October 2018 | Eyesore

Commentary on architectural blunders in monthly serial.

Behold the proposal for Boston University’s new Data Sciences Center (corporate naming rights TBD). Seventeen stories of stacked boxes — meant to signify a pile of books, according to the BU Public Relations office — it will be the tallest structure on the campus. Well, yahoo for that. Otherwise, it presents nothing but blank facades to Commonwealth Avenue, symbolically perfect, since it reveals the emptiness of our high-tech hopes and dreams. The building also epitomize’s Higher Ed’s march to bankruptcy, having transformed itself into a mendacious racket. Remember, societies and institutions build their grandest monuments to themselves just prior to collapse.

Thanks to Earl Hoyt for the nomination!