# Fugly Buildings...



## Medvedya (Jun 15, 2005)

Are there any buildings in your home town which you just _hate_? Was it the case that looking through old pictures you realise that there was a nice Victorian or Georgian one there before?

Here's a pic of my town centre to show you what I mean.....


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## Nonskimmer (Jun 15, 2005)

Nope. Halifax is a shining city on the hill. :-"
Riiiiiiiiiiiight! 

I'll be on the lookout from now on for the eyesores.


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## Medvedya (Jun 15, 2005)

This ain't my picture, but the ones underlined in red are the ones on my shit-list.


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## Nonskimmer (Jun 15, 2005)

They don't look so bad to me. In fact, they look pretty normal I think.


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## Medvedya (Jun 15, 2005)

You think so huh? Right - try a close up!


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## Erich (Jun 15, 2005)

they're frickin ugly plain and simple.

My little platonic sphere used have old three story victorians lining the main street going south. It was wonderful and then the dreaded 60's came and the builders got the hair brain idea to trash them and remold in some ugly stuko crap until about 6 years ago when the old town started to get a reface and thus some of the "ancients" that had an ugly stucko face got washed, cleaned and back to the beautiful brick and wood. Old town as it was called is now being reclaimed


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## Medvedya (Jun 15, 2005)

Forgot about this one - The Bristol Evening Post Press building. I worked here on evenings for two and a bit years, before they laid everyone on the canvassing team off - good money, but a nasty building!


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## Nonskimmer (Jun 15, 2005)

A lot of the buildings on the Dartmouth side of the harbour are a little on the "austere" side, and I can think of a few others as well. It's the billboards that get me. This town has _way_ too many! Especially in the north end!


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## plan_D (Jun 16, 2005)

You could have posted this a bit earlier because I could show you how 'beautiful' Doncaster is...hahaha! But now my brother has gone to Lanzarote and taken the camera with him.  

I'll see if I can find some on the internet though


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## cheddar cheese (Jun 16, 2005)

We have a ing Multi Story Car Park in Launceston.


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## plan_D (Jun 17, 2005)

I was trying to find a picture of my old school but even the internet is failing me. I know all the pictures are old because they don't have the barbed fence and cameras everywhere...honestly, I had nothing to do with the increased security...  :-"


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## JCS (Jun 17, 2005)

They just finished building a REALLY ugly school in Scranton, I'll try to find a pic of it. But thankfully I live in the country where the only buildings I ever see are houses and barns.


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## Pisis (Jun 17, 2005)

Phew, ain't nothing... We in CZ have very nice and very old (Europe generally) architecture, like this:







But on the other hand, 60 years of the Communism produced things like this:


















I was talking about it with many English speakers and there's even no word for it! In Czech it's called "panelák", and generally it means "panel-house". There were whole cities re-built with only this shit, very often by destroying the historical core of those cities (many of them very old - cca 16.-17. Century!). The groups of paneláks are called "sídliště", in German "Siedlung" and it means "settlement"... The worst thing on this is that the flats are badly noise-isolated, all the same (same in Prague and in Siberia), equipped with shitty things, and the settlements are just fine for crime, creating a concrete ghetto. 

In Letňany, which was a village connected to Prague in 1968, all the old-core was destroyed and a ghetto with 15,000 inhabitants was built. I have the fortune to live in a small piece of the remaing old-town, in a family house...  

So if I hate something, than would be the PANELÁK!


Cheers,
Pisis


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## cheddar cheese (Jun 17, 2005)

What a contrast. That second shot really is ing.


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## Pisis (Jun 17, 2005)

Just found this URL: http://www.stillscenes.com/thestreets/roztyly.html

with a shot of panelák, saying:

"""""""""""""
PRAGUE, Czech Republic - A panelak (panel building) apartment block in the Roztyly district of Prague. 

""""""""""""""


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## cheddar cheese (Jun 17, 2005)

Haha


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## Medvedya (Jun 17, 2005)

The 'panelák' was designed in Russia - under the 1957 re-building programmes that Nikita Krushchev devised to solve the chronic housing shortage in Russian cities. 

The very first experimental blocks were built in a place called Novye Cheryomushki in the southern suburbs of Moscow. You can see this same design from the Berlin Wall to Vladivostok. 

True story - the staircases on the first blocks were so narrow, that when somebody died on the new estates, the coffin had to be lowered down on ropes to the ground.

The composer Dmitri Shostakovitch wrote a satirical operetta about these buildings........

Cheryomushki! Cheryomushki!
Remember your new address,
In every flat, on every floor,
Municipal happiness!

We beautify the Moscow sky,
With orange construction cranes,
And flocks of giant apartment blocks,
Devour her ancient lanes!

They'll all have drains and window panes,
So Comrades raise your glass,
A brand new flat,
Now fancy that!
A miracle come to pass!

Cheryomushki! Cheryomushki!
Shall bloom a thousand blooms,
Of happiness, and dreams come true,
In a thousand concrete rooms!


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## Pisis (Jun 17, 2005)

Yo... And the government, instead of demolishing these awful objects, is reconstructing them!

"You can see this same design from the Berlin Wall to Vladivostok." - Sadly truth........


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## Medvedya (Jun 17, 2005)

Ah it's all a cunning plan - restore and market the Khrushchoba apartments as 'Post-Soviet-Retro-Chic-Living' for Westerners wanting to own a pied a terre in Prague, but who can't afford to buy a place in the centre.


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## Nonskimmer (Jun 17, 2005)

Hey, that might actually work!

"Experience living as the proletariat masses did! Long may our crimson flag inspire!"

Or something cheesy like that.


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## Pisis (Jun 17, 2005)

I'm doubtful if foreigners would live in such a shit! Even normal citizen don't wanna to...


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## Medvedya (Jun 17, 2005)

Well take the Stalinist Gothic 'Hotel International' in Prague - done in that cream-cake Fifties architecture that the skyscrapers in Moscow have been built in.

If that was turned into apartments, people would go nuts to try and get one - I would if I had the money! (actually, if I had the money I'd get a place in Prague full stop)


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## Pisis (Jun 18, 2005)

That one is in Dejvice district, formerly called Hotel Moscow, now Royal Crown International Plaza... whadda paradox 

Wouldn't you like to visit this one, instead:






or this one:


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## Nonskimmer (Jun 18, 2005)

What's with that first one?


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## Pisis (Jun 18, 2005)

Oh, sorry I forgot to tell the names:

1) Dancing Building
2) Corinthia Tower


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## plan_D (Jun 18, 2005)

No matter the name, the first one is a still as ugly as sin.


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## Pisis (Jun 18, 2005)

plan_D said:


> No matter the name, the first one is a still as ugly as sin.



Do you mean the Dancing Building? I'd disagree. It makes the place really fresh, you should see the whole block of the houses there. Well, it was a big debate here about it and the building itself went a bit controversal but I like it.


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## plan_D (Jun 18, 2005)

Well, we all have our opinions and mine is; it's ugly.


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## cheddar cheese (Jun 18, 2005)

Yes it is ugly.


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## Medvedya (Jun 18, 2005)

I've been inside the cafe of that building - it's by the Vatlava River. My girlfriend at the time loved it.

We stayed at the Corinthia - not a pretty building, but we weren't looking at the architecture of it when we were there....


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## plan_D (Jun 18, 2005)

I see, you were looking at the interior...


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## Medvedya (Jun 18, 2005)

Exactly so.


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## plan_D (Jun 18, 2005)

Just making sure. You might be one of those ones that just sit there watching TV and racking up bills with the mini bar...and building pillow forts. Yes, there are really people out there like Homer Simpson.


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## GermansRGeniuses (Jun 18, 2005)

The Dancing Building sure is ugly, but it's also undeniably cool... 8)

I'm not gonna try to bore you all with pictures of the thousands of ugly buildings in L.A., so rather I'll post up pictures of NON-fulgy buildings...


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## Pisis (Jun 19, 2005)

OK, I'll bore you with "non-fugly" city then:









_We'll begin our virtual sightseeing tour with a couple of overall panorama pics:_





Prague Castle called Hradcany" [Hrudchunee] with the Lesser Town and the Charles Bridge





The same seen from the opposite river coast...





Hradcany along with the Lesser Town seen from the Charles Bridge













Gothic Charles Bridge with Baroque sculptures










The Lesser Town from Hradcany








Sv. Vit (St. Vithus) Cathedral of Hradcany





National Theater





Charles University (Universitas Carolina) is the fourth oldest university (Bologna, Sorbonna, Oxford, Prague) 





The Prague Orloj [Orloi] - Clocwork - on the Old Town Square





Tynsky chram [Teenskee khraam] - The Thinus's Palace on the Old Town Square





Jewish Town - The Old New Synagogue - the oldest synagogue in Europe





Jewish Town - Old Jewish Cemetery with tombstones from the 14th and 15th century





Vaclavske namesti [Vaatslavske naamiestiee] - St. Venceslav's Square - the main boulevard of Prague. The guy on the horse is King Vaclav, the patron of the Czechlands. In the back building of the Prague Main Museum - in 1968 during the invasion of Soviets it was mistaken by the government settle and suffered heavily from the Russian tanks...





Prague Zizkov Tower





Historical Czech Tramway





The Dancing Building (not ugly I think... )

Praha - Interesting place to live in, isn't it?  If you want to come, I surely recommend it. It will enrich both yourself and Czech economy.   

PS: And I'm not talking about the nightlife here...  

Show your place!


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## SeaNorris (Jun 19, 2005)

Here is some of my home citys great sites:


















8)


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## Pisis (Jun 19, 2005)

Hello SeaNorris!

Yo, I've been to Liverpool - it's quite a while - a very nice city though! What I liked the best was The Beatles Museum and The Merseyside Museum. 8)


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## Medvedya (Jun 19, 2005)

The Cavern Club isn't the original one though - that was demolished a long time ago.


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## Pisis (Jun 19, 2005)

Yes, I know - but still very nice. Only pitty that we hadn't as much time as we needed so the Merseyside was just a quickie...  

Here some pics from my England Tour Album (It was in 1996, I think  ):


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## Nonskimmer (Jun 19, 2005)

I've been to Liverpool too, and I liked it. The "fake" Cavern Club was still ok I thought.


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## plan_D (Jun 19, 2005)

I've never had a quickie in Liverpool.


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## cheddar cheese (Jun 20, 2005)

The only interesting thing about Launceston is the castle  







Some sort of gate as well











And our hectic railway station.


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## trackend (Jun 20, 2005)

Here's one for your collection, half a mile from my house.
believe it or not It's a grade 1 listed building designed by Jørn Utzon
the guy who designed the Sydney Opera House it don't matter from which angle you look its shit. The views from the restaurant across the Thames are the only redeeming feature


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## cheddar cheese (Jun 21, 2005)

Pretty gross.


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## plan_D (Jun 22, 2005)

It looks like a coast guards station, not a resataurant. Here's a picture I took of the IWM-North. I like the building but there's nothing in the actual museum, it was quite a large let down.


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## trackend (Jun 26, 2005)

Actually I like that too D


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## Pisis (Oct 12, 2008)

Let's bring this one back to life!


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## Lucky13 (Oct 12, 2008)

Yeah! Let's see some classic old buildings...!


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## 109ROAMING (Oct 12, 2008)

French/italian/German/european would be nice


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## Lucky13 (Oct 12, 2008)

Yup....stuff with history!


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## Becca (Oct 12, 2008)

OH please! I love architecture!!!  

*waits patiently*


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## Pisis (Oct 12, 2008)

109ROAMING said:


> French/italian/German/european would be nice


Well, going one or two pages back, you'd see some historical Central European architecture...

Anybody wants to post something?


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## 109ROAMING (Oct 12, 2008)

yes I've been through those pages and I want more!

saw something design by Frank Gehry 

I did a research project earlier this year on him

That building is so ugly....ugh!


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## Marcel (Oct 13, 2008)

Pictures from my home town Dordrecht. They from the internet..


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## Bucksnort101 (Oct 13, 2008)

This is the most butt ugly building in the Twin Cities (Minnesota) area. The Walker Arts Center. Looks even worse in person.


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## 109ROAMING (Oct 13, 2008)

WTF

That just looks stupid

Why people spend so much time/money/effort into buildings like these is beyond me


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## Bucksnort101 (Oct 13, 2008)

When you drive by it, it looks like it is covered in sheets of Reynolds Wrap Aluminum Foil.


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## 109ROAMING (Oct 13, 2008)

Bucksnort101 said:


> When you drive by it, it looks like it is covered in sheets of Reynolds Wrap Aluminum Foil.



You are a F**king Genious I tell you !!

Thank you so much!!! ,absolute legend!!!!!

I've been thinking for days now what else I could coat my Corsair in 

Aluminum foil is worth a dam good try,get some of the thicker stuff and go over it twice and that should work well

I can't believe I didn't think of that

heres a picture of a very ugly building


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## Bucksnort101 (Oct 13, 2008)

Don't think Aluminum Foil will hold up very well though.


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## 109ROAMING (Oct 13, 2008)

No?

It just seems perfect it's light ,mandible and easy to use,and will look realistic!

il give it a try and if it doesn't work,no bother


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## Bucksnort101 (Oct 13, 2008)

Will rip pretty easily unless backed by something. Easy to make repairs I guess. Get the heavy duty stuff, it's a little more durable.


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## 109ROAMING (Oct 13, 2008)

That's what I mean

hopefully it will

if not,oh well 

I'm gona have a look at using some tonight


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## Pisis (Oct 16, 2008)

wHADDA'BOUT'DIS UN WE SAY...


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