360.no/-/image/show/500614_raadhuset-i-bergen

Ooooo that sure doesn't look like a town hall :-))

From 1971...say no more!
It's also an interesting contrast to the King's Hall from the Viking era:
http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/p/m/a0f91/

Federation Square opposite Flinders Street Station in Melbourne is the most ugliest building as far as I am concerned--I know they tried to make it modern but it does not suit the lovely victorian feel of Melbourne.

Dorrise

i think the gherkin looks funny.
it´s like they put a giant metal dildo right in the center of london :O)

"I hate the Montparnasse Tower--I just think it's hideous even though the view from it is great"

Totally agree :-) The view from Montparnasse is great because this is the only place from which you don't see the ugly Montparnasse Tower :-) I wonder how will the new building Delanoe want to build look like? I hope they won't disfigurated Paris!

Well I like the Gherkin and the Eiffel Tower and Buckingham Palace but there are three building which I truly dislike and they're all in New York City.
First the US Steel Building on Broadway (http://www.greatgridlock.net/NYC_Images/ussteel3.html) not that it looks so bad these days but because of what it replaced - the wonderful Singer Building (http://www.greatgridlock.net/NYC_Images/singer2.html). How could they?
Second on the list is Madison Square Garden (http://www.wayfaring.info/wp-content/uploads/2007/04/madison-square-garden.jpg) again not because it looks so bad (even though it is pretty dreadful in its design) but again because they tore down the beautiful Pennsylvania Station to make way for it (http://www.nyc-architecture.com/GON/GON004.htm). At least this time, there was such an outcty that, ultimately, the legislation required to protect NY's architectural heritage was born from its destruction.
My final building though is universally disliked. It's the MetLife Building (formerly the PanAm Building) http://www.nyc-architecture.com/MID/MID030.htm It's a huge, ugly slab of a building that blocked the view down Park Avenue, overpowers the sight of the gorgeous Helmsley Building and prevents you from seeing the Chrysler if you're standing on the Top of the Rock. The best thing they could do with it other than tear it down would be to put an observation platform on the top wher there used to be a helipad. At least that way you wouldn't have to look at it! There's a great scene in Godzilla which shows the building with a large Godzilla shaped hole through the middle of it. If only!

if you truely want to see ugly buildings then go to the copenhagen suburb called "albertslund".
this looks like a siberian prison camp on a bad day.

Claus, try Tåstrup, the area near city2. I've lived there...

tåstrup is ugly too but i find albertslund the scariest place in europe after dark.
every f#cking house is build exactly the same and they are really badly constructed.
it´s a small piece of the soviet union still left to scare the world.