# If you had to pick JUST ONE building in your city to demolish, which would it be?



## Suburbanist (Dec 25, 2009)

All cities have lame/old/derelict/obsolete/outdated buildings that different people might want to get rid of by demolishing them entirely.

If you had to pick *just one* building in your city to be demolished, which would it be?

Post a Google Street View link or image of your pick.


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## Highcliff (May 4, 2006)

julia cristianini building in são paulo....








http://www.saopauloantiga.com.br/julia-cristianini/

https://maps.google.com.br/maps?q=s...60&bih=604&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=pt-PT&sa=N&tab=wl


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## alexandru.mircea (May 18, 2011)

The House of Parliament in Bucharest


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## AlejandroBozzo (Apr 13, 2013)

It's lame and horrible


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## isaidso (Mar 21, 2007)

*TORONTO:*

Definitely this one. It's basically a 30 floor high wall 500 feet wide on our waterfront. Not only does it look bad, but it dissects our waterfront in half. You have to walk around it, and not on the side with the water.

*Harbour Square: the one on the left is also part of the complex and fans out in the other direction*


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## socrates#1fan (Jul 1, 2008)

Just one building?










This horrid cardboard hotel built in the center of downtown!


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## desertpunk (Oct 12, 2009)

The Plaza Del Sol:


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## bozenBDJ (Jul 18, 2012)

The Kindergarden _infront/directly North _of my computer desk & house. http://www.skyscrapercity.com/images/smilies/wink.gif


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## Mojeda101 (Mar 20, 2011)

Wedbush tower. Call me crazy. I just don't like it. It's too..Different than all the other towers in the immediate Downtown area. If not, I'd go for 845 Figueroa. I HATE it. A tower should be on that location. What a waste of a spot.


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## poshbakerloo (Jan 16, 2007)

socrates#1fan said:


> Just one building?
> 
> 
> 
> ...


If that is the worst building then you much live in a very nice place haha


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## Dahlis (Aug 29, 2008)

Ironically its the Stockholms architecture college.


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## Ribarca (Jan 28, 2005)

Nice thread.

I would knock down the Stopera in Amsterdam (including the city hall). It destroys the historical face of the city in my view.


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## Ribarca (Jan 28, 2005)

Highcliff said:


> julia cristianini building in são paulo....
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Awesome! Looks like Hong Kong.


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## VITORIA MAN (Jan 31, 2013)

the building behind ( madrid )


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## CNB30 (Jun 4, 2012)

probably this hideous "colonial" 50s structure on Gambles hill, which takes up so much space next to the skyline


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## ThatOneGuy (Jan 13, 2012)

This unfinished abandoned junk and the antenna tower behind it. Ruins the view of the waterfront.


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## veresk (Dec 19, 2012)

This one! A present from the Soviet time, It's not even entirely built..
Kaliningrad, Russia


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## Galro (Aug 9, 2010)

*Oslo, Norway*

The government building:









http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/iriks/article4197549.ece

Sadly it is protected like everything ugly and gray in this city. hno:

I wish they instead had finished the original Art Nouveau building that was planned for the site:


















But only one wing was ever completed: 








http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Finansdepartementet.jpg

At streetview:
https://maps.google.com/maps?q=Aker...s_d2Rhy5PZQnElMd0PC88Q&cbp=12,140.88,,0,-8.39


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## the spliff fairy (Oct 21, 2002)

I love the Oslo govt building. It was the first (and only) brutalist building I genuinely like. The dimensions are superb.

(ignore the red arrow)









What struck me was the fine balance between the elegant slab shape/ tall windows offset by the weighty pale coffee colour of the concrete. Normally Id go for a paint-it-white approach to brutalism, but this was perfect. It didn't look dirty or menacing as exposed concrete normally does, but clean/ yet with gravitas. I wish better pics existed on the net, from an angle.


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## the spliff fairy (Oct 21, 2002)

For London, the Sea Containers House. A fine balance between bland brutalism and tacky pomo. And it's huge, right on the riverfront. I wish a meteorite would hit it:


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## Galro (Aug 9, 2010)

the spliff fairy said:


> What struck me was the fine balance between the elegant slab shape/ tall windows offset by the weighty pale coffee colour of the concrete. Normally Id go for a paint-it-white approach to brutalism, but this was perfect. It didn't look dirty or menacing as exposed concrete normally does, but clean/ yet with gravitas. I wish better pics existed on the net, from an angle.


Well it surely looks dirty and menacing from the public square next to it:








(Yes, that is supposed to be a public square.)

But the worst part of the complex is that it completely breaks with the urban fabric and have therefore divided the whole city. The area below the govt complex is almost a ghetto. You can see for yourself in streetview: 
https://maps.google.no/maps?q=Akers...=jN_D04cF3lLByzNfknuOmg&cbp=12,148.27,,0,5.19

But it don't really matter, as it is protected as mentioned ... Just like all other buildings that ruin the city.


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## the spliff fairy (Oct 21, 2002)

Ew, that part needs to go. But keep the slab imo.


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## Singidunum (Jul 25, 2004)

Telekom Serbia switchboard. Someone thought it would be a great idea to build this ugly monster at the highest spot in the city so you can see it from everywhere.


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## CNB30 (Jun 4, 2012)

Singidunum said:


> Telekom Serbia switchboard. Someone thought it would be a great idea to build this ugly monster at the highest spot in the city so you can see it from everywhere.


uke:


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## NorthaBmore (Jul 17, 2008)

This condo, ironically named the penthouse


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## mpeculea (Jan 7, 2013)

The Parliament Palace (or people's house as it was called originally) just looks like a huge (or better said over-sized) prison and is an affront to Romanian history and architecture.

Please take this post as it is meant; just a personal opinion.


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## italystf (Aug 2, 2011)

The apartment complex "Rozzol Melara" in Trieste, inaugurated in 1979, it's a real eyesore that spoils the landscape. It was supposed to be a "copy" of the famous "Unitè d'Habitation", built in Marseille by Le Courbusier after WWII. It contains 468 apartments.
The project didn't have a good luck. While, fortunately, it didn't become a dangerous ghetto (Trieste is a pretty safe city in general), it's inhabitated mostly by immigrants and poor people with no education and permanent jobs. There are graffiti everywhere and many residents toss their trash out of their windows. Ugly places like this rarely become gentrified.


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## Paperyostrich (Aug 20, 2011)

Avon House, Salisbury, right slap-bang in the middle of a historic city centre :bash:


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## Galro (Aug 9, 2010)

italystf said:


>


That's awful. And in such a nice city too. Is it protected or can it still be pulled down?


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## italystf (Aug 2, 2011)

Galro said:


> That's awful. And in such a nice city too. Is it protected or can it still be pulled down?


I don't think it's protected, but it isn't easy (and cheap) to tear it down since it's home of roughly 1,500 people. Moreover, it's very far away from the historical centre and it don't bring much social problems (it's not a real slum with rundown buildings and massive criminal presence) so authorities don't feel the need to remove it, they only renovate it when it's necessary.


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## Tom 958 (Apr 24, 2007)

The DeKalb County (Georgia) Jail:


















It's not so much that it's hideous as that it's at a way-too-visible location. I remember...

When it was under construction in the late '80's, I was driving down Memorial Drive, and as I rounded a bend, I saw four majestic white tower cranes rising in the distance, with Memorial Drive headed straight toward them like a monumental avenue. My heart soared.  Then I realized... as spectacular as it looked then, that's how depressing it would be when it was completed. hno:

To add injury to insult, there's a MARTA station nearby, and of course there were plans (or, at least, hopes and dreams) for some nicer development there. No way that'll happen now though, as long as the suburban Bastille is there.


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## bozenBDJ (Jul 18, 2012)

Singidunum said:


> Telekom Serbia switchboard. Someone thought it would be a great idea to build this ugly monster at the highest spot in the city so you can see it from everywhere.


:bash::bash: Looks like it's construction isn't finished yet hno:


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## GM (Feb 29, 2004)

italystf said:


> The apartment complex "Rozzol Melara" in Trieste, inaugurated in 1979, it's a real eyesore that spoils the landscape. It was supposed to be a "copy" of the famous "Unitè d'Habitation", built in Marseille by Le Courbusier after WWII. It contains 468 apartments.
> The project didn't have a good luck. While, fortunately, it didn't become a dangerous ghetto (Trieste is a pretty safe city in general), it's inhabitated mostly by immigrants and poor people with no education and permanent jobs. There are graffiti everywhere and many residents toss their trash out of their windows. Ugly places like this rarely become gentrified.


I love it.


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## Tom 958 (Apr 24, 2007)

Google Streetview-- inside the Rozzol Melara complex: http://goo.gl/maps/QsrVH

I agree that it's handsome architecturally. I also agree that it probably shouldn't have been built-- it's just too frickin' big, and by the late '70's it was already known that such complexes were at high risk for becoming slums. That said, though, it seems to be in good repair. I don't see any grafitti or garbage, and the concrete facade looks good. The adjoining neighborhoods still look really nice, too. There's a big hospital nearby-- I'd expect that a good many lower-wage hospital workers live there.


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## OtAkAw (Aug 5, 2004)

There are so many buildings I wish to be obliterated in Metro Manila because bad architecture is everywhere but this unfinished building along Ayala Avenue is the worst.

Its construction was victimized by the 1997 Asian financial crisis and the "building" has stayed this way since then. 


monument to jpe by The PZA, on Flickr

The huge eyesore with protruding blue steel bars:


Makati's Buildings by angrylittleboy, on Flickr


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## Morrov555 (May 6, 2013)

GOLDEN SHOVEL 
There's a lot of buildings in my city that are just ugly, but this one is just awful...
https://www.google.pl/maps/@54.4082...ata=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sCN0huFxlnlrpntk5er9P9g!2e0








(quite outdated photo)


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## adevahi (Nov 4, 2012)

People who don't know Sevilla won't agree with that, but me and lot of more people would demolish this post-modern and useless building situated in the same square of a XVI century big church, very close of a pantheon for historical people of the city, right over a 2000 years old roman ruins.... and with a private owner despite it cost 120€ million paid by the city hall.
The natal house of Velazquez, two more churches (from XIV and XVIII century) and a palace are also at less than 3 minutes walking from there

The building is good looking, and it become a new cultural reason for visiting Sevilla, but it was situated in the worst place ever thought for something like that.


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## alexandru.mircea (May 18, 2011)

^I suspect plenty of Sevillans would also disagree with you, not just strangers.


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## BriedisUnIzlietne (Dec 16, 2012)

In my city there are plenty of choices. Many which at first seem good candidates are old Soviet towers "the Silo" and "Press house", which could actually even look good after a simple reconstruction. A good example for this was the hotel "Latvija" which was changed from this to this. So it's better to choose something which can't be fixed by a reconstruction. Something which is simply awful. And, looking at the Rīga's ugliest building TOP10, I realized that the best building to demolish actually is the #1 on that list. It is the 2003 "Triangula bastions" shopping center. Built on the city's riverside, it blocks the view to the "Doma" church tower and the historic city center, it doesn't look particularly interesting nor pretty, nor in the right place.
https://www.google.lv/maps/@56.9477...m4!1e1!3m2!1sG_dfc8hhRIlPzGBTz7IJzg!2e0?hl=lv


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## adevahi (Nov 4, 2012)

alexandru.mircea said:


> ^I suspect plenty of Sevillans would also disagree with you, not just strangers.


No, sorry, not plenty. The major of Sevilla between 1999-2011 lost the elections in 2011 by a lot of difference and building this was one of the main reasons.

The people in the city is 50-50 in the two opinions: hating it or loving it.

If the people reading this think that I'm manipulating, I have no problem with that, I'll simply put some links (in spanish) showing that it was (and still is) very polemic, the last link includes the opinion (against the building) of the only spanish architect winner of a pritzker (Rafael Moneo). He literally says:

_“I don't understand, it makes me angry knowing that something like that is being done in a city that always has respect a lot the historical center“. 
"This couldn't be expected, in the worst sense of the word" "Sevilla doesn't have to be following the fashion of the moment"._

http://elblogdefarina.blogspot.com.es/2012/05/sevilla-unas-setas-se-comen-la.html (opinion in a blog, very completed)

http://www.diariodesevilla.es/article/sevilla/875889/critica/despilfarro/las/setas.html (new in a newspaper about the demostrations of people who didn't want a building like this one)

http://quedearte.blogspot.com.es/2011/03/las-setas-de-la-encarnacion.html a blogger who agrees with this building despite he accepts the controversial facts of it. He compares this building with the Eiffel Tower, which was very polemic in the XIX century and, obviously, the parisians were in their right to claim against a iron-black structure of 300 meters tall right next to the river. I hope in the future "Las Setas" can become an icon like this tower, improving the fame of my city, but I can dislike them, there are to many reasons for this.

And now the opinion of a expert in architecture and also someone who knows Sevilla pretty good: Moneo
http://granadablogs.com/gr-arquitec...de-la-encarnacion-de-proyecto-incomprensible/


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## Manila-X (Jul 28, 2005)

Tear that tower down!!!


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## ssiguy2 (Feb 19, 2005)

pdxor said:


> The Portland Building.


That thing is an abomination.


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## WonderlandPark (Sep 9, 2007)

dösanhoro said:


> It is not one single building but a development. Sure there are more ugly noticeable buildings and really drab surroundings in Helsinki.
> 
> But this development takes the cake. Prime location and among the most expensive locations in the city .
> Eiranranta
> ...


That would be considered a nice building of high quality in Los Angeles

We get absolute JUNK like this (Which I nominate to tear down, ugliest building in LA)


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## Fro7en (May 23, 2015)

WonderlandPark said:


> That would be considered a nice building of high quality in Los Angeles
> 
> We get absolute JUNK like this (Which I nominate to tear down, ugliest building in LA)


That looks like an 80s "modern" building lol


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## Eric Offereins (Jan 1, 2004)

dösanhoro said:


> It is not one single building but a development. Sure there are more ugly noticeable buildings and really drab surroundings in Helsinki.
> 
> But this development takes the cake. Prime location and among the most expensive locations in the city .
> Eiranranta
> ...


Not that bad, but a crappy colour scheme.
Why is that chimney still there?


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## Buffaboy (Nov 20, 2012)

Adam's Mark Hotel (and surroundings), Buffalo, NY:










This is actually supposed to be lakefront property in a way. A mid- or high-rise building/complex would actually suit it if you looked at the area geometry on Google Maps.


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## mstem58 (Sep 22, 2012)

In Buffalo NY? I would have to say hands down the convention center.
one urban block of concrete wall, not to mention destroying the city street grid.


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## Slartibartfas (Aug 15, 2006)

dösanhoro said:


> Cheapskate buildings and it does not fit the surroundings at all.


Come on, this is a fairly decent building (complex) and I know there are tons of buildings in Helsinki which are way harder to the eye.


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