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Yes, it may seems like a mid-summer game only architecture nerds can love -- but everyone is a style critic, right?
That's why we're drawn to Curbed Detroit editor Robin Runyan's question: "What’s the Ugliest Building in Detroit?"
We’re not going after dilapidated ruin porn here. We’re looking for buildings that stand out architecturally, and not in a good way.
Readers a few weeks ago thought that Book Tower was pretty terrible. They also thought the Ren Center looked like some odd fortress.
"Some appreciate how the Cathedral Apartments stand out in Midtown," Robin Runyan posts at Curbed Detroit. In her eyes, the 80 E. Hancock St. tower is "just an ugly building."
"Have at it," she invites on Friday, promptly casting her vote:
While some appreciate how the Cathedral Apartments stand out in Midtown, it’s just an ugly building.
That East Hancock Street tower is shown at right so you can see if its thumb-up or thumb-down.
A reader posting as "DetroitEmpire" suggests: "The worst building in the city is probably Trolley Plaza" on Washington Boulevard downtown (first photo below).
Earlier, previous Curbed editor Paul Beshouri tagged the Philip J. Neudeck Building, a vacant office tower at 415 Clifford St., as a candidate for "downtown's ugliest apartment building" after planned renovations by a new owner. (It's No. 2 in the gallery below.)
Our own pick is the Patrick V. McNamara Federal Building (last photo below) on Michigan Avenue at Cass -- a 27-story hulk that's "the epitome of functional architecture with no features to distinguish it," says a description by University of Michigan sociologist Reynolds Farley at detroit1701.org, a history site.
Professor Farley describes the architectural style as "Brutalist," which he also applies to the Coleman A. Young Municipal Building at Jefferson and Woodward and Trolley Plaza.
► Your turn now: Take a shot by posting a comment below or on Facebook.
A tweet works too.
A Curbed reader targets Trolley Plaza on Washington Boulevard downtown as an ugliness nominee.
The Philip J. Neudeck Building could become "downtown's ugliest apartment building," Curbed suggests. (Google Earth photo)
The Patrick V. McNamara Federal Building, at Michigan and Cass avenues, is designed in a style called "Brutalist" by a University of Michigan professor.
