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These are days of rage for Tribune architecture critics and their readers. Today,
Blair Kamen and Patrick T. Reardon released their list of candidates for Ugliest Building in Chicagoland (Outside the Loop) and have asked readers to vote for the region’s all-out fugliest. They admit the list is unscientific and there’s much more bad design to go around. Thanks to masses of commuters, the rickety Roosevelt Road Metra station seemed destined to be the reader poll's big loser. Other compelling candidates include the cartoonish Allstate Arena, the Biograph Theater’s tar paper and wood neighbor, and new cinderblock condos in West Town and Edgewater.
We hear so much about our beautiful skyline and Frank Lloyd Wright’s charming signature, it’s easy to forget Chicago’s hideous buildings. We applaud the Trib for putting this together, but know there’s a few they’ve overlooked:
Grand Plaza @ 540 North State St.
The Gold Coast has endured a recent renaissance of bland. We could nominate any of the quickie concrete and glass buildings erected north of the river in the past decade, but the Grand Plaza smacks us in the face anytime we’re near the Grand el station. Moments after its grand opening, this one felt obsolete.
The Four Plus Ones on the 9000-9200 blocks of Skokie Blvd, Skokie
Nothing against the village of Skokie, they have the North Shore Center, a decent mall, and a few Chicagoists maintain it’s not a bad place to grow up. Still, these squat, joyless structures remind us of a suburban prison.
2100 block of West Churchill in Bucktown
Step one: open trendy bars and boutiques near blue collar three flats. Step two: decide that the long-time residences don’t fit the new neighborhood character. Step three: bulldoze the block and build identically “trendy” brick and plastic homes. Step four: hope new businesses on nearby Damen & Milwaukee Avenues will distract visitors from your hideous new home.
Triangle Plaza, 8750-8770 W Bryn Mawr Ave
Riding by these, and a few other identically soulless towers en route to O’Hare, helps us not miss Chicago too much while we’re away.
That’s just off the top of our head. We know you’ve probably winced at a few municipal buildings, corner stores, or condos, maybe even on the way to work. So what’s your list? Which buildings wouldn’t you miss if they met the wrecking ball tomorrow?
Images via Grand Plaza, paytonc, and Emporis
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The Allstate looks better now than it did before with those terrible buttresses sticking out like legs.
1. There is an apartment building along I290W between Rt. 83 and Lake St., in Addison, I believe. I have never seen it other than from the Expy. Horrible looking.
2. Belmont Towers, or whatever that is on the NW corner of Belmont and Sheridan.
3. Jackson Life, now Olivet Nazarene where Rt. 53 meets I90 in Rolling Meadows, on the fringe of Schaumburg. I believe it is off of Algonquin Rd.
4. Cook County Building
5. CNA Building, Red eyesore
6. The "Beehive" at Northeastern Illinois University. Offices of the nutty professors. Adjacent to Channel 11's studio.
7. The God-awful apartments along the canal and across from McCormick Blvd. in Skokie. Can't be missed. Especially from Lincolnwood Mall.
8. The projects still at Diversey and Clybourn.
9. The old Montgomery Ward Building.
10. The parking garage located at State and Kinzie. It's a parking garage I know, but man, it's sad.
- there's a buiding right when you get off the Addison red line that appears to be totally boarded up. i love it, but only because it's a complete eyesore. to think, this is probably the first thing most tourists see before their first Cubs games!
- i wouldn't miss the river cottages too much. obsolete. they remind me of troy mcclure's 'not-too-distant future' house.
- water tower place. how could they put that next to that??
- any soulless, artistically void van der rohe box.
What about the weird buildings (projexts, maybe) that are visible looking east from the Chinatown-Cermak el station. They remind me of the apartment buildings in Terry Gilliams "Brazil"
"1. There is an apartment building along I290W between Rt. 83 and Lake St., in Addison, I believe. I have never seen it other than from the Expy. Horrible looking."
Back in the CB days, that building was commonly referred to as "The Ugly".
What about the weird buildings (projexts, maybe) that are visible looking east from the Chinatown-Cermak el station. They remind me of the apartment buildings in Terry Gilliams "Brazil"
Those are the Hilliard Homes and they are/were projects designed by Bertrand Goldberg (hello marina city)I think a mock Wilco record cover is in order.
I vote for Marina City as one of the ugliest building complexes in Chicago. Another one that is notable is Asbury Plaza. It resembles a jailhouse more than it does a luxury apartment building: A big block of concrete whose only windows are in the ridiculously small wedge-shaped balconies.
My vote is for the "Shi(t)p House" in Wicker Park (north avenue sort of across from sultan's market)
Big ugly ass condo building that's supposed to resemble a cruise ship or something, just wretched. It also completely dwarfs a nice dark red brick building next to it, ungh.
two votes for the ship house !!!
Make that three, Cap'n!
I thought I was the only one that hated Marina City - glad to see at least one other person finds it to be ugly. There are also a few hideous highrise condos on Sheridan right it turns into North Michigan ave just north of The Drake. The old buildings are glorious. Anything built circa 1970s with permanent window a/c units needs to be torn down.
About the ship house -- I agree it is horrible, but what's a architect for yuppie buildings to do? Build "modern and trendy" and you get complaints about cookie-cutter 3 flats and the 2100 block of Churchill (in which, I love the drug lord house (houses?) with the 2 story interior waterfalls... pure class).
But if you try something different, like ship house, they houses don't move for something like 18 months. (and "do nothing" is not an option because the invisible hand rules the day.)
st elizabeth's hospital on division and western. i think that's the most Terry Gilliam's Brazil looking building in the city.
Also, the senior center you can see off 294 kind of by O'Hare - I think it's called Concord Home, or concord tower - something like that? anybody know what i'm talking about?
Chris, I also like those waterfalls in a Miami Vice-meets-Bucktown kind of way, but my gripe is how the Churchill block redevelopment wiped away history in a flash. Where are the stoops? Where are the yards? A lot of their neighbors did better, rehabbing industrial space into lofts or rebuilding brick 3-flats.
You make a good point: developers and lenders have lots of money riding on these projects, so they're loathe to take big risks. But you can respect history and do something new at the same time, like the newer glass skyscrapers on East & West Wacker that "talk to" their older neighbors.
Lots of great suggestions here, keep 'em coming!
S,
The Concord Plaza on North Av. and I294. I believe that is the town of Northlake over there. What we see is nothing compared to what the occupants see. If they are not looking at I290, they are looking at I294, or the loading dock of Jewel Food Stores distribution, or a cemetery, or an industrial park.
Justin -- I agree. I'm curious, do you know what was on Churchill (aside from Bert & Bummers?) before that was all razed? It seems like all of the new houses went up simulatenously in 2001-3 or so, and it just seems like a stretch that it was mostly single family homes before... did all of those owners sell out at the same time? (guessing it was a factory that the BCO forced to upzone)
Chris,
I remember (circa 2000) lots of brick 3-flats on Churchill, like the ones on Wilmot a block away. Nothing remarkable. No one would've talked about it then. A few homes looked vacant. Then the fences went up, the bulldozers came, and the area was unbikable for a solid year or so. When the dust cleared, it looked kinda Stepford-ish.