Featured Eyesore of the Month

Support this blog by visiting Jim’s Patreon Page

---

Behold the new world headquarters for the Danish clothing firm Bestseller in the tiny town of Brande (pop. 7,000): set to be the tallest building in Europe. What a breathtakingly stupid idea! I suppose they think it will minimize the human footprint on the terrain. Wrong. (Typical “gadget green” fallacy.) It only distorts that footprint by stacking too many people in a vertical box that will have no capacity for adaptive re-use when Bestseller’s best days are over. It will be visible from 40 miles away on Denmark’s pancake-flat landscape, making it impossible to escape its despotic presence. In essence, the project is a half-assed update of LeCorbusier’s idiotic Ville Radieuse — the original “towers-in-a-park” fiasco that ended up being the model for America’s ghastly public housing “projects.” Thanks to many who nominated this latest exercise in techno-narcissism.

---

Support this blog by visiting Jim’s Patreon Page

Support this blog by visiting Jim’s Patreon Page Behold the new world headquarters for the Danish clothing firm Bestseller in the tiny town of Brande (pop. 7,000): set to be the tallest building in Europe. What a breathtakingly stupid idea! I suppose they think it will minimize the human footprint on the terrain. Wrong. (Typical “gadget more »

Support this blog by visiting Jim’s Patreon Page Behold, the new $100,000-per-night hotel suite at The Palms resort in Las Vegas, featuring artworks by the international art-and-design maestro Damien Hirst, plus design motifs by same to liven up the despondency-inducing gray color scheme and the nausea-inducing view of a city that is composed of at least more »

Support this blog by visiting Jim’s Patreon Page Behold the Burj al Babas, a $200 million ensemble of wannabe French castles in the Turkish town of Mudurnu, about 150 miles east of Istanbul. The castle-ettes are all empty. (No cassoulet for you!) The project, by a money-laundering outfit, called the Sarot Group pulled the plug on more »

Support this blog by visiting Jim’s Patreon Page Behold, the new San Diego Superior Court tombstone… er, light box… er, hydroponic grow station… er, Pez dispenser (remember them?)?  Nominator Joshua Hardgrove says: “It ironically consolidates San Diego County’s criminal trial, family, and civil courts into a 25-story monstrosity. Bringing all your problems into one central location, more »

Support this blog by visiting Jim’s Patreon Page Behold London’s latest shwingin’ skyscraper, the proposed “Tulip” designed by starchitect Norman Foster as a companion for the already-built “Gherkin” and “The Shard.” London has decided to make itself a freak show city in these waning days of techno-industrial narcissmo. Obviously, the Tulip’s slender stem does not allow more »

Support this blog by visiting Jim’s Patreon Page Behold, the zippy new sidewalk treatment in downtown Austin, Texas, outside a corporate parking lot that is empty much of the day. Since there will never be any human pedestrians here to liven up the scene, the zig-zag pavement will have to provide all the excitement. (I get a more »

Support this blog by visiting Jim’s Patreon Page 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. more »

Behold the new SanFrancisco Transit Hub fully loaded with “geek green” tech and LEED bullshit, as befits Internet Narcissism Central. It’s actually officially named the “Salesforce Transit Center” for the company that bought the naming rights (no advertising or PR niche can remain unoccupied!). The 5.5 acre “park” on the roof is a disaster-in-the-making (“green” more »

Support this blog by visiting Jim’s Patreon Page Behold, proposed apartment tower / water feature from the drawing boards (actually, the CAD studios) of China. Further proof that whatever might be done , will be done, no matter how fucking stupid. The list of things that might go wrong with this scheme is too long to more »

Support this blog by visiting Jim’s Patreon Page Behold the new Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, by architect Steven Holl (multiple winner at EOTM!). Whatcha got here: ever a new way to present blank walls to the street. Along with new ways for designing large structured masses to feel like they more »