The ugly library is found on many campuses. The 60-70s were the college building boom time, Brutalist architecture was in vogue, and the library was a really big building (books take up a lot of space pre-internet).
If you look past Touchdown Jesus on the side, ND’s Hesburgh library is pretty much a huge eyesore on what otherwise is one of the prettiest campuses around.
Oh-oh, I kinda sorta like that Gehry building at Case Western Reserve. Pix online look both weird and stunning. And the interior looked cool.
My vote goes to the Rarig Center at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. It looks like a fortress designed to keep the barbarians at bay. You almost expect to see machine guns at the windows, which are only on the top floors some 50 feet or more above ground level.
For Brutalism critics and fans alike, Simon Fraser University in Vancouver is the uber-expression of the form.
http://modernistarchitecture.blogspot.com/2015/12/a-brutalist-acropolis-in-great-white.html
It’s…one of the most memorable architectural experiences of my life. I hated being there, and I was also so fascinated that I was up for hours Googling it that night.
Brutalist is defined by th Regenstein library at UChicago, place looks like a max security prison. Although it’s offset by the brilliance of the Mansueto library right next to it.
G’town library is ugly too
LOL - Rarig at the U of MN was going to my next mention. More brutalism at it’s worst!
I’m actually surprised the U of MN is listed as an ugly campus as a whole. The main historic quad area is beautiful and lined by historic buildings. There are gorgeous river views on the bridges that cut through campus (10th ave, Washington, Franklin). Saint Paul Campus has lovely green space and some historic buildings too. I could get on board with the west bank and ugly. Definitely concrete and brutalist jungle.
The Ross School of Business building at University of Michigan. It’s orange. And it’s out of place in its surroundings.
I liked the U Minn campus a lot. Agree that the Rarig Center is super ugly (looks just plain wrong).But overall I liked the campus-y feeling of the quads and some beautifully restored old buildings and a few great new ones.
I’ll second Humanities at UW-Madison. I love the place – many wonderful memories/friendships and even a girlfriendship were made there – but it is not a pretty sight.
SUNY Stony Brook has an alarmingly ugly building: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stony_Brook_University_Hospital#/media/File:SUNY_Medical_Center.jpg
I can live with a Brutalist building here and there, but what was shocking to me about the Chicago library was how low the ceilings were - huge rooms with measly 8 foot high ceilings. Scale was all wrong.
Here’s a photo of another ugly building, at U of Iowa. I haven’t seen it in person but have to wonder whether the architect was inspired by Lego?
https://fm.cnbc.com/applications/cnbc.com/resources/img/editorial/2017/06/19/104537878-GettyImages-486988158-university-of-iowa.600x400.jpg?v=1497885363
The conservatory at Oberlin.
Library at W&L. One of science buildings at Yale.
@crepes You win. I physically recoiled at that Stony Brook picture. :))
@Scipio, I actually like the Stata building. The folks who work there, I gather, like it quite a bit. The ugliest building I can think of on a college campus is Peabody Terrace graduate housing at Harvard designed by Jose Luis Sert. [Harvard has a habit of getting bad work by good architects].
LOL @bearcatfan, when we first toured Stony Brook on a bleak winter day, we drove past it and I thought that somehow I’d slipped into a dystopian nightmare world X_X
Wesleyan has a couple. One is the strange mostly underground dance and theater buildings. I just don’t get it. The shape and contrast doesn’t work. And their rec center at bottom of the hill. Like a poorly funded ymca.
Also. UMass Amherst overall some beautiful parts of campus. But the Southwest dorm complex is like a Soviet era missle factory workers community. And the student center is a big white albatross that hasn’t aged well since the 70s.
Brown other than the main gate and quad is pretty ugly. mismatched styles and locations. Not really nice at all
Yeah, Stony Brook wins .Butt ugly. Who would green light that? What were they thinking?
Actually comically bad.
