The Carbuncle Cup – 2014 | Viewpoint Vancouver

Time once again for Britain’s good bad architecture contest, hosted by bd magazine – which unfortunately puts the nominees behind a paywall. So we go to Slate for a preview:

Britain Shames Its Ugliest New Buildings With an Annual Prize

Nominees include the Vauxhall Tower by Broadway Malyan, a 50-story building on St. George Wharf development on the southern end of London’s Vauxhall Bridge:

The Unite Stratford City by BDP in East London “drew unanimous condemnation” from the magazine’s readership. “Typical comments included, ‘if I was a dictator I would be very proud of this building, ‘utterly grotesque,’ ‘complete failure of the design process’ and ‘I say we take off and nuke it from orbit.’

The most nominated building was Trinity Square by 3D Reid, which replaced a Brutalist parking garage memorably featured in the 1971 film Get Carter. Carbuncle Cup judge Luder—also the architect of the demolished car park—commented: “The first principle of demolition should be to put up something that was better than was there before. Whatever you thought of the car park, this project is much worse.”

UPDATE: YVRlutyens was good enough to link to the winner:

The winner of the 2014 Carbuncle Cup is Woolwich Central, a Sheppard Robson-designed mixed-use scheme in south east London.

It comprises 189 apartments in six interconnected blocks rising to 17 storeys over an 7,800sq m Tesco.

More here.

UPDATE: More upbeat is the review of recent design – architecture and urban – in the New York Times:

Transforming, but Not Disrupting

Many American urban projects opening in the coming months are not large-scale institutions but hybrids being constructed in locations not necessarily known for design.

Including a library by Bing Thom Architects:

The latest neighborhood to get an elegant new library is Woodridge: A lanternlike, precast concrete building with green roof terrace by Bing Thom Architects and Wiencek & Associates is set on a rise in Langdon Park and due to open in mid-2015.

yvrlutyens
September 3, 2014 at 12:28 pm

And the winner is:
http://www.bdonline.co.uk/buildings/carbuncle-cup/carbuncle-cup-2014-winner-announced/5070668.article

Guest
September 3, 2014 at 6:07 pm

They don’t look so bad from the “front” – even the winner.
The back is awful though – needs a bit of greenery.
Amazing, though, how the spandrel panels’ pattern mimicsthe look – from a distance – of a brutalist concrete bunker with a 3D precast concrete façade.