World Wide Ugly Buildings

[cruel_world00]

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europ ... nnSTCPhoto


Interesting having a look at what other cultures deem as ugly.

[Prince George]

There's a difference between looking at a building and living with a building.

The EMP is the kind of place that makes for great photos, especially the night shots, and features on any travel show about the place. But when you actually look at the building on its site, it really looks a bit ridiculous. It's built right up against the footpath, and the corner that it's on is tremendously ugly with carparks on two sides and the back has an oddly shaped plaza leading to a rather dingy amusement park. The Space Needle has a far superior location, it's set back from the roads so you get a much better perspective on it.

Google maps doesn't seem to have the street-level view for Seattle, but you can get a good idea of what I mean from Live.com's bird's eye view

Location aside, when you walk around the building, it's not nearly as interesting down there as the photos (which are all either from elevated locations or are facing directly upward) would have you believe. Apart from the entrances, there's not anything going on for you to stop at or sit on, the walls just abruptly end at the pavement.

Perhaps the strangest thing about it is that it feels like "just another Frank Gehry". I remember the first issue of Monument that I saw, back in the early '90s: it had a feature about Gehry and the Weisman Art Museum was on the cover. Bilbao, the EMP, and the Disney Concert Hall were all just sketches. I was amazed, it all looked really exciting and revolutionary. Well, now they're all built and frankly they're a bit same-y. These buildings all say more about the Frank Gehry brand than they do about the cities that they're in.