Gothamist: Gothamist's Picks for Ugliest Buildings

jeff

Fri, 02 Mar 2007 23:47:20 -0500

The Verizon bldg, bar none, is the ugliest monstrosity in the city.

Roberto

Fri, 02 Mar 2007 21:45:39 -0500

What is that cinderblock looking building in Columbus Circle? No windows, ugly, ugly, ugly. I think the museum of modern design bought it and is fixing it up.

Frankenstein

Fri, 02 Mar 2007 11:10:26 -0500

450 W. 33rd St. Looks like it was designed to withstand a nuclear blast, and it's just plain fugly.

Joclyn

Thu, 01 Mar 2007 21:17:00 -0500

Don't leave off the hideous houses that have taken over Manhattan Beach, and Ocean Parkway, and Avenue S... Those houses look like they should have a bottle of champagne smacked on the front of them.

pizza delivery

Thu, 01 Mar 2007 16:47:06 -0500

feels exactly like a hotel inside too

Roark

Thu, 01 Mar 2007 16:26:37 -0500

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.

Tobias

Thu, 01 Mar 2007 15:35:49 -0500

I'd put the Westin Times Square at the top of the list. It's the 45-story mess of turquoise and brown on 8th Avenue, between 42nd and 43rd Streets. You'd think it's a sad remnant of the seventies, but it opened in 2002.

Mid-C Frank

Thu, 01 Mar 2007 15:31:26 -0500

Andrew -- 70's???? Penn Station went down in 63!

andrew

Thu, 01 Mar 2007 15:23:57 -0500

The Socony-Mobil building's not ugly at all. It just has the misfortune of being located across the street from the Chrysler building, which is pretty much the most attractive skyscraper in the world. The 70s were a really bad time for architecture. I can't imagine the though processes that went into demolishing the old Penn Station and building MSG on top of it. "Oh look! This looks SO much better!" I'll take Beaux-Arts over modernism any day.

thenextstopwillbe

Thu, 01 Mar 2007 14:45:35 -0500

shouldn't that be "Every other building their is a mess" if jen chung said it? sorry, i couldn't resist.

MT

Thu, 01 Mar 2007 14:08:13 -0500

If you want to see the ugliest buildings in New York just go to Staten Island and check out some of the McMansions and those wretched excuses for townhouses. They are without a doubt the ugliest contraptions ever built.

wirc

Thu, 01 Mar 2007 14:08:06 -0500

3 Park avenue is ugly as hell on the bottom, but after the 1th floor, I actually like it. The color of the brick is cool too.

delanie

Thu, 01 Mar 2007 14:00:07 -0500

I didn't think 3 Park was so bad... I used to work in there. The elevators were sorta scary, but I don't think it's so hideously ugly.

bd

Thu, 01 Mar 2007 13:54:54 -0500

WHY IS THE MCGRAW HILL BUILDING MISSING FROM THIS LIST? UGLY ASS BUILDING

frenchie

Thu, 01 Mar 2007 13:52:42 -0500

Françoise is a woman's name- if she were a man her name would be François...

mihow

Thu, 01 Mar 2007 13:50:02 -0500

I can see that Verizon building (and its hideous logo) from my bed when I got to sleep at night. It's not that I have a great view or anything, it's that that building is so huge and that logo is so massive, you can't miss it. I hate that building. I second Beth's sentiment.

Tim N.

Thu, 01 Mar 2007 13:40:26 -0500

I think you hit on it with Penn Station and the whole Penn Plaza/MSG complex. I work in it and walk through it every day and it looks like it was put together with absolutely no thougth whatsoever. I've seen malls with more soul. And I will add the 100 Centre Street courthouse to the list. The Brooklyn courthouse you mentioned is the Capitol Rotunda compared to that building. But I have to stand up for the Pan Am/Met Life building. To me, it's always been somewhat iconic... Guess it is all in the eye of the beholder...

Patrick

Thu, 01 Mar 2007 13:33:07 -0500

Wow, I'm shocked you didn't include the Westin in Midtown. It is hands down the ugliest building in Manhattan. For christ sakes, The New Yorker even ran a piece to that effect.

beth

Thu, 01 Mar 2007 13:26:24 -0500

The Verizon building by the Brooklyn Bridge!!! It absolutely devastates views from and of the bridge.

wow?

Thu, 01 Mar 2007 13:21:06 -0500

Yes the Hearst Building Abortion is by far the ugliest building in manhattan!