Beehive third ugliest building in world
The ODT reports:
Wellington’s Beehive, home of the New Zealand Government’s executive, ranks as the third ugliest building in the world according to a tourism website list. …
The site described the Beehive as “a slide projector that fell on a wedding cake that fell on a waterwheel.”
Heh.
The Beehive actually looks better from the outside, than it does inside. A circular building makes for very impractical offices.
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Tags: Beehive
November 23rd, 2009 at 7:14 am
Ouch – what about the Palace of Culture in Warsaw, or Ceaucescu’s Palace?
My big bugbear with the Beehive is that you get out of the elevators on any floor and spend seconds looking like a right dork spinning around on your heels trying to the find the right office, while the security guards have a quiet laugh at your expense….
November 23rd, 2009 at 7:39 am
It’s really a cunning plan to deter anyone with a gripe from getting to ministers because it’s so easy to get lost on the way.
November 23rd, 2009 at 7:39 am
I guess if Sue Bradford was still there it would have made number one.
November 23rd, 2009 at 7:49 am
Third ugliest, but first in the world as home of the most timid, indecisive, and aloof Western leader, the “brave” John Key.
November 23rd, 2009 at 7:49 am
They should knock it flat and finish off the Parliament Building. It’s been put off for 100 years now and it’s time we just swallowed the expense and did it.
November 23rd, 2009 at 8:16 am
Or blown up as a job evaluation critique.
November 23rd, 2009 at 8:25 am
Another reason why almost all 60/70’s architecture should be blown up.
November 23rd, 2009 at 8:32 am
There’s never a 9.3 when you really need one.
November 23rd, 2009 at 8:42 am
I’m sure bees like it though.
November 23rd, 2009 at 8:54 am
Sounds very similar to the article from last week ratign Auckland #3 party town in the world..
November 23rd, 2009 at 9:57 am
What’s first? The new Supreme Court?
November 23rd, 2009 at 10:18 am
I’ll take the Beehive over a generic office block. At least we’ve got something distinctive..
November 23rd, 2009 at 10:49 am
I once had to deliver copys of the CPI publication to Cullen’s office. I got so lost on the way out (and refused to ask for directions, typical…) that I ended up in the ’secret tunnel’ that comes out on Lambton Quay. That place really is a rabbit warren.
November 23rd, 2009 at 11:01 am
I agree with Repton; the Beehive beats hands down any generic ‘architectural’ tower block.
I’ve always liked the originality of the Beehive – what other country boasts something so distinctive for their seat of government?
November 23rd, 2009 at 11:29 am
I’m glad they included Melbournes federation square in their list. That place really is an eyesore!
November 23rd, 2009 at 12:53 pm
Heh! And to think that the Marlborough District Council was so inspired by it, they built their Council chamber from the same plans.
November 23rd, 2009 at 1:12 pm
The place still looks better than the University of Auckland’s science buildings.
Then again, if you put barbed wire around those science buildings, they’d be mistaken for mt eden prison.
November 23rd, 2009 at 2:43 pm
I’m with BlairM… the intention was always to have an extended Parliament Building – the stairs are meant to be in the middle, not off to the left.
Wasn’t there a plan at some point to lift the Beehive and roll it back to where Broadcasting House used to be? If we’re that keen on it – and I admit I do have a bit of a soft spot for its iconic status, if not its functionality – then get it out of the way of what should be one of the better looking Parliaments.
Then the PM of the day could use a Beehive office to punish any Ministers s/he didn’t like
November 23rd, 2009 at 10:35 pm
you’d think a beehive with that many queens in it would produce better honey
November 24th, 2009 at 1:52 am
Maybe if we genetically engineer some Varroa mites …
November 24th, 2009 at 8:02 am
Samoa’s Fono is in a pretty distinctive building.
November 24th, 2009 at 11:14 am
It is definitely in the Ministry of Works “concrete-everything” style. It certainly isn’t beautiful but I wouldn’t call it ugly either. IMO it would have looked better if
(1) if the copper roof had tarnished to copper oxide blue/green as expected.
(2) If the top of it came to some sort of tall aspirational spire it would be an improvement; as it is it unfortunately has the exact proportions of an upside-down bucket.
Didn’t someone once famously describe it as looking “like a dynamo (electric generator), a place of energy”…?
I like that it is round, while all of the money-making buildings in town are rectilinear. Sort of acknowledges that it has a completely different function.
But then in making these comments, I am the only person I know who likes the National Library building too…
November 24th, 2009 at 12:06 pm
Done 2 out of the top 3, reckon the Beehive should have been in at number two, the Zizkov Television Tower in Praha aint that bad. Especially if you want to compare the cities they lay around it… Praha leaves Welly for dead