Searching for NYC's Ugliest Building
Wednesday, February 28, 2007, by Joshua
Theater Row Tower, Sculpture for Living, Leighton House Residential Tower
Our friends at Gridskipper surveyed some architecture experts (and our own Joey Arak) to come up with a hit list of the ugliest buildings in NY. Some of the choices surprised us and some we saw coming a mile away.
· Ugliest Buildings in New York, according to the Experts [Gridskipper]
Mentioning the Sculpture for Living in any "ugliest" buildings doesn't make sense.
We know that the Astor place tower is a favorite whipping-boy of architectural snobs, but it hardly belongs with ugly buildings.
i can't believe the Weston Times Square wasn't mentioned. that is by far the ugliest building in nyc. should be in las vegas.
2 - Oh god yeah. That is definitely the ugliest building in Manhattan.
rhat blue one in the les what an eyesore
every h. thomas o'hara building should be on there.
the majority of the costas ones as well
I'm the seventh!!!
Cheers to Bruce, a job well done.
Tough break Nimby's, now you can focus on keeping the yuppies out of the SoBro.
I lived in Theatre Row Tower when it first opened. The lobby was quite nice, and it was one of the first rental buildings to have stainless steel/granite kitchens. While the exterior look they were going for doesn't quite work, I think it's unfair to count it among the ugliest, especially considering some of the crap that dominates the skyline.
How can an NYU prof be an expert on NYC's ugliest buildings?
other than by building a lot of them, i mean
Astor place is out of context but it is pretty nice looking building. I think Blue is even nicer.
However, it is clear from the comments and the list pointed to that some people have very different opinions.
It just goes to show. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder
ummm....how about every one of the white brick post war building, or the monster complex in tribeca above the community college, or how about stuy town, and i can go on and on.
What retard said sculpture of living, with all the crap in the city. My guess is that they are angry and jealus that they didn't get selected for that site. get a life - architecture experts my a$$.
Time Warner Building at Columbus Circle. It's vulgar, phallic, and completely out of proportion to it's surroundings.
What asshole would put the Whitney in this category?
typical shi7can comments once again on curbed. Would love to see the designs from these so-called experts.
And Joey, you wish you lived in a building as nice as 420 W 42.
Hotel Gansevoort. Ugly at birth and getting uglier by the day.
"The Future". fugliest building. third ave and 30-something St.
someone's vision of "the future" includes slanty balconies. it looks like a strong wind came by before they got around to tightening the bolts.
i agree with #2. that westin building is hideous. blue building taking a beating today....hehe.....that sculpture for living is ugly but it's location is even worse.
The Verizon building on the west side of Bryant Park. Hands down.
Oh. And NYU's Bobst Library. Just hideous.
I normally really like contemporary architecture, but....
that Frank Gehry building on 11th Avenue between 18th Street and 19th Street fails so miserably to live up to what I was hoping his first NYC building would be, that I think it's a truly hideous eyesore.
The ugliest building in nyc is the Pan Am/ Metlife building that hovers over Grand Central...bad idea, bad location, bad materials.
The verizon building downtown is the worst. The only branded building in the downtown skyline.
I wouldn't mind at all if the downtown Verizon building -- that corporate block of concrete with the enormous, glowing Verizon logo that ruins the skyline -- just went away.
F-ugly...
1) Verizon Building in lower Manhattan...
2) Any building in Seward Park or along Avenue D in EV
3) Gwathemy @ Astor, what were they thinking?
I second the Tribeca horrorplex on top of the BMCC.
The obvious answer is the Coffee Shop building (the old marc ballroom and current union square ballroom) on 16th street and union square west. The onvious irony being that so many beautiful people frequent that specific establishment.
I don't know if its the ugliest, but the Pam Am building (or Met Life or whatever) hovering over Grand Central terminal has done the most damage to the fabric of the city. There are alot of ugly apartment buildings and cookie cutter office buildings scattered around, but you can usually ignore them unless they are clustered together like on 6th Avenue. The Pam Am building ruins the view down Park Avenue.
Honorable mention: Madison Square Garden/ Penn Station.
Someone should have also pointed out the Metrotech and Atlantic terminal monstrosities in Brooklyn. Alot of the opposition to the Atlantic Yards project is simply due to the expectation that Ratner will build something equally ugly, but bigger.
The Sculpture For Living is the ugliest creature not only for it's physical look but also for teh shenanigans of how it came about.
Obviously, the site was a very attractive target. The developer, the board of Cooper Union and Gwathmey are old cronies. There was a lot of behind the scene action going on. I never thought that such a venerable instutution like Cooper Union could get down so low... Well, Manhattan is only a few feet above the sea level, and some of it's inhabitatnts are way lower...
UGLY INSIDE & OUT
all public housing projects
i'd go with 60 Wall Street--not only is it horrible on every level, but it destroys views of 40 Wall St., now the Trump Building and the American International Building, two soaring, spire-topped art deco classics.
Stuy Town, hands down winner
So glad the Trump Buildings (esp World Tower) and the Hearst monstrosity make the list. I don't mind Time Warner on Columbus; seems people have forgotten how TRULY ugly the old Coliseum was and how it totally dead the street life was. I know it's a mall, but I shock myself by using it all the time--mostly Borders and Whole Foods.
The Blue building, the Sculpture for Living (can they move it to Miami, where it belongs?) and anything Trump-particularly the one with the shiny disgusting globe.
Ismael Leyva's "Place 57" at 207 East 57th Street. It is the most hamfisted pathetic piece of modernist banality one can possibly imagine. No consistent module, cheap materials, sloppy corner details, ugly glass. Furthermore, Leyva is responsible for the desecration of the Sutton Theatre facade, which prevented that building's landmark designation and hence paved the way for its demolition and replacement.
My vote is for Independence Plaza North, the three towers over BMCC in Tribeca. What an eye sore.
Any residential tower along Queens Boulevard. You want an ugly tower? All you gotta do is cross the river. As for Manhattan- CCNY's North Academic Center is a contender for top ugliness.
Beacon Tower in DUMBO...no question
Nobody called out One Penn Plaza yet?
Maybe i'm the only 1 Penn hater... or maybe MSG steals its fire. Sorta like girls who choose fat friends so they look better.
The ugliest building...its a tie between the main FIT building and the CCNY Sciences building. The common denominator is that their both crumbling concrete monstrosities built by the misguided educational institutions.
new york city projects are THE most hideous objects known to man.
end of story.
Port Authority is the worst, even though i lost my virginity there once.
One Union Square South....
The one with the feces wall with smoke coming out of it....mixed with brick and glass....with 7 floors of plastic encased nothingness...plus an 80's style tacky rental above it....
the most vulgar mix of tacky, dreadful, rotten taste.....YUK! And all on beautiful Union Square: So where was the Landmarks Commission when it was really needed??
In the eye of the beholder indeed. The building at Two Columbus Circle was one of the ugliest buildings in New York. We shall see if the reworking for the new home of the Design Museum is an improvement, though it's hard to imagine that they could do worse than that E. D. Stone tombstone.
hp you lost your virginity in port authority gross
the pan am building doesnt ruin the view down park... it IS the view down park. moments like that where things interupt the grid are special and interesting. plus that building is well made compared to the cheap celophane looking crap going up in most of the city. those are so ubiquitous that its impossible to sort through them all and choose the ugliest. new york architecture is so very rarely about anything except making a fast buck, that i am forced to look wistfully at anything that has ANY sort of design consideration. anything that isnt a wierd square with bay windows stuck on, extruded to 35 floors and covered in faux-brick looks like a freaking masterpiece.
I like stuyvesant town. Ugly: Sculpture for living 'cause it tears up the neigborhood. Also Time Warner Colombus Circle. It's like a bad dream. There are a lot of ugly buildings in NYC, but slamming the projects doesn't cut it. Ugliness from an architectural standpoint needs to have intention behind it. The projects, just because nobody cared to make them look like anything aren't as UGLY as what some ego-driven prick foists upon our collective sightlines. But who knows? Maybe someday Sculpture For Living will seem quaint and charming.
The Avalon Chrystie--hideous as a building and as a whole new category of rock-bottom cheap, prefab developer blight that's metastizing in Manhattan. We're a world city dammit, let's show some civic pride instead of pure greed for a nanosecond and build something with architectural merit.
well, I know its not in manhattan, but the schaeffer landing in williamsburg is a gastly sight. And, oh, that "cartoon" light display that comes alive at night on the water facing facade of the building. I mean, its march already, take down the trashy "xmas" display. Or wait, is that meant to be [cringe]classy? Pah!
The most hideous thing about ST: the lobbies. Low ceilings, little natural light. Rest of the place is quite nice for WW2 era "projects". Other than Pan Am bldg; the NYU dorms on Bleeker, from LaGuardia to Mercer. Completely ruined the thorouhfare. Creepy at night. Also the GM building for ruining the east side of 5/59st.
Schaffer landing aka star wars building gets my vote.
visual pollution anyone?
#1. Weston Times Square
A pure watered down architectural ugly abortion.
BUT
it's soon to be eclipsed by the William Gerbil, I mean, Willaim Beaver House.
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