Curbed Philly Goes In On the City’s Ugliest Buildings

They say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Apparently, so is hideousness. In the spirit of good fun, Curbed Philly asked readers to comment with what they thought the ugliest buildings in Philadelphia were. Comments came in on the post, as well as through Curbed’s social media, and it turns out that people have a LOT to say about some of the architecture in the City of Brotherly Love. Curbed selected the top 15 “ugliest buildings in Philadelphia” (excluding individual homes and small developments) and posted a list. Here are some of the highlights. Like the original list, they are in no particular order.

This aerial view of the AT&T building shows how boxy, huge, and just not pretty it is.

AT&T Communications Building: Okay, easy to see how this one made the list. It’s like two giant blocks with NO WINDOWS? What the actual hell? The AT&T building is so ugly, in fact (I feel like this is a “your mom” joke coming on) that it was Philaphilia’s “Mystery Butt-Fugly Building of the Week” back in April 2012. It was built in the early 1970s, which wasn’t a great time for sexy architecture, and it’s absolutely GIGANTIC. Gigantic and ugly, that is.

Philadelphia Police Department Headquarters: It’s big, and it’s round. Those are probably the two nicest things that anyone can say about the Philly PD’s current headquarters. Curbed points out that it was “designed by Geddes, Brecher, Qualls and Cunningham” (shame on them) in the Brutalist fashion. Is this the part where I make the easy joke and say that the building is brutally unsightly? The funny thing is, the Philadelphia police have been debated moving their headquarters, and some preservationists are arguing that the building should be saved. Guess some folks’ taste is all in their mouths.

One Parkway: A Curbed reader compared this one to a “high rise prison.” Another said that it just looked “dingy.” Something I find hilarious is that the building on 16th and Arch used to be home to Bell Telephone Company. What is it with these phone companies and the fugly buildings?

For the full list, with hilarious commentary, go check out the full list on Curbed, linked earlier in this post.