July 11th, 2005

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Vancouver
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The Ugliest Building in Vancouver

Which do you think is the ugliest building in the city? For me, it’s the Aquatic Centre on Beach Avenue:

Is it:

  • One end of a coffin sticking out of the ground?
  • Some kind of stuccoed alien landing craft?
  • An homage to speed bumps everywhere?

In truth, the Beach Avenue entrance is less heinous, and the inside is pretty nifty, but seen from most angles, it’s truly appalling. And, I think you’ll agree, that’s some pretty valuable (in terms of cash and eyeballs) urban space it’s occupying.

I did a quick Google search to see if I could turn up some history on the building, but came up empty. Maybe I’ll wander over and do a meatspace search.

UPDATE: Tanya’s got a different perspective on the Aquatic Centre, which, charitably, is slightly more flattering.

Comments: 18 Responses so far

Randy Charles Morin
July 11th, 2005
12:22 pm

ok, I have to admit, Vancouver’s got Toronto beat there ;)

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Norlinda
July 11th, 2005
12:30 pm

Maybe it’s some metaphor. It reminds me of an overturned boat. I think there are uglier buildings in Greater Vancouver.

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Sean Calder
July 11th, 2005
1:09 pm

I think it’s that green monstrosty of an apartment building at the south end of the Burrard Street Bridge. It’s gawdawful.

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Andrea
July 11th, 2005
1:36 pm

According to the Parks Board website, the Aquatic Centre won awards for its design by Duncan McNab and Partners in 1974. They set it into the hill and were thus able to maximize space. It’s still incredibly ugly, IMHO. But I have never been able to decide if it’s uglier than the green building Sean mentioned. I overlooked both when I lived on English Bay. Only the view of the Creek and Bay offset those monstrosities!

The VPL has/had a building database on their website. I just tried to find it, but no luck. You can look up building names and addresses to see what info there is. Maybe start there.

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Chris
July 11th, 2005
2:32 pm

I’d prefer this building to Yet Another Condo tower.

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Cin
July 11th, 2005
2:44 pm

Yes, it’s ugly. Ugly with a capital UGH! But I have to agree with Chris - I do prefer it to the condo ‘forest’.

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Derek
July 11th, 2005
3:03 pm

Condo towers may be generic, but the VAC has the distinction of visually detracting from the space it’s in, which is already ugly because it’s under a bridge. That’s an accomplishment.

The Masonic Hall and CBC building might beat it, though.

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Derek
July 11th, 2005
3:05 pm

Incidentally, when I first saw the building as a kid, I thought it was a heap of sawdust, like you see beside beehive burners.

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Duncan Campbell
July 11th, 2005
3:46 pm

It’s got to be that horrible green high-story building at the entrance to Kits (just across the street from the molson factory)…

Apparantly that building has a big waiting list though - because of the views..

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Declan
July 11th, 2005
3:58 pm

I vote for the CBC building as suggested by Derek. The Aquatic Centre at least seems kind of odd. The CBC building is just painful to look at.

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Darren
July 11th, 2005
4:49 pm

I knew the excellent researcher Andrea would come up with something–I had but to ask.

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Chris
July 11th, 2005
4:55 pm

I agree with Duncan - that green building is hideous. Half of the windows are covered with aluminum foil - it looks like it’s infested with grow-ops.

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Andrea
July 11th, 2005
7:25 pm

It was just that I’d looked it up myself recently.

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Carlos
July 11th, 2005
10:25 pm

Definetly Top 10. Can’t think of any others off the top of my head but I remember as a kid despising having to do backstroke in that pool at a top swim meet and running into the lane ropes and shreading my shoulder - the lines on the roof aren’t aligned with the pool lanes. Threw me off every year.

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Derek
July 12th, 2005
12:12 am

I’ve been thinking about it, and there are any number of uglier buildings in the city, such as the dozens or hundreds of slapdash retail-ground-floor-condo/apartment-above, two- to four-floor “leaky condo” quickies built in the ’80s and ’90s, which were originally painted in faux-California pastel colours, and are now encrusted with algae and stained by water, cracking around the windows. I can think of several along Kingsway and Main Street alone.

They aren’t prominent structures, but they make parts of the city uglier. At least the VAC is actually a nice pool, and the skylights make the inside relatively pleasant.

I’ll vote again for the Masonic Hall, since I still have bad memories of taking a Grade 4 Royal Conservatory guitar exam there in 1982. And I’ll point to my nominee for the ugliest part of Greater Vancouver, from March 2005.

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mary13
July 12th, 2005
9:51 am

“faux-California pastel colours”

Good old Teal and Veal …

The Aquatic Centre is an eyesore, maybe if they blasted a wall of windows along the side, it would lighten it up a bit. The view would be v. cool, and the light inside would improve immensely.

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Collin
August 23rd, 2006
11:48 am

This building is not the ugliest in vancouver. I admire the clarity of its form…much better than another contorted stack of window-wall condominiums. At least it aims at something poetic,whereas most of vancouver’s condos only aim at capitol profitablility. even if the aquatic centre is a failed expression of something poetic I prefer it over the successful expression of what amounts to a bar graph at the scale of a city.

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Collin
August 23rd, 2006
11:55 am

by the way,

that “hideous green building” is one of my favorite in the city. The coulours are beautiful and fit well with the surroundings and the form is clean, well proportioned and dignified.

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