Comments on: Eyesore of the Month

Eyesore of the Month

kirkaracha — Mon, 09 Jun 2003 10:04:16 -0800

Eyesore of the Month is a monthly look at architectural monstrosities. Sample critique: "A total lack of skill meets a total rejection of history. The result: all the charm of a packing crate and none of the structural integrity." [via Good Experience]

By: kirkaracha

kirkaracha — Mon, 09 Jun 2003 10:09:30 -0800

They're all pretty funny, but the "Batman building" is especially good, and this corner store is wonderful, featuring a mural that's "a vision of amazing weirdness" and a giant American flag that "helps us remember what country we're in."

By: vito90

vito90 — Mon, 09 Jun 2003 10:24:11 -0800

Ooh. I've got one for them. There's a restaurant in Seattle, in Wallingford on 45th that looks like you'd need reservations and a sports coat to get in. The exterior is all mirrored glass and the building is beautiful and modern. Then you crest the hill and see the sign identifying the business. Taco Time.

By: witchstone

witchstone — Mon, 09 Jun 2003 10:43:25 -0800

His commentary is fantastic! "Few Americans realize that America had its own Soviet era, seen here in the Low Common Denominator Modernism so popular in the late 20th century."

By: wigu

wigu — Mon, 09 Jun 2003 10:45:42 -0800

Criticism from someone whose discerning sense of aesthetics compensates for an embarassing lack of skill at digital photography.

By: zaack

zaack — Mon, 09 Jun 2003 11:17:30 -0800

This guy must be tons of laughs at a party... "These warmed over appetizers truly symbolize the lack of thought America puts in to parties nowadays and undoubtedly will lead directly to our destruction at the hands of invaders. Most of us, of course, will welcome the take over as we could not handle one more mingy bacon and cheese potato wedge without screaming out for the sweet night of death."

By: drobot

drobot — Mon, 09 Jun 2003 11:24:26 -0800

The rest of his website is an eyesore, but yes, these are pretty funny. I like when he makes fun of the fat person.

By: Cerebus

Cerebus — Mon, 09 Jun 2003 11:39:37 -0800

A local eyesore. Looks like a turtle kipping on its back. Or like a bloated dead cow, slain by anthrax.

By: briank

briank — Mon, 09 Jun 2003 11:47:17 -0800

If he dislikes Saratoga Springs so damn much, why doesn't he move?

By: bclark

bclark — Mon, 09 Jun 2003 11:48:30 -0800

My favorite in there was this critique: "In a perfect world its function would be a poodle euthenasia center."

By: a3matrix

a3matrix — Mon, 09 Jun 2003 12:14:12 -0800

Well, he certainly likes to criticize a lot of biuldings, people too for that matter. I am curious to see what the opposite of the eyesore of the month list looks like, but I find searching his site is causing a severe feeling of nasuea. If he dislikes Saratoga Springs so damn much, why doesn't he move? Good question. He probably doesn't hate it. There is more to the area than what he deems as an eyesore. Maybe he should focus on the building he likes, might make him a happier person.

By: kindall

kindall — Mon, 09 Jun 2003 12:22:21 -0800

The TITLE on all these pages proclaims James Howard Kunstler to be the Eyesore of the Month, yet the pictures are of buildings. What's up with that?

By: stbalbach

stbalbach — Mon, 09 Jun 2003 12:23:40 -0800

Did the mother ship from "Independence Day" land in Boston and get a brick veneer skin job? Is it possible to contemplate walking past this thing without a ten mg dose of xanax?

By: Pollomacho

Pollomacho — Mon, 09 Jun 2003 12:58:28 -0800

They're all pretty funny, but the "Batman building" is especially good When I lived in Nash-vegas we referred to it as the "Batmobuilding", one of my friends used to make a "hook 'em horns"/p-funk hand gesture when ever we talked about how insane it looked and would quote from the Breakfast Club: "you fuck with the bull, you get the horns!"

By: blissbat

blissbat — Mon, 09 Jun 2003 13:44:34 -0800

Excellent link. Ugly buildings are life-sapping.

By: Dick Paris

Dick Paris — Mon, 09 Jun 2003 13:49:14 -0800

It's funny. As an architect and amateur urbanist I enjoyed reading the Geography of Nowhere but if I had come across this web site first, I don't think I ever would have picked up the book. While I enjoy a number of the "eyesore of the month" comments and agree with most of them, the whole thing smacks too much of bitter old man with nothing positive to offer. Wait a sec... I must be talking about myself. But thanks for the link Mr Kirk!

By: coelecanth

coelecanth — Mon, 09 Jun 2003 14:03:24 -0800

A site for sore eyes! I really liked his critique of the horse painting.

By: paddbear

paddbear — Mon, 09 Jun 2003 14:20:47 -0800

He uses the word "mingy" too much.

By: kavasa

kavasa — Mon, 09 Jun 2003 15:51:13 -0800

I'll ditto the "oh look another self-absorbed, hypercritical, omniloathing 20-something spitting on everything within five feet" sentiment. I mean sure they're generally ugly buildings (when he's actually talking about buildings), but it seems clear that there's very little this man considers worthy of his illustrious review. The commentary on the mural was just silly, and his main point seemed to be that it was just putting a bunch of things the plebes consider to be lovely in one picture. And maybe it is, but (again) it seems like he's more got a problem with "oh look another Average American who likes horses, lakes and sunsets." One last example: "One imagines a dark warren of off-gassing carpets, empty pizza boxes, and a cat box that hasn't been changed in a month and a half." I really think his poison and vitriol are more for the people than for the architecture. To fuck the man with his own penis, I find the attitude nauseatingly common, and his incessant use of five-dollar words just makes it worse: one imagines a sad, pallid man, alone in his apartment, Djarum blacks smoldering in the ashtray while he masturbates uncomfortably in his black turtleneck.

By: y2karl

y2karl — Mon, 09 Jun 2003 15:53:35 -0800

Sometimes it's appropriate, even patriotic, to be ashamed of your country.

By: 11235813

11235813 — Mon, 09 Jun 2003 15:56:43 -0800

awesome link, kirkaracha related book i recently read: suburban nation (further well-deserved indictment of the automobile and the failure of planning in the USA)

By: kavasa

kavasa — Mon, 09 Jun 2003 15:57:41 -0800

And furthermore in re: the mural, you can't win! You either sit in your house and try to watch TV, for which he'll hate you. Or you work for WalMart (which has ruined local economies, so he'll hate you). Or you run your own little local store and try to make it more attractive (using your unrefined aesthetic for which, of course, he'll hate you). Man, whatever.

By: bobo123

bobo123 — Mon, 09 Jun 2003 17:01:10 -0800

Pretty soon he can add the OCAD extension, though it is a pretty good use of space.

By: tss

tss — Mon, 09 Jun 2003 18:22:33 -0800

Wow, that's the biggest suspended loaf of scrapple I've ever seen!

By: emmling

emmling — Mon, 09 Jun 2003 19:21:59 -0800

There's also "The Pride of UW".

By: dg

dg — Mon, 09 Jun 2003 19:50:08 -0800

In Brisbane, we have our own version of this. Say what you will, at least it makes a break in the skyline and is a pleasant change from the otherwise boring square-edged, flat-topped roofs everywhere else. The building ended up looking like this as part of a refurbishment project and was deliberately designed to be gotham-esque.

By: zaack

zaack — Mon, 09 Jun 2003 20:30:04 -0800

Except, kavasa, if you look at the rest of his site it appears he is a 60ish, possibly married man. I don't know if that makes it worse or not.

By: kirkaracha

kirkaracha — Mon, 09 Jun 2003 21:49:48 -0800

emming: Sieg Hall?!? Really? 'Cause that's almost as bad as Bay Areans.

By: Dick Paris

Dick Paris — Mon, 09 Jun 2003 22:30:15 -0800

Mmmm. Scrapple. After looking through all of the months, what strikes me as the saddest thing of all is that these examples are not rare in Amerika. Spending most of my time in France, I do have the occasional same view of ugliness but, in general, the built environment is much less objectionable. Not always beautiful -- something about it just works. There's a certain pleasant background that makes the big and little ugly bits a little less ugly. What's interesting about this, which Kunstler does touch upon in his rants, is that it is more of an urban problem than an architecture problem.

By: Bag Man

Bag Man — Tue, 10 Jun 2003 18:10:20 -0800

The real mothership...

By: Bag Man

Bag Man — Tue, 10 Jun 2003 18:14:47 -0800

The mothership on a good day, but sun only make reveals it to be more ugly.