Ugliest Building In Fort Worth – The Open Thread
February 4, 2009 at 11:11 am | General |
I did a post a while back about what I thought was the ugliest building in urban Fort Worth (the “urban” qualifier is necessary, because if we were including the ‘burbs the server would probably crash from the load). For the record, I still maintain that it’s this lovely piece of failure, the Texas Workforce Commission building in Downtown:
I mean, look at that. There’s not an inch of that building that doesn’t scream “clinical depression.” That’s anti-architecture – place an attractive building too close to it, and the next thing you know Geordi will have to eject the two of them into space to prevent a warp core breach. This was the future that Brutalist architects envisioned for us, our souls weeping inside concrete boxes while we gazed out of the three-inch-wide window slits, watching Charleton Heston battle zombies. Ah, the ’70s!
Honorable mention must go to the Big Slab, the mother of all Fort Worth architectural mistakes, the building that single-handedly redefines “tallest building in the city” into a phrase of despair: Burnett Plaza.
On one side, it’s a graceless rip-off of 500 West 7th, which itself is a less-charming devolution of Lever House. On the other side, it’s what happens when Brutalists get high while hanging out with Post-Modernists. The zigzag makes it all better!
I have to imagine that that’s what Le Corbusier saw when he had fever dreams.
So, yeah, my choices for “ugliest building in the city” are pretty well known. What about yours? Sound off! Have fun! Nobody will judge you here, unless they do. Keep it civil, at least towards other commenters. The buildings, well…some of ‘em have it coming.
I’ve now moved the reader suggestions to after the jump.
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EDIT: Here’s a couple of suggestions from the comments that I have to agree with. The bank building at University & Berry:
The Star-Telegram annex in Downtown:
EDIT: More worthy submissions. City Hall:
The AT&T Building:
The Hilton Annex:
The Medical Arts Building at 8th & Magnolia – bonus points for sullying the good name of the old Medical Arts Building, may she rest in peace (the old MA building was torn down to build Burnett Plaza):
The Adult Education Building at Washington & Magnolia (and believe me, it looks worse than this in real life):
Bonus points to the Adult Education Building for what we at the Fort Worthology offices call “The Tree of Despair”:
EDIT: A few more. The Tarrant County Courthouse annex, which gets double points for starting life as a terrible piece of Modernism before being turned into a terrible piece of fake traditionalism:
Cantey Hanger Plaza:
3150 McCart:
The Convention Center utility building: