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Ugly high-rises


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I have to nominate Genesee Towers, located in my hometown of Flint, Michigan. The building was an urban renewal project in the 1970s, and has not had any tenants since 1998. At 19 floors and 250 feet tall, the building is the city's tallest building. The bottom 9 floors are a parking deck, while top ten floors are offices. The building is in disrepair, and pieces from the building's concrete facade are falling off onto the sidewalks below. The city has been trying to get the building demolished for a couple of years, but the owner has taken the city to court over the whole issue.

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Yuck! That Genesee Tower looks more of a scar to the skyline than being part of it. It looks hella like it's from the brutalist style in the 1950-1970's. The tower shows no sign of art and looks as boring as a simple box building with no sort of taste for art whatsoever. The same goes for the terrible condo below. Both buildings should be demolished and replaced with a post modern or more up-to-date style.

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Yuck! That Genesee Tower looks more of a scar to the skyline than being part of it. It looks hella like it's from the brutalist style in the 1950-1970's. The tower shows no sign of art and looks as boring as a simple box building with no sort of taste for art whatsoever. The same goes for the terrible condo below. Both buildings should be demolished and replaced with a post modern or more up-to-date style.

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LOL. Without Genesee Towers, Flint wouldn't have a skyline! Replacing it with something else sounds good in theory, until you consider the condition the city is in. I think most people don't realize the full extent of the damage that occured to the city and the entire county when GM left in the 1980s. When GM left, unemployment in the city skyrocketed to 17.3% and the population of the metropolitan area dropped by 20,000 - from 450,000 to 430,000. The metro's population is currently at 436,000, so we have only added 6000 people since that time! The city is begining to rebound, albeit very slowly.

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AT&T Long Lines Building, NYC

This is a rather interesting building because it is so unique. It is located in Manhatten and owes its name to the division of the old Bell System (before it was broken up) that used to own it. When there was just one phone system, the Long Lines Division was responsible for connecting all the cities together and maintaining the nation's long distance network.

This building was constructed in 1974 in Manhatten to house switching equipment. It was designed to survive a nuclear blast. It should be noted that each floor is actually 19 feet tall, so the building is actually the same height as a 52 story building. No doubt there are very few if any other skyscrapers of this height without any windows.

I believe it is clad in a pinkish granite. I would say it has a certain legendary quality.

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who owns it today and what is its use is it obselete? Is it still a telcomm hotel but for local service with Verizon today, bet some thought it was a white elephant by the 1990s?

great info by the way

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Why is it called "Genesee Towers" if there's only one of them?

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Because it just is. LOL. I have a copy of the rendering that appeared in the paper in the 1970s, as well as the article that accompanied it. There was never a second tower planned. So how they got "Towers" I have no idea!

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The Genesee Tower should be replaced with a building that at least doesn't rain concrete blocks onto innocent people below! In Hong Kong, people have been killed or injured by shoddy building like this one and they are a hazard to the public. Ugh, this building is a hazard to both city and people! :sick: I hope it gets demolished. :blink:

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My ugliest and fugliest high rise list is:

- BofA Atlanta -- the unfinished crown looks like a total batcage and that spire. Only good thing about it is the Christmas tree style lighting; the color is ugly and the base, ugh. If only Atlanta didn't have such an ego problem when all the crowns were built on the skyline.

- One Shell Plaza, Houston. It's one thing to be a plain box, but the antenna makes matters worse. And I thought SOM produced fine buildings everytime. Even One Shell Square in New Orleans is better than this.

- Exxon Building, Houston. Too ripply looking.

- Renaissance Center, Dallas. The X shape is a classic rip off of JHC, and it is the ugliest glass box. Even worse, the spire on top looks like antennas.

BTW, about Gennessee Tower in Flint: AAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!! *screams* What the hell happened?? If I had a building like that in my city, I'd have to move -- that piece of sh*t eyesore needs to go. I also agree that GT should be torn down, otherwise refurbish it top to bottom. tsk tsk tsk. And that is the second time I have heard about abandoned tall buildings, much like what Memphis used to be.

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:wacko: Thumbs down, that BofA in Atlanta is horrible! That mess of metal beams that form the crown is a waste of space and it doesn't belong there. They've really botched the crown's design; it could have been much, much, much better than the BS thats there. :huh: But hey, at least it's tiny bit better than that slum looking, scar inducing Genesee Building that's worse than a windowless cube building. A crapty building in downtown gives it a slum, poor feel and that's detrimental to a city. :sick: Looking at that scar makes me sick, so it better get razed and if approved, replaced with a gleamy new tower. -_-
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The Wells Fargo Center, Portland:

Built 1972 and unfortunately the state's tallest...

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The street level portion is by far the worst part, as a reaction to this building Portland enacted several codes to protect the pedestrian & street from blank walls and out of scale buildings. On two sides of the building there is no sidewalk, just parking garage entrances that are flush (and parallel) with the street. It also has a huge empty plaza. Then on the neighboring block is another building part of the complex and connected by skybridge. It is mushroom shaped, extending over the sidewalk creating an awful feeling for pedestrians walking below, on top of that, this mushroom building has huge 20 foot, completely blank stone walls on 3 of the 4 sides of the building.

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Pretty much every highrise in Mainz, Germany.

http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/ci/?id=102211

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haha i went to Mainz last year. The high rises are pretty ugly, but I kind of like that... they really define German technology. Effecient wihtout overdoing it! With the exception of a few in Frankfurt and Berlin, Germany's newer buildings are mostly pretty dull.

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Its not that bad, wow its a box  get over it.  Anyway i dont think there is an uglier skyscraper in da usa thats uglier than the one metro boi posted what were the designers smoking when they thought of that.

http://www.urbanplanet.org/forums/index.ph...type=post&id=35

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lol, my god that was an ugly building :rofl: .

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