Tourism website includes ROM addition on World's top 10 ugly buildings list

[alexmst]

http://www.thestar.com/travel/artic...udes-rom-addition-on-ugly-buildings-list?bn=1

A tourism website has put an addition to the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto on its second annual list of the "World's Top 10 Ugly Buildings."

Virtualtourist.com puts Michael Lee-Chin's futuristic glass ``Crystal" addition at No. 8 on the list.

The website site says that while many praise the glass structure, ``just as many are troubled by the incongruity to the original, more traditional museum that still sits directly beside it."

The list was compiled by the websites editors and members.

Here is the list:1. Morris A. Mechanic Theater in Baltimore, Md.

2. Zizkov Television Tower; Prague, Czech Republic

3. "The Beehive"; Wellington, New Zealand

4. Center Georges Pompidou; Paris, France

5. Federation Square; Melbourne, Australia

6. Petrobras Headquarters; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

7. Markel Building; Richmond, Va.

8. Michael Lee-Chin Crystal, Royal Ontario Museum; Toronto

9. National Library; Pristina, Kosovo

10. Ryugyong Hotel; Pyongyang, North Korea

 

[oldjones]

Let's be fair to Michael Lee-Chin who only partially bankrolled Daniel Liebskind's appalling dumb-down of his originally interesting Crystal design. If there was justice, it should be called the Thorsell Aluminum Siding Pile. And we should note the Denver Art Museum by the same architect might as well be a Crystal Clone, so the number eight spot should rightly be shared

 

[Big Rig]

The winner

Morris A. Mechanic Theater in Baltimore, Md.

 

[Big Rig]

The Beehive New Zealand Parliment Buildings

The original beauty of the Grey Stone building is gone

WTF were they thinking

 

[Brill]

I agree, it's bold but quickly tiresome.
As separate entities they might be interesting, but attached to a fine building is too fucked up. It's like eating lobster with a scoop of ice cream on top.

 

[Big Rig]

It is silly looking, attaching a crystal blob from Outer Space to a great stone building crafted by highly skilled and never to be seen again masons

 

[Kirk Lazarus]

Zizkov Television Tower; Prague, Czech Republic

Ah, the Soviet era architecture.

 

[Kirk Lazarus]

#4 Center Georges Pompidou; Paris, France

An eyesore in a beautiful city.

 

[james t kirk]

It is a cancerous growth on the side of what was once a beautiful building that should be amputated.

I remember looking at the model when it was still in the planning stages and thinking it was the worst example of "Look at Me" architecture in world.

They could have built it on its own somewhere. Like in a vacant lot in Downsview and I would have found it slightly interesting. But to attach it to a grand old girl like the ROM is just plain ignorant and flies in the face of everything that is right. An absolute travesty and I'm sure there are hundreds of scottish and Italian stone masons just spinning in their graves when they look at what was done to their masterpiece.

I remember watching them tear down the old addition (which was also an abortion) on the front of the ROM and building the thing. To me, its construction reminded me of a giant's game of pickup sticks, only instead of using pickup sticks, someone dumped about 10 railway flat cars of I beams from about 100 feet up and this is what they got.

BTW, this crap is the only kind of crap that Liebskind knows how to produce.

My only hopes is that 20 years from now someone actually has enough brains to say that the Emperor is indeed naked and tears this barnacle off of the side of the ROM.

 

[alexmst]

I agree.
As separate entities they might be interesting, but attached to a fine building is too fucked up. It's like eating lobster with a scoop of ice cream on top.

Agreed. The Crystal as a stand alone building/museum set on a ravine like the Ontario Science Centre was would have been interesting. Stuck onto the side of a 19th century grand museum building it looks like a cancerous growth.

Another unrelated issue is the big admission charges Toronto area museums/galleries charge - AGO, ROM, SC. In Washington the major museums and galleries are all free to visit, and always busy. In London the National Gallery is free to visit, the V&A has a voluntary recommended admission price, but one is free to donate whatever or nothing (as many do). Personally I think taxes should fund musuems, not admission. They complain that not enough people visit, do huge advertising print campaigns to get people to come, but charge them. I went to the Science Centre the other week and had to wait in line for 20 minutes to pay a gouging admission charge to get in. In the other two cities I mentioned you just walk right in.

 

[Big Rig]

The Žižkov Television Tower is a uniquely-designed tower built in Prague between 1985 and 1992.

Like many examples of communist-era architecture in Central and Eastern Europe, the TV tower used to be generally resented by the local inhabitants. Although official criticism during the time of its construction was impossible, unofficially the tower was lambasted for its 'megalomania', its 'jarring' effect on the Prague skyline, and for destroying part of a centuries-old Jewish cemetery situated near the tower's foundations.

Rumours have also circulated that the tower was planned to be used to jam incoming western radio and television transmissions (particularly Radio Free Europe) and that it had a potential use as a communications facility for Warsaw Pact forces in the event of an attack on (or attack by) NATO.

 

[Kirk Lazarus]

#5 Federation Square; Melbourne, Australia

Looks like the construction workers just dumped a bunch of concrete on a pile and called it a building.

 

[Kirk Lazarus]

#6 Petrobras Headquarters; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

A little bit of more glass may have made this building look better. I like the shape, but the materials make it look too imposing.

 

[Kirk Lazarus]

#7 Markel Building; Richmond, Va.

Not cool.

 

[Kirk Lazarus]

#9 National Library; Pristina, Kosovo

This building doesn't look too inviting. Matter of fact, looks like one of those buildings in the Hostel movies where you get kidnapped and imprisoned in.

 

[Kirk Lazarus]

#10 Ryugyong Hotel; Pyongyang, North Korea

This building looks like a pyramid, but in North Korea? That government is crazy.

 

[alexmst]

#10 Ryugyong Hotel; Pyongyang, North Korea

This building looks like a pyramid, but in North Korea? That government is crazy.

They must expect a lot of tourists to build a hotel that size lol.

105 stories high, 3,000 rooms, 5 revolving restaurants...looks like it belongs in Vegas. I was thinking "crazy 80's look to it" and turns out it WAS started in 1987 lol. Construction took a vacation between 1992 and 2008, then started up again with a completion date of 2012...so it will have been 25 years in the making (though for 16 years in the middle it sat in limbo).

 

[Kirk Lazarus]

Another unrelated issue is the big admission charges Toronto area museums/galleries charge - AGO, ROM, SC. In Washington the major museums and galleries are all free to visit, and always busy. In London the National Gallery is free to visit, the V&A has a voluntary recommended admission price, but one is free to donate whatever or nothing (as many do). Personally I think taxes should fund musuems, not admission. They complain that not enough people visit, do huge advertising print campaigns to get people to come, but charge them. I went to the Science Centre the other week and had to wait in line for 20 minutes to pay a gouging admission charge to get in. In the other two cities I mentioned you just walk right in.

And the content in Canadian museums, galleries and places like the science centre are weak compared to other similar institutions around the world.

 

[alexmst]

#9 National Library; Pristina, Kosovo

This building doesn't look too inviting. Matter of fact, looks like one of those buildings in the Hostel movies where you get kidnapped and imprisoned in.

It looks like the pulled down some security grate over the whole building so no one can steal it after hours, then just left it closed.

 

[Big Rig]

#7 Markel Building; Richmond, Va.

Not cool.

I vote for this Thang as number 1

Looks like an ugly indoor parking lot designed by Elvis