Tuesday 24 November 2009

Ugly old Beehive

New Zealand's Parliament Building has been named the third ugliest building in the world by tourism website VirtualTourist.com, which describes the Beehive as a "a slide projector that fell on a wedding cake that fell on a waterwheel" – a process, to be honest, that would probably provide a more attractive outcome.

 Says the Herald, where you can vote (or at least comment) on its ugliness:

    “The Morris A. Mechanic Theatre in Baltimore, Maryland was deemed the ugliest building, with VirtualTourist editors decrying its "grim, impersonal façade," while the Zizkov Television Tower in Prague was named second-ugliest building.
    “Others to make the list were Paris' Pompidou Centre, Toronto's Royal Ontario Museum and Melbourne's Federation Square.”

Shite-In-Toronto I confess to a quiet affection for the Pompidou Centre, but the others are deserving candidates all: perfect examples of the collision of politics and architecture.  (Federation Square might make the top just on dollars-spent-per-branch that it hit while falling out of the ugly tree.)

And while there’s stiff competition – that’s the museum on the right, by the way, that must make residents of Toronto glad that it’s too cold there to go out on the streets for six months at a time – the Ryugyong Hotel in Pyongyang, North Korea only makes number ten this year, a remarkably poor performance for what some would consider a deserving champion.

Meanwhile, we can but dream about the most deserving fate for Wellington’s wedding cake:

 

Don’t you think it looks far more attractive as a ruin? And just think what we could save if it were brought about this week?

6 comments:

LGM said...

It'd look better yet with dead bodies of MPs hanging from the structure and scattered around the pond there.

Yup.

That'd be the ticket.

LGM

Shane Pleasance said...

I blow hot and cold about the design of the Pompidou in Paris. Richard Rogers also designed the building in which my favourite Hi-FI systems are manufactured, Linn Products.

Shane Pleasance said...

Actually, the burnt edifice of the 'hive reminds me a little of an amphitheater. Perhaps we could see off the MP's as they take each other on in the arena?

bk drinkwater said...

I often wondered if that might not be an alternative to this whole "democracy" thing that everyone keeps going on about: on each issue, each side/party/team/interest-group picks a champion, and policy is determined by a fight to the death, broadcast live.

Shane Pleasance said...

Well BK, I think of a fashion, that IS what happens now.

Sir Arthur Streeb-Greebling said...

Did a UFO crash into that museum? What is that?