Ugliest building in the world

[Hipster Duck]

^Ha ha ha, those are all true. Yet Atlanta has a "so bad it's good quality" and then it's also the home of crunk which is "so bad it's good" in its own special way. The ATL can be a really good place to have an all-night bender.

 

[Hipster Duck]

Oh, and PS, the ugliest building in the world:

Dalian Castle

 

[adma]

No, Manulife is fine. Actually, Toronto does concrete with more style, for what its worth. There's a lot of crap, but its not commonly office buildings. Tends to be really bad condos from years ago. I actually think modern construction in Toronto is quite nice generally speaking. There's a lot more glass and steel these days than most any city appears to be building in North America. Toronto has matured properly with the times its had highrise booms. You can tell the proper era for its proper time frame, so I can respect that.

The reason I don't like Atlanta is a holistic sense of the word. Office buildings that have poor ground level feeling, little retail. Over half of Atlanta's buildings you can't just walk into and many like SunTrust Plaza are set back from the street as if they want you to stay away. Downtown ceases to exist literally 4 blocks from Peachtree St in any direction. There are some new projects here and there to mix it up, but its still a city in a forest with tract housing and highrises scattered about with no cohesion.

People in Atlanta think they live in the greatest city on earth half the time, but so few seem to understand why they like it beyond cheap stick-home suburbia tract housing and Buckhead... As long as they have a Target and a mall with fine luxuries, and many of them have some (usually protestant evangelical) Jesus to rely on, they seem overconfident in those superficial things. To me those things aren't necessarily much to be proud of, but I disgress.

And then there is Peachtree Center. Ugh.

Ugly on top of ugly.

Bank of America is a fine example of a building that looks incomplete, yet could be beautiful. Then there is the whole fact its in an office park-like environment right next to the 14 lane freeway.

I still think you're bringing too much personal pathology into this "holistic sense of the word" dislike, i.e. your glasses are being rose tinted by the Jesusland you've had to deal with. It'd be like my hating my childhood neighbourhood/hometown so intensely, the idea of anything of architectural or heritage interest no longer matters.

You need to look beyond, and instil yourself more into this spirit
http://docomomoga.org/wordpress/
http://moderngeorgia.wordpress.com/
and especially
http://www.jetsetmodern.com/hyatt.htm
Which ought to shut you up. Cold.

Regardless of Atlanta's present urban dysfunction and what *you* may think of the aesthetic, the Peachtree/Hyatt complex is one of the indubitably most important urban ensembles of the 1960s: it put John Portman on the map, and became an urban aesthetic symbol of "New South" progressivism. In fact, it's thanks to Portman that Atlanta, more than anyplace in North America, went for James Bondish megastructural futurism big time--only Montreal compares in its high-style vigour. Yes: high style. Portman "had it".

Yeah, maybe this kind, but still...

True, Portman urbanism was a little problematic (and proto-Vegassy) in its narcissism, and more problematic when one considers it as a "reaction" to the actual urban woes of the day (a characteristic shared by other Portman concepts elsewhere , most notably Ren Cen in Detroit). But it's no reason to spite it holus bolus--indeed, you sound more provincial and parochial in *knocking* Atlantans for embracing their inner Portman. It's like the Atlantan version of decrying the Eaton Centre as an urban eyesore that begs to be demolished...

 

[Brandon716]

Which ought to shut you up. Cold.

Are you the same guy I met in 2006? If so, I hope you realize no its not going to shut me up, and no I'm not going to change that particular opinion about the city's landscape just because Portman is seen as some interesting architect by some certain circles in architecture.

Mies Van der Rohe is also liked by some...

Anyway, I didn't grow up in Atlanta and I didn't even grow up in the same state, I just don't like the city.

I feel that my opinion doesn't really matter to an Atlantan, nor does it matter to someone who is involved with the Atlanta development establishment or someone who would willingly do work there. My opinion is for me and me alone. Although I do enjoy sharing it with the average Torontonian.

These days I try and hide my true feelings from those I grew up around, I only mention it in places like this where only a rare occasional American will drop by.

 

[adma]

Are you the same guy I met in 2006? If so, I hope you realize no its not going to shut me up, and no I'm not going to change that particular opinion about the city's landscape just because Portman is seen as some interesting architect by some certain circles in architecture.

Mies Van der Rohe is also liked by some...

Are you implying you have the same opinion of Mies that you do of Portman? Well, urbanistically at least, I can understand why *some* people might...

Anyway, I didn't grow up in Atlanta and I didn't even grow up in the same state, I just don't like the city.

I feel that my opinion doesn't really matter to an Atlantan, nor does it matter to someone who is involved with the Atlanta development establishment or someone who would willingly do work there. My opinion is for me and me alone. Although I do enjoy sharing it with the average Torontonian.

These days I try and hide my true feelings from those I grew up around, I only mention it in places like this where only a rare occasional American will drop by.

Believe me, it isn't just the "development establishment" that'd be in the Portman (or at least, the 60s/70s-era Portman, which is *really* at issue here) camp. It'd also be Atlanta's hypothetical creative-class equivalent of a lot of Toronto's Spacing/UTOpia contingent, as well, at least where that overlaps with "modern heritage" sensibilities. IOW, the antithesis of what, I suppose, turns you off about Atlanta.

Your opinion may not matter to an Atlantan. But in the broader realm-that-knows-no-boundaries-or-jurisdictions that is modern-era architectural, urban, built-environment historiography, you come across as an oversensitive, amateur ignoramus.

 

[jks]

Mississauga Civic Centre...

 

[Brandon716]

I don't like the place, its layout, or its culture in regards to Atlanta. So for me its pretty simple, ready to move onto the next ugly building... And if you want to get personal over an opinion its fine. I've learned not to care so much what people think of my opinions, especially on internet forums. They're good for many things, but caring what people think of you isn't one of them.

 

[wonderboy416]

My vote would go to the Ryugyong Hotel in North Korea:

I think it's going to look extremely bad-ass once it's completed. It has potential to be the new icnonic symbol of communisim and will most likely wind up on the North Korean currency. I've been fascinated by this modern ruin ever since I first read about it on SSP a decade or so ago. I wonder if westerners visiting Pyongyang via South Korea will be put up here, they may open their doors to even more tourism to help keep this bad-boy from being a total financial blackhole (although who said the North Koreans ever make any sense in anything they do). I hope to have some pics of the completed structure this summer ^^

 

[adma]

I don't like the place, its layout, or its culture in regards to Atlanta. So for me its pretty simple, ready to move onto the next ugly building... And if you want to get personal over an opinion its fine. I've learned not to care so much what people think of my opinions, especially on internet forums. They're good for many things, but caring what people think of you isn't one of them.

But when it comes to a well-informed campaigning for 60s modern architectural heritage, it's absolutely worth pointing out your oversensitive ignorance, and putting you in your place. I'm sorry. Maybe a more proper middle-ground reflex (which I can see someone like Archivist taking) is to acknowledge the Peachtree Center's undeniable, even cherishable importance in spite of finding Atlanta generically disagreeable or inscrutable. I mean, I can better understand the hatred of Boston City Hall, than this, which is, as aforementioned, at the same level of utter stupidity as considering Zeidler's Eaton Centre as an ugly eyesore that merits demolition.

Come to think of it, I'm doing further consideration of Portman and Peachtree as a symbol of the fresh-faced promise of a "New South", and the parallels with Quiet Revolution-era Montreal (even insofar as both symbolically emerged from a long dark backward period, whether symbolized by Jim Crow or by Duplessis). With that in mind, the Peachtree Center actually becomes a little bittersweet, in an Expo-like way--maybe all the more so, considering the subsequent political reversions in the South. (Though also consider how Portman's "New South" probably also paved the way for Atlanta as the effortless epicentre of the CNN empire--whatever one thinks of that. And hey, whatever you may think of CNN, it isn't like Ted Turner is James Dobson or something...)

 

[adma]

However, I *do* agree about some of those Memphis examples (whether the medical building or the UP Bank), or something like the Plaza Tower in New Orleans--those symbolize more of a mutant Old South yokelville approach to this here newfangled modern aesthetic. But Portman was different--there was more of a post-Kennedy-era suaveness to the way he did things, even if there was a slight tinge of Morris-Lapidus-as-produced-by-Cubby-Broccoli about it...

 

[interchange42]

Well, this thread seems to have gone unmoderated for a while.

Adma, can't you disagree with someone without using insulting language? Brandon's been more than patient with your inflammatory language. Your well-informed contributions to UT are generally appreciated, but you have crossed the line many times when disagreeing with someone. Go ahead, disagree, but enough with the putdowns.

42

 

[Brandon716]

I don't think the hotel-de-space-ship in Atlanta should be demolished, its a usable building. I just think its ugly. And honestly I'm not sure where the harsh tone is coming from, but my opinion is just my opinion. It doesn't mean you have to agree that its a bad building.

 

[adma]

Ah, you have absolutely no

to you...

 

[TKTKTK]

Ah, you have absolutely no

to you...

He's just saying it's ugly, and you want to fight with him as if he's spearheading its demolition.

 

[Whoaccio]

I have a hard time believing that any of these are 'the ugliest building in the world.' The ugliest would probably be some unremarkable dilapidated box in Russia or something. Like this, or the thousands like it around the world: