ABSTRACT
Daniel Libeskind’s angular new addition to the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, called “the Crystal,” was placed at No. 8 on a list of the world’s ten ugliest buildings assembled by Virtual Tourist.com. The rationale mentions its stark incongruity with the original museum’s Romanesque architecture. — Toronto Star
Daniel Libeskind’s extension of the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto beats any Wal-Mart with its ugliness because it is “both ugly and useless.” Curators seem to have trouble hanging art on its canted walls. “And it cost only $250 million.” — Washington Post
When Robert Venturi penned his famous “Part Two” of Learning From Las Vegas – Ugly and Ordinary Architecture, or the Decorated Shed, he seemed to be presenting a defense of some of his firm’s recent work, such as the Guild House and the fire station in Columbus, Indiana. Unfortunately, the effort was read as a license for architects and clients to accept ugliness as a valid aesthetic for architecture. It opened the door to a lowering of standards for beauty in architecture. With the resulting “no rules” architecture, experimentation became much more prevalent than during the short-lived era of dogmatic modern architecture. Deconstructivism further eroded any remaining standards of beauty to the point where it is no longer part of the conversation about architecture. The new aesthetic is techno bio-grunge.
