Five buildings that should not have been built

These are my monuments to architectural incompetence and/or excess:

Number 5: University of Wisconsin-Madison Humanities Building




Credit: http://img101.imageshack.us/img101/7577/dsc00115ol7.jpg

The ugliest building on the campus where I studied and worked for 19 years. A spectacular example of the 60's brutality school; a building that only a concrete thinker could appreciate. Perhaps the most ironically named building I know. UW is planning on tearing the building down, at which point the FBI building in Washington will take its place as the ugliest building of the type (although they are all ugly).

Number 4: Empire State Plaza, Albany, New York



Better known as "(Nelson) Rockefeller's Last Erection." Enough said.

Number 3: Principal Insurance Building, Des Moines, Iowa



This building is not so bad--it is not distinguished, but not so bad.

It is, however, excessive. Land in Des Moines is more or less free. High-rise construction is expensive, in part because high rise buildings need deep footings, and in part because rentable area is reduced by elevators. The reason for high-rises in New York and Hong Kong is that land is so expensive, the benefits of economizing on land outweigh the costs of the expensive improvements.

Credit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Photo_801grand_north-eastside_des_moines_usa_2007-06-15.jpg#file

Number 2: Petronis Towers, Kuala Lumpur





Credit: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/85/Petronas_Panorama_II.jpg

It was 30 percent empty when it opened. It looks like a very large pair of binoculars. I generally like Pelli's work, but...

Number 1: Burj Dubai





Credit: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b8/BurjDubaiJI3.jpg

Dubai puts the rest of the world (including perhaps even Vegas) to shame when it comes to excess. Burj Dubai is the tallest building in the world. Construction was halted before completion because of financial consideration. According to the Dubai newspaper The National, rents in Dubai are plummeting. Perhaps it is because one project has dramatically increase the amount of available space for rent.

I referred above to the low cost of land in Des Moines. Dubai is in the desert; when one flies into its (beautiful) airport, one sees empty land in every direction. Dubai is not Hong Kong.