Open Threads: Curbed Readers List the Buildings They Want Demolished

"The Crystal": Daniel Libeskind's addition to the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto

On Friday, Curbed asked readers: If you could demolish any one building, anywhere in the world, which building would it be and why? Here now, the Daniel Libeskind ritualistic sacrifice the responses:

2. Madison Square Garden, NYC

3. Steven Holl's Simmons Hall dormitory, Boston: "For sheer pretension and ugliness."

4. William Breger's Synagogue for the Arts, NYC: "an insult to that street, the neighborhood and the entire TriBeCa Zip code."

5. Rem Koolhaas' Seattle Library.

6. Richard Meier's Ara Pacis, Rome: "not a bad building but it is so out of place it should be knocked."

7. The New Museum, NYC: "A dumb idea made worse by lousy detailing and the arrogance of the forms. It makes me sick listening to self-professed aesthetes pretending to like something so obviously awful."

8. "Each and every Gene Kaufman turd in New York."

9. "Along with them, every other hideous, streetwall-breaking budget hotel (Courtyard, Best Western, etc.) built in the last 10 years, which all look the same in the same hideous way. Anything by Peter Poon or H. Robert O'Hara goes into this category."

10. Winka Dubbledam's supercilious and uber-pretentious glass-faced crap has done more to ruin the prevailing qualities of TriBeCa than a slew of wrecking balls could do in a month."

11. "gwathmeys kindergarden [sic] collage on Astor place tops the list, then that morphosis guys dumb thing every homeless guy uses as a dump below Astor. Poor Astor."

KING OF THE COMBOVER BONUS ROUND:

· "Anything and everything named 'TRUMP.'"
· "Every bright brass glitzy thing with Donalt [sic] Trump's name on it."
· "I agree that in most other cities, anything by Libeskind or Trump makes me want to puke."

LIBESKIND SUPER-SPECIAL DOUBLE BONUS ROUND:

· "The Crystal," Daniel Libeskind's addition to the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto: "the world's worst addition in the history of construction." And: "an abomination by any standard."

· "I nominate the oversized and uber-ugly 'EL Masterpiece' lightfixture that Libeskind just designed for Zumtobel. It's bigger than some buildings ... though not as big as Libeskind's ego, of course. (BTW - What kind of pompous jerk calls his light fixture 'Masterpiece'?)"

· "Libeskind's ROM Crystal. His Las Vegas Crystal. Oh, what the hell, everything he's built, anywhere."

· "I think anything and everything by Daniel Libeskind would make the list. He can't seem to tell the difference between his own turds and real design."

· "It's not a building, but I nominate Libeskind's Tre Piu Door just because he's so ridiculous and the jerk deserves it." (YouTube video here.)

· "Get rid of Libeskind's office and most of the hideous building problem goes away with it."

· Libeskind's Zlota 44 tower, Poland: "makes the communist era buildings look good."

· Libeskind's Museum Residences, Denver: "Sorry, but if the topic is 'eye-searingly awful buildings,' then Libeskind's name is going to figure prominently."

· Libeskind's Jewish Contemporary Museum, San Francisco: "where he mutilated an historic building with another of his stupid crystal forms. He's really degraded architecture across the globe."

Got any additions? Leave 'em in the comments!

· If You Could Demolish Any One Building, Which Would it Be? [Curbed National]

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