Boston City Hall is ugly. You’d be called a fool if you said otherwise. But is it the fourth ugliest building IN THE WORLD?
According to this survey from Buildworld, not only is Boston City Hall the 4th ugliest building in the world, it’s the second ugliest building in the United States of America. It it just me, or does that all seem a bit harsh, even for our beloved, brutalist City Hall? I mean, sure it’s pretty tough to look at. But you’re telling me there are only three other buildings worldwide that look worse?
That’s what Buildworld says. And here’s how they went about making that claim:
Buildworld curated a long list of buildings from around the world, the UK and the U.S. that are often said to be ugly. We identified all the design-themed tweets about these buildings on Twitter. Then we used a sentiment analysis tool called HuggingFace to analyse the percentage of tweets that were negative about each building’s design.
Look, I’m not going to sit here and pick apart the methodology. We all know the story: Kallmann McKinnell & Knowles designed the centerpiece of City Hall Plaza and the Plaza itself back in the 1960s as part of urban redesign efforts in the city of Boston. And they went with the brutalist style. All these years later and it’s still brutal to look at. So yeah, Top 5 in both the U.S. and the world makes sense, now that I think about it.
Boston City Hall Ranked 4th Ugliest Building in the World
Before we take a look at some of the Top 10 Eyesore Buildings in the World, just a quick note about the Boston Calling redemption arc. When the festival debuted a decade ago, it was a twice-annual festival that took place on City Hall Plaza. And that, to me, was the first time the space made sense. Plus, it helps to have great bands to look at instead of that upside-down wedding cake of a City Hall.
