Painful architecture - it hurts to look at it

[alfaPA]

... a more pervasive eyesore:

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[curiousunistudent]

Yes. It's the new addition attached to the old museum. In the second photo, you can see part of the brick wall and windowd from the old museum.

Imagine something like The Crystal stuck to the front entrance of Buckingham Palace or the White House.

It just wouldn't happen. But an iconic museum is fair game.

It's a travesty.

That's a disgrace. I mean yes, some people will like it, but it's just not right. But, even so, every city council wants its own "Guggenheim", even if it comes at the detriment of another beautiful landmark ...

 

[G-Lexington]

I'm going to go out on a limb and say it was designed by the same guy who designed the Denver Art Museum.

Oddly, it fits in fairly well with what's next door - the Denver Public Library.

Often when people first see it, they ask "Which one is the library?" To which I say "All of them."

Actually I like them both. Would I have preferred the old castle structure? Not necessarily. I do think it's silly to put one in front of the other, though.

Lex

 

[BearBoi]

It is really aesthetic. Someones taste may not match your own.
I like the new addition.

My biggest issue with the ROM's addition is that it overhangs the street below, which I do not believe was approved of in the original plans. There was an uproar about it shortly after it was completed and there was talk of a law suit. (But we are Canadian so I think they settled on a strongly worded letter.)

This isn't just ugly (in many people's opinion); it is also dangerous. Because the roof overhangs the street/road on a slant (toward the street, of course), this causes ice to slide into traffic and onto the sidewalk during the winter.

Cars have lost windshields, and I'm personally shocked that nobody has been killed yet.

As a result, the city has to pay for deicers in the winter.

Regardless of how anybody feels about the aesthetics, I'm fairly sure all will agree that this is moronic on a capital level.

 

[menRsexii]

Ya, I don't like it :| I'm usually up for modern architecture but this one goes too far imo.

 

[gsdx]

It is really aesthetic. Someones taste may not match your own.
I like the new addition.

It would have been okay if it hadn't been attached to the old building and become the new entrance. What's more, the inside is a nightmare for setting up displays. It's all angles and slanted walls.

 

[bankside]

I like them all except the mcdonalds and the serra barricade. The rest of you are just objectively wrong.

 

[Críostóir]

I like them all except the mcdonalds and the serra barricade. The rest of you are just objectively wrong.

Riiiiight. You need to put a smiley after saying something that crazy, or people will think you're just an idiot.

 

[gsdx]

It would have been okay if it hadn't been attached to the old building and become the new entrance. What's more, the inside is a nightmare for setting up displays. It's all angles and slanted walls.

Even the Washington Post took note:

The worst

The Michael Lee-Chin Crystal. Sure, there were a lot of Wal-Marts thrown up in the Aughts, but Daniel Libeskind's addition to the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto surpasses the ugliness of bland functional buildings by being both ugly and useless. His aluminum-and-glass-clad crystalline forms grow out of the building's original 1914 structure, and from the street it's dramatic. But go inside and you need a map to move around its irrational and baffling dead spaces.

And where do you put art in a room of canted walls? Curators seem as baffled and frustrated by it as casual visitors. And it cost only $250 million.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/24/AR2009122400116.html

 

[rocabar]

The Old Law courts Building, Edmonton, Alberta.

Built between 1908 and 1912. Demolished in 1972.



The replacement-

Serving our needs (and searing our retinas) since 1972...


They call this progress, I guess

 

[gsdx]

Serving our needs (and searing our retinas) since 1972...


They call this progress, I guess

Is it just me or does it look upside down?

 

[gsdx]

I'm going to go out on a limb and say it was designed by the same guy who designed the Denver Art Museum.

Doesn't look like they could put much in that long, pointy bit at the right, and how would people get to it even if they could put something in it?

 

[G-Lexington]

If memory serves, they use it for storage and offices. Not all of it, of course - gives a whole new meaning to "corner office". And that bit not only extends above a street but all the way across it. I haven't heard of any ice issues, though - maybe because it slopes more down towards the main building, all ice/snow slides that way?

Oddly, it doesn't get much grief. If people bitch about anything of this ilk in Denver, it's nearly always "the horse".

Lex

 

[jaysizzles]

The ROM (Royal Ontario Museum) used to be a beautiful building until an addition was opened in 2007. It is easily one of the most painful pieces of architecture in Canada.

Much of the world agrees.

Post your own favourite painful architecture.

Here's the original ROM:

And here's the *shudder shudder* 'Crystal':

I was curious about how they fit the Crystal in front of the main entry that you have pictured here, because it looks like the street is relatively close. So I googled around a bit and it appears that the Crystal addition infilled a side courtyard...not covering the front entry that is in the picture. Is this true? The fish-eye aerial shot makes it appear this way too.

Personally I like the contrast of the two buildings....especially since the original entry was preserved. The crystal is interesting and makes me want to go and see it...inside and out. It's a sculpture itself. The original facade is quite austere, drab and uninviting, imo. It is unfortunate that the snow/ice sheets off the roof onto streets and sidewalks. That's the poor planning part of this imo.

 

[gsdx]

I was curious about how they fit the Crystal in front of the main entry that you have pictured here, because it looks like the street is relatively close.

I haven't seen it in person, but here the old building and The Crystal under construction.

 

[bankside]

rocabar, that's not quite right. The building that actually replaced the old Law Courts was Edmonton City Centre:

The new Law Courts building is great. The old Law Courts building was great. Edmonton City Centre is mehhh...but it should never have been built where the beautiful old Law Courts was. There were plenty of vacant lots everywhere I'm sure.

And Críostóir, I'm 100% serious. All of those modernist buildings are fantastic. The best of an era, and they should be kept, just as Edmonton's old Law Courts should have been kept - but it was demolished for precisely the same reason; short-sighted indifference to something that had fallen out of fashion, and that was regarded as being as ugly and pointless as the ROM's crystal entrance.

 

[curiousunistudent]

Well, in Liverpool, we have 2 Major cathedrals right in the city centre.

The first one is the Liverpool Anglican Cathedral, built between 1904 - 1978. It truly is a beautiful and spectacularly imposing building. When on Brownlow hill which sits above the cathedral, when the sun is setting, it is a truly unbelievable sight.

The second is the Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King. I, personally, think that this cathedral is an utter eyesore when compared to some of the wonderful architecture that can be found in this city.

 

[bankside]

Personally I like the contrast of the two buildings....especially since the original entry was preserved. The crystal is interesting and makes me want to go and see it...inside and out. It's a sculpture itself. The original facade is quite austere, drab and uninviting, imo. It is unfortunate that the snow/ice sheets off the roof onto streets and sidewalks. That's the poor planning part of this imo.

I totally agree with the contrast thing...better to do something new than something pretending to be old. It's actually more respectful of the original building to not disguise it in a modern fake.

 

[LilBit]

Marguerite H Burnett Elementary School, Wilmington, Delaware. I went there for fifth and sixth grades, and my mother taught there for about ten years. Fortunately, it's no longer in regular use, as it regularly fails air quality tests. There are virtually no windows in the building, and all of the classroom walls are movable. It's one of the most poorly-designed schools in the history of architecture.

 

[rocabar]

Is it just me or does it look upside down?

Nope... It really does look top heavy. It's an example of "brutalist" architecture. It seems to be a type of building that can simultaneously provide the viewer with both a sense of fascination and dread.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brutalist_architecture