01-03-2005 19:11									#1
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http://www.channel4.com/life/micros...ition/form.html


Channel 4 is behind a (semi-serious) poll to find ugly buildings to demolish.

It's asking people to nominate the structure that makes their life hellish, by being awful to work in, to look at, or that is appallingly constructed or unsympathetically situated.


In the spirit of widening up a U.K. poll to the world at large and internationalizing it, what building in the U.K. or in your own country (or a foreign country) would you wish to demolish ?


I have nominated the Home Office, not only for its association with complete Blunketts like the last Home Secretary, and several other dubious politicians of various hues, but also because it is a monstrous Stalinist neo-brutalist edifice, callously erected in the midst of several conservation areas, next to one of London's World Heritage sites, hard by a Royal Park, and among buildings of great architectural merit.


How this Orwellian junkheap was ever allowed to be constructed escapes me.

	01-03-2005 19:16									#2
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I nominate the most evil structure in the world, Mayence's city hall. As my girflriend would put it, it looks like the Devil had built it.

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	01-03-2005 19:17									#3
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Another look, to show how this monster is ruining an otherwise perfectly OK scenery

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	01-03-2005 19:24									#4
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The high rise dorm in my uni is horrifically awful. Kind of "Stalinist on LSD" style its all hideous concrete made with as many angles as humanly possible. My roommate's tiny little bedroom had over ten angles in it. And none of the hallways are straight.

Next to it is the nearly as hideous rat warren of lowrise...

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	01-03-2005 19:28									#5
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It's mightily beautiful compared to my uni...

Edit: oh, didn't read your comments on how it was inside. At least my uni is practical-minded

	01-03-2005 19:58									#6
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quote: Originally posted by Spiffor I nominate the most evil structure in the world, Mayence's city hall. As my girflriend would put it, it looks like the Devil had built it.

That looks kind of cool on the outside, actually. But it does look evil.



You should see the Mississauga city hall. The enterior would be fitting for the third reich.

The stair well in it the most startling, i think. It's been a long time since I was in it, but if I am remebering it correctly, it is a large flight of stairs going straight up (6+ stories) with small landings on every floor that opens into a hallway. The stairs and the walls are made entirely of marble and the walls stretch up to a large glass roof overhead. Standing at the bottom of it and looking up it is the most daunting and oppresive view in the whole building, and the effect of the city servants crossing in and out of the stairwell as they walk down the corridors that open into it is almost surreal - you can see people coming out from one wall and disapearing into the other at every level of the stairwell, asthough they are signals shooting through the synaptic pathways of the building.

	01-03-2005 20:09									#7
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quote: t's asking people to nominate the structure that makes their life hellish, by being awful to work in, to look at, or that is appallingly constructed or unsympathetically situated.

I saw one last night, in the program about "spitting image". That surely must be a contender.


[Spiff]
Centre pompidou

Damn, hadn't noticed Spiff already posted.
Bleh, I'm gonna leave it in nonetheless.

	01-03-2005 20:23									#8
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Well, yeah, Centre Pompidou is probably the ugliest horror that has ever graced Paris. But despite its ugliness, at least it doesn't look as evil as Mayence's city hall. I mean, there are colours

	01-03-2005 20:35									#9
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There are a whole bunch of ugly nasties around here. This one is the first target

	01-03-2005 20:40									#10
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Come on! Even if you troglodytes dislike all architecture after 1850 or whatever, you have to be joking if you think the buildings most worthy of demolition are the ones where a lot of aesthetic effort and architectural thought has been applied. Surely the hideous, mindless shopping mall blocks, ugly roadworks, railroad gashes in the landscape, cookie-cutter office blocks are infinately worse?

	01-03-2005 20:43									#11
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quote: Originally posted by Buck Birdseed Come on! Even if you troglodytes dislike all architecture after 1850 or whatever, you have to be joking if you think the buildings most worthy of demolition are the ones where a lot of aesthetic effort and architectural thought has been applied. Surely the hideous, mindless shopping mall blocks, ugly roadworks, railroad gashes in the landscape, cookie-cutter office blocks are infinately worse?

Of course, but I just take it for granted that that's so bad it doesn't even bare consideration.

	01-03-2005 20:44									#12
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quote: Originally posted by General Ludd You should see the Mississauga city hall. The enterior would be fitting for the third reich.

Just googled it. But it's paltry compared to what every Stalinian building should aspire to. Bucharest's palace!

(not: most of the historical city has been razed to make room for this bloated nichtmare, that also completely blocks the natural axes of communication in the city)

	01-03-2005 20:45									#13
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Eit

Pic2

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	01-03-2005 20:49									#14
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Let's compare the average dull office block with Mayence's city hall:

Office block: with windows. City hall: Almost entirely covered with concrete.
Office block: no Black. City hall: with black
Office block: no pointy iron bars reminisching of a prisoner's cell. City hall: with.

Nah, I'm fairly confident in my choice to raze Mayence's city hall before any ordinary boring office block.

	01-03-2005 20:56									#15
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quote: (not: most of the historical city has been razed to make room for this bloated nichtmare, that also completely blocks the natural axes of communication in the city)

Yikes! The thing is, it wouldn't look half bad if they didn't add on the extra stories.

	01-03-2005 20:59									#16
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How did this ever get built?

	01-03-2005 21:11									#17
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Anyone with good taste and a wrecking ball would have a field day in Toronto. There's so many brutally awful concrete boxes here, it's impossible to keep track. Toronto suffered enormously from two major issues. First, it boomed in the 70's following the FLQ crisis in Montreal, and that just ain't a time period known for stylistic greatness. Second, there has never been much in the way of planning, so it's largely been developer rules here. That means that you almost invariably get function over form (read: four-sided concrete box). I often joke that Toronto must be the world's largest non-stop concrete pour.

	01-03-2005 22:27									#18
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that mi -6s headquarters in the bond series.

	01-03-2005 22:35									#19
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quote: Originally posted by VetLegion How did this ever get built?

Hey, I kinda like that. It's stalinist all right, but it's far less atrocious than most buildings in this thread

	01-03-2005 22:37									#20
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quote: Originally posted by Lawrence of Arabia that mi -6s headquarters in the bond series.

It's also MI-6's headquarters in real life.

	01-03-2005 22:42									#21
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quote: Originally posted by Spiffor Just googled it. But it's paltry compared to what every Stalinian building should aspire to. Bucharest's palace!

You really need to see inside of it to know what I'm talking about. Aside from the staircase I described, there are high cielings, balconies and monolithic pillars throughout the building.

I wouldn't suggest dstroying it, though, because it's a pretty cool building. Just immensley inapropriate for a city hall. (well then again, maybe not when you consider the city it belongs to and the mayor who runs it ).



And here in Sudbury there's a large tax centre that looks like a pile of papers.

This is the only picture I could find of it on google.

	01-03-2005 22:58									#22
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quote: Originally posted by molly bloom http://www.channel4.com/life/micros...ition/form.html Channel 4 is behind a (semi-serious) poll to find ugly buildings to demolish. It's asking people to nominate the structure that makes their life hellish, by being awful to work in, to look at, or that is appallingly constructed or unsympathetically situated.

IIRC some townsfolk from Scotland nominated their entire town for demolition.

	01-03-2005 23:06									#23
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quote: IIRC some townsfolk from Scotland nominated their entire town for demolition.

In my city? THIS



Hideous wall of a building blocking the view of the sea for potential tens of thousands of appartments. on the mountain ridge that is located behind it.


Your building IS evil, but is kinda cool looking, spiffor.

	01-03-2005 23:15									#24
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My nomination...

	01-03-2005 23:48									#25
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I have a worse one, purely for the context. This monstrocity is nominated for Grade II listing, meaning it cannot be destroyed or modified without the government's permission. It's also Christ Church College's first year accomedation:





Not the tasteful brown trimmings, that 'worn-in' look that only permanent black marks can provide, and the stark uniformaty of the grey blocks and plastic curtains. Doesn't it just deserve specially protected status?

quote: Originally posted by VetLegion How did this ever get built?

Function. It's bomb proof, rocket proof, and practical for defense. I quite like it, too, actually.

	02-03-2005 00:38									#26
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OMFG!!! I went on the Channel 4 website earlier to nominate Northampton's Greyfriars Bus Station. I got a call back from Channel 4 a little while ago, saying that they really liked my commentary and they want to quote what I said in the media!!! They also wanted to film me talking about why I hate it but I have a problem with cameras so that was a no-go. But still, pretty sweet!!

And as I said (or something like this I didn't save the text form), Greyfriars Bus Station is both symptomatic and iconic of the post-WWII concrete shoebox architecture that has turned what was a lovely historic county-town centre into a degenerated sprawl, that looks like it came from the same design logic that spawned the Berlin Wall.

Not exactly what I said but 'twas something like that. Molly, if you're going to keep an eye on this and you see something me-esque re. Greyfriars, do drop me a line!

	02-03-2005 01:01									#27
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Loonies getting airtime

	02-03-2005 07:10									#28
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Forget its name but the Cornell University building whose exterior was build out of a special rust-proof alloy that, um, rusted is quite hideous.

The Clark Univeristy library is also very very ugly, its apparently meant to look like a giant book from the air, from every other angle it just looks like ****.

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	02-03-2005 08:20									#29
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I nominate Frank Gehry's Gugenheim Museum. It looks like metalic dogsh*t fer' Crissakes!!

	02-03-2005 08:45									#30
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Hm, what exactly is Stalinist architecture?