Worst Building in the World!
By adamg - Fri, 11/14/2008 - 3:35pm.
Even without Keith Olbermann saying it. Reuters reports on some list of the ten ugliest public buildings/monuments in the world, and guess what's Number 1 on the list? Of course. The "award" goes well with 2005's announcement by the Project for Public Spaces that City Hall Plaza is the worst public space on the planet.
One sure way to improve City Hall: Station a guy in a chicken suit in front of it:
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Is it really that bad?
Third Decade finds it hard to believe City Hall is really one of the ten ugliest structure anywhere.
Aaron Weber writes the building is actually awesome looking - from up on Beacon Hill, with the water glimmering behind it. And that, he says, is the problem:
City Hall
I don't think it's that bad.
I was just up in Iannella Chamber for the police construction flagger hearing on Thurs, and it was better than I remembered. It's easy to trash because it looks like something out of Tron, and it's rather dark inside, and true it's not as modern as some other things, but it sure beats tearing it down and putting it in Southie, or remodeling it out of embarassment. Honestly, being someone of Irish heritage, I prefer the self-depreciating notion of Boston city hall being ugly, because then I feel good about myself when I talk good on it, instead of feeling like a smug asshole bragging about his beautiful city hall that everyone already admires.
Tis rather ugly, although I
Tis rather ugly, although I may have to say maybe its the ugliest in the developed world, the free world, maybe the Western World? Korea has that tall building that is rather ghastly, and Russia has entire blocks of Soviet Era buildings that as a group kind of suck.
I got it!
It needs some nice new appearance features that make it look all Colonial and shit - something like lots of plain wooden colonial elements that are way much bigger than any colonial would have made them.
Oh, some palladian windows, too. Lots of Palladian windows.
:-P
Woo-Hoo
We're Number One!!!
Knock offs are worse?
Well seems to me that the University of Waterloo M&C building is a
knock off of the Boston City Hall. So wouldn't that make the M&C bldg
worse?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Waterloo_Faculty_of_Mathematics
Is that from
Is that pic from the chowda fest? It is pretty ugly with concrete coming out from all angles.
Bingo
Yes, indeed it's from this past summer's Chowdafest. I think the guy in the suit does a great job at hiding City Hall.
Criteria for this "top 10"?
None.
I went looking up some info on this top 10 list to see just what exactly went into making it.
Basically, one of the staff members at virtualtourist.com asked a question about ugly buildings in their forum. About 15-20 responses later (half of which were from that same staffer..and the other half by about a half dozen other repeat visitors), suddenly there's a press release that went out to Reuters and others detailing the site's selections...which hit the airwaves and grew a lot of legs in the news world...because who doesn't like a top 10 list of disparagement and judgmentalism?
Number of times the word "Boston" (or anything even RELATED to our City Hall) shows up in that thread: 0.
So, let's just see how a staffer living in CA, working for a company based in CA, who has only ever been to NY on the east coast and didn't get a suggestion from any other forum user about Boston City Hall might have some how, out of nowhere, put it as their #1 ugliest public building...Hmm...
Ah. VirtualTourist.com was bought up by TripAdvisor.com...who just happens to be based right here in Newton, MA.
So, basically, a half-dozen or so people sat around and thought of the ugliest building they've ever seen in their travels (selection bias, much?)...THEN some editor, who probably didn't even read the original discussion, discarded parts of the list and included their own instead all the while "ranking" them as they pleased (I noticed the London "Gherkin" getting a TON of mentions and yet not included in the final list AT ALL...what a pants load; the NYC Port Authority...came from the same place as Boston City Hall: outta some editor's ass)...THEN the list is being given some sort of authority worth even mentioning in the national media by Reuters and others. This top 10 list is only good for ONE thing: proving that our mass media is useless yet again.
Oh, how could I forget? Virtual Tourist sucks!
I give you: Virtual Tourist's guide to Newstead Montegrade.
Featuring:
Newstead Montegrade photos.
Review of the Newstead Montegrade Zoo
Review of Newstead Montegrade roads.
All this three years after Newstead Montegrade was exposed.
Regarding Newstead and
Regarding Newstead and Montgrade: check out this map from 1858.
http://maps.bpl.org/id/10117/
Select Full Screen at the bottom of the map for a better view.
The internet is full of crap pulled out of old Yellow Pages, etc. I tried to use the 'net a few years ago to find thrift stores, and over half of those listed were closed. In some cases, the buildings had been torn down. Note to self: always call first.
If you'll notice..
If you'll notice, all of the stuff you linked to,adamg, was posted in 05 and the writer is YOU! So stop saying it's their(virtual tourists) fault
That was my point
All that stuff I linked to (er, most of which I wrote), is still on that travel site three years later, even though none of it is real.
Usefulness
How useful is a travel website that maintains information like "Newstead Montegrade's chief export is corrugated cardboard and it's also what they make their roads out of", when Newstead Montegrade doesn't even exist as a location?
That's the point. Then these people purport to know the top 10 ugliest public buildings and news conglomerators like Reuters lap it up and perpetuate it as if it has any validity.
(hmm, why only ugly public buildings in their list when one of the most discussed buildings from their "sources" was the London "Gherkin" and it just so happened that it wasn't on the list? Why, maybe it's because some day they might want to get ad/sponsorship money from the corporate owners of private buildings like the "Gherkin" and don't want to offend them...but there's nobody to really offend over a public building).
The whole thing is a sham and found the soft eye/ear of a few copy editors in the middle of a soft news day...so here we are with it as one of the top searched Google terms as it spreads like wildfire through the "news" agencies...
Just look at it!
Enough said?
Hmm
You don't happen to collect a paycheck from TripAdvisor, do you? Hehe.
Awful, awful, awful... I
Awful, awful, awful... I don't understand how anybody can defend the pile of concrete that is City Hall. Brutalism isn't my bag, but at least the library at Clark University in the same style is somewhat attractive. I still think the worst build in the Boston area is the Middlesex Country Courthouse
Congrats, Glob, you're useless
So, I attempted to add a comment to the boston.com article on this disaster of a "top 10". Hours later and 21 more responses, from as late as 10 PM, posted after when I wrote my comment and it's seemingly been filtered. I guess they couldn't handle someone pointing out how little thought they put into the underlying thesis to their riveting news story. I mean they went out and got a comment from the mayor and everything, who am I to want to show them up in their own comments for having actually done the legwork online to see that this list is based on garbage.
I can tell their local "wiki" site is going to be a real success if they can't handle differing opinions...
Boston's City Hall is already here and isn't costing me anything
The Mayor seems to be happiest when he's proposing another massive project for the city of Boston. He won't let up on the moving of city hall to the waterfront. The thing is, the city is already buried in half finished projects, eye sore holes in the ground, scaffolding, trucks, cranes and orange cones everywhere. Why doesn't he leave it alone for a while until some of these other projects get finished then if he really wants to dig up the center of the city and knock the "ugly" building down I propose he knows exactly what will take it's place and make sure whoever is building it has sufficient financing in place as well as a realistic time table as to when it would be completed. THEN make sure his new waterfront office is accessible to the people and also is finished on time paid for, of course with all that tax payer money we have saved by rejecting good ole question one. Spend it Mr. Mayor! Spend it fast!!
Get a grip
Question 1 lost. By a lot. It's not just the mayor who wants to spend your money, 7 out of every 10 of your neighbors do to. Let it go already, because me and the other 6 of us are tired of hearing about how it failed so miserably and seems to be the source of all the woes in this state.
City Hall Doesn't Cost "nothing"
Ever hear of utility bills? Health care costs due to the effects of poor ventilation and leaking roofs creating mold? Maintenance costs for an aging building where it is difficult to figure out where the pipes and wires go?
This is more than just an "ugly building" issue. It is a deteriorating, poorly designed ugly building issue. Ongoing maintenance and operating costs figure large in any decision to keep or renovate a building versus new construction. There is a reason most of the other brutalist monstrosities have been ripped down, and it ain't because they were ugly.
As for holes in the ground and half finished projects, why not a new city hall at DTX??? Where the Filenes building hole is? Can't knock the transit options for that!
"...who am I to want to show
"...who am I to want to show them up in their own comments for having actually done the legwork online to see that this list is based on garbage."
Your brilliant insight and rapier wit drove them to distraction. You must be very proud.
Quality comments there
First, my comment on their site (gone to their discretionary posting style..alas, I did not save a copy for myself) was very congenial and explained simply that the list was unfounded. It suggested that anyone who wanted to look into how the list was concocted could read more at UHub. The claim in the comment submission form is that they remove "uncivil" comments. My comment was nothing but civil. My response here to their deletion of my submission was markedly less civil because I'm pissed that they act as if they'll only remove comments for incivility:
Suggesting that this list isn't all it's cracked up to be is being a "troublemaker"? That's just weak and squelching real information as opposed to their retread of the press release copy and additional quote from the mayor in response.
Nevermind that good non-"troublemaker" responses that "keep the discourse civil" get through like #47 on that story:
Whew, glad that nugget of wisdom passed all their quality checks and balances and my discussion of the source for this top 10 list didn't. Hey, if they want to be the Herald (some of the comments there would make a Klan member blush), so be it. I just can't wait until their hyperlocal wiki becomes a reality and they'll either have to patrol it 24/7 or institute another white-washing submission system that turns off everyone's interest in submitting content.
How about the Lindemann Building
The Erich Lindemann Mental Health Center at Cambridge St and Staniford should have been on this list too, it too is ugly and made of cement with no style. Funny that it is just a block or two away from City Hall. Maybe it was built around the same time and that was the thing back then?
How could they have missed Empire State Plaza?
Empire State Plaza in Albany, NY has got to be the most surreal ego trip of modernism ever allowed to stand for more than a decade. (It has made the Hall of Shame in years past.)
Truly, truly bizarre mix there. Every sort of bad idea and flight of mid-century design whimsy concentrated around a reflecting pool so that you can see it and admire the raw power of MODERN twice over.
A masterpiece of space-age bad news if there ever was one, with bruatlist book ends and a fairy cake of a Statehouse at the rim. It is, however, a prime example of why politicians shouldn't be permitted to build ego monuments, and we should learn from it before we let Menino loose to do the same on the waterfront.