Tuesday, April 12, 2005

Bad Building Roundup

Lots of crappy architecture making headlines these day. Here's a sampling:

Blair Kamin pans the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library & Museum in Springfield, IL, designed by HOK and set to open this weekend. (alt. link for Kamin article and more news at the Chicago Tribune)
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Get your appetites ready. McDonald's new two-story "flagship" in Chicago's River North opens for business Friday. Would you like a clunky building with that?
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James Howard Kunstler's latest Eyesore of the Month is a lesson not only in bad architecture, but also extremely bad circulation.
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And Design Observer tackles the latest unfortunate trend in Southern Californian residential design: Tuscan.
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9 Comments:

At Wednesday, April 13, 2005 5:14:00 AM, Anonymous Marcus said...

The McDonald's building is actually a replica of the first ever McDonalds.
Only four times bigger.
With three storey high glazing.

 
At Wednesday, April 13, 2005 11:40:00 AM, Blogger Ralph said...

The Tuscan epidemic is not just southern California based. Their are usually three or four syle variations available from builders, tuscan, country french and something like clunky American 40's. Tuscan is the best of the lot.

 
At Wednesday, April 13, 2005 3:21:00 PM, Blogger PFC said...

Why can't architects use the Tuscan thing as an INSPIRATION, rather than making the house look like a movie set.

The main common thread in all of these appears to be a lack of subtelty

 
At Wednesday, April 13, 2005 5:23:00 PM, Blogger Bryan said...

I don't think any of these four buildings tried its hardest to complete is surrounding neighborhoods. I think that's important.

That Mickey D's is a complete waste of urban space. The core of a city shouldn't allow single use establishments.

 
At Wednesday, April 13, 2005 8:29:00 PM, Blogger portuguesa nova said...

Oh my lord...disturbing, all of them.

 
At Wednesday, April 13, 2005 10:34:00 PM, Anonymous smurf said...

The McDonalds is of course better 4 times bigger as anything is, like a carton of fries or your ass.

 
At Thursday, April 14, 2005 1:21:00 AM, Anonymous MViamontes said...

The aesthetically challenged McDonald's was [and now always will be] a black hole where the city's urban fabric ceases to exist. It is an icon of hideous architecture and substandard suburban-like planning. Unbelievable.

 
At Friday, April 15, 2005 6:51:00 PM, Blogger KevinS said...

One of the oddr opinions I have heard on the McD's neighborhood is that people want to fight the "Manhattan-ization" of the neighborhood. As if rows of high rise buildings in a city are a negative thing?

 
At Saturday, January 21, 2006 9:55:00 PM, Blogger heather said...

Tremont Towers in Houston should be added to the list of bad building- what a nightmare of a condominium. The bad architecture has allowed leaks/ mold to breed. Now a $20 million 76-unit condo building sits vacant on prime real estate. Word is builder is claiming bankruptcy.

 

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