Comments on: Phallic Buildings

Phallic Buildings

liam — Tue, 23 Sep 2003 12:02:36 -0800

The Most Phallic Building In The World? Cabinet Magazine collected assorted nominees, both circumcised and not. Of course, these days we prefer our erotic architecture to be user-friendly.

By: anastasiav

anastasiav — Tue, 23 Sep 2003 12:08:01 -0800

liam, thanks for posting this. You just made me spit ... well.... [nevermind] This is really alarming.

By: 40 Watt

40 Watt — Tue, 23 Sep 2003 12:10:19 -0800

I personally prefer the "Wrong Contest" entry, which my wife likes to call "The Vagina building" every time we drive past it on Lake Shore Drive.

By: mathowie

mathowie — Tue, 23 Sep 2003 12:14:24 -0800

Every state has a big tall domed building, I'm surprised none made it onto the nominees list.

By: COBRA!

COBRA! — Tue, 23 Sep 2003 12:14:43 -0800

This one's so much more impressive in person, especially when you drive into Lincoln and see it thrusting up from the prairie.

By: Ufez Jones

Ufez Jones — Tue, 23 Sep 2003 12:25:58 -0800

Glad to see they got Braniff Tower on there. University of Dallas students also refer to it as the Phallus of Dallas and the Las Colinas Penis. Great post, liam.

By: yhbc

yhbc — Tue, 23 Sep 2003 12:31:20 -0800

And what do you get when toss that Vagina Building in with all those phalli? The Pregnant Building, of course.

By: ALvard

ALvard — Tue, 23 Sep 2003 12:33:13 -0800

I did not participate in the contest, but if I had - I would have submitted Wisma 46 in Jakarta. It has a foreskin...

By: MrMoonPie

MrMoonPie — Tue, 23 Sep 2003 12:39:01 -0800

This tower, it vibrates?

By: blueshammer

blueshammer — Tue, 23 Sep 2003 12:41:13 -0800

My wife and I were stunned by the styling of this water tower we saw on our first trip to St. Louis. I'll grant that the secondary tower detracts from the overall effect, but I think its contouring is much more evocative than the winner from Ypsilanti.

By: blueshammer

blueshammer — Tue, 23 Sep 2003 12:42:07 -0800

post-preview: Yipes, ALvard. That's something else as well.

By: serafinapekkala

serafinapekkala — Tue, 23 Sep 2003 12:44:01 -0800

I visited the Nebraska state capitol a few weeks ago, and its bright red, uh, helmet is even more stunning in person.

By: sharpener

sharpener — Tue, 23 Sep 2003 12:47:20 -0800

I feel sorry for the losers of this contest. Some of them really got shafted.

By: iconomy

iconomy — Tue, 23 Sep 2003 12:51:29 -0800

Great post, liam. I'm really into penises lately. Make of that what you will.

By: nofundy

nofundy — Tue, 23 Sep 2003 12:58:36 -0800

I always thought minarets were most qualified for this prize. Didn't see a one. Do they not fit the requirements?

By: dhoyt

dhoyt — Tue, 23 Sep 2003 13:01:12 -0800

How could the list be complete without Tallahassee's cock-and-balls capitol building?

By: dnash

dnash — Tue, 23 Sep 2003 13:04:31 -0800

Sorta ironic fact about the Liberty Memorial in Kansas City nominee - the park surrounding it was a famous nightime gay cruising area, at least when I used to live in KC.

By: stonerose

stonerose — Tue, 23 Sep 2003 13:06:07 -0800

In Toronto, our most phallic structure is a circular apartment building in the gay ghetto, and is popularly referred to by the locals as Vaseline Tower.

By: Mars Saxman

Mars Saxman — Tue, 23 Sep 2003 13:16:51 -0800

I wonder how they overlooked Seattle's Key Tower? It's so obvious, and its most phallic profile is the one visible when approaching the city from the south on I-5, so you simply can't miss it.

By: Mayor Curley

Mayor Curley — Tue, 23 Sep 2003 13:30:10 -0800

Sometimes a building is just a building.

By: liam

liam — Tue, 23 Sep 2003 13:30:46 -0800

Every state has a big tall domed building, I'm surprised none made it onto the nominees list. The Nebraska & Michigan State Capitols both made the list. I'm sure they're both solid entries, but you would be right in pointing out that Texas' is taller. I don't know what to say to the person who nominated the Flatiron building.

By: da5id

da5id — Tue, 23 Sep 2003 13:32:02 -0800

I am originally from Nebraska and the local nickname for its Capitol Building was: "The Penis of the Plains"

By: britain

britain — Tue, 23 Sep 2003 13:38:21 -0800

I went to school in the shadow of the contest winner. One Halloween, a charismatic acquaintance rounded up a gang of people and lead a circle dance around it. He had convinced a number of the women to begin rubbing up against it when the party was busted by the cops. Ironically, it is said that one of the area fraternities alerted the police.

By: britain

britain — Tue, 23 Sep 2003 13:40:45 -0800

oops, "led a circle dance."

By: creamed corn

creamed corn — Tue, 23 Sep 2003 13:42:42 -0800

They didn't miss the Key Tower.

By: Eloquence

Eloquence — Tue, 23 Sep 2003 14:03:49 -0800

The most phallic building is fictional.

By: i_cola

i_cola — Tue, 23 Sep 2003 14:08:03 -0800

Does Nebraska still smell of pigs?

By: RavinDave

RavinDave — Tue, 23 Sep 2003 14:12:57 -0800

Legend has it that Papa Hemingway himself, speaking at the University of Nebraska, dubbed our state capital the "Penis of the Prairie". One of those stories that, if it isn't true -- it sure should be. (Several of our senior most English profs back in the 80's swore it's true). The voting was obviously rigged.

By: mr_crash_davis

mr_crash_davis — Tue, 23 Sep 2003 14:40:55 -0800

It'd be this one, wouldn't it?

By: mbd1mbd1

mbd1mbd1 — Tue, 23 Sep 2003 14:41:07 -0800

The butt-shaped water tower.

By: dgaicun

dgaicun — Tue, 23 Sep 2003 15:00:38 -0800

How can a contest for "the most phallic building in the world" have almost all of its entries from America and a handful of Western European nations?? There are literally thousands of superior phalli stretching from the former Byzantine empire all the way to the Pacific. What about all the free-standing minarets and swollen verticals of Islam? The bulbous domes and mighty shafts of the historic Ottoman and Russian empires?

By: Celery

Celery — Tue, 23 Sep 2003 15:10:07 -0800

There is a huge smokestack in Esslingen (in Germany) with the word DICH on it. But frankly, that's just not subtle enough.

By: eilatan

eilatan — Tue, 23 Sep 2003 16:01:50 -0800

I used to live down the street from the Nebraska State Capitol. Despite it's phallic appearance, it is a lovely building. And you can see it from pretty much anywhere in town. Oh, how I miss it.

By: pitchblende

pitchblende — Tue, 23 Sep 2003 16:43:58 -0800

dhoyt - that one was covered here.

By: jengod

jengod — Tue, 23 Sep 2003 17:02:12 -0800

Hoover Tower at Stanford not only has the red bulb at the top, but a little condom sperm reservoir.

By: dhoyt

dhoyt — Tue, 23 Sep 2003 17:40:05 -0800

Oops, thanks pitchblende. Ironically "most votes" was the only page I hadn't clicked.

By: superchicken

superchicken — Tue, 23 Sep 2003 19:17:44 -0800

I'm surprised that San Onofre wasn't the wrong contest winner... Not only are they big, but they supply quite a bit of juice to the public.

By: teg

teg — Tue, 23 Sep 2003 21:18:36 -0800

I think the CN Tower in Toronto may be a bit too pointy, but you get a nice effect when you see it combined with the Skydome right below.

By: pzarquon

pzarquon — Tue, 23 Sep 2003 22:11:09 -0800

Although I don't see it, my wife gets the giggles every time we drive past this building (self-link) here in Honolulu.

By: cookie-k

cookie-k — Tue, 23 Sep 2003 22:30:35 -0800

These are all fairly impressive, but I used to work in the 30 story "Prick o'the Prairie", the Hilton in Springfield, Il, and I still think it stacks up fairly well.

By: kindall

kindall — Tue, 23 Sep 2003 23:37:45 -0800

I drove by the Ypsi water tower, in all its phallic glory, this past weekend. (Was in the area for a friend's wedding.) No photograph quite pictures its penile majesty.

By: andryeevna

andryeevna — Wed, 24 Sep 2003 02:06:43 -0800

Well maybe a giant glass dil.... back massager

By: da5id

da5id — Wed, 24 Sep 2003 06:52:03 -0800

Does Nebraska still smell of pigs? posted by i_cola at 2:08 PM PST on September 23 Don't know where you visited, but it never did smell like pigs to me... maybe out on I-80 by North Platte where that huge Pig farm was right next to the interstate, but for the most part, it smelled like fresh cut grass.

By: COBRA!

COBRA! — Wed, 24 Sep 2003 06:54:22 -0800

Don't know where you visited, but it never did smell like pigs to me... maybe out on I-80 by North Platte where that huge Pig farm was right next to the interstate, but for the most part, it smelled like fresh cut grass. Schuyler smells like pigs. Or at least it did in the 80s-early 90s.

By: SisterHavana

SisterHavana — Thu, 25 Sep 2003 15:00:42 -0800

No discussion is complete without talking about the Chicago Water Tower. (note the effect when you look at this picture). Here is another picture.