Badly designed buildings

[Aaron Kashtan]

Have you ever had to use a building whose architect did not do a very good job? What are some inconvenient or annoying design features that you've had to deal with?

I'll begin by telling the story that prompted me to start this thread.

My university's new humanities library opened this year. They might as well have kept the old library, because it couldn't have been much worse than the new one. You enter on the first floor and immediately take an elevator up to the second floor, where you see the circulation desk in front of you. There is also a sign pointing to the bathroom. There is no indication as to where the actual books are-- not only is there no sign, but the building's architecture does not lead you in a natural way towards the book stacks. To get to the books, you have to go through an unimportant-looking hallway whose importance is not marked in any way.

Even more annoyingly, in order to get to the book stacks on the first floor, you have to take an escalator up to the second floor, and then take an elevator back down to the first floor. And the elevator is extremely slow.

Also, there were supposed to be a bunch of graduate student study carrels on the top floor, but it turned out that the carrels were improperly built and unsafe, so no one can use them until they're fixed.

Tell us your bad architecture stories!

[Winslow]

The job I am working on had tons of problems.

The structure was not designed appropriately for the heavy custom HVAC units on the roof, requirng a re-design mid-way through steel erection.

The basement walls were impossible to build as designed.

And the plumbing work did not conforn to code . . .

The architect was rushed to let out the design because the Philadelphia School District HAD to have the building open by September 2006.

[howyadoin]

Tell us your bad architecture stories!Pretty much every office building I've ever worked in was designed without human beings in mind. Bad airflow, skylights that leak when it rains and blind people when it's sunny, bathrooms with little or no ventilation...

I could go on, but the gist of it is, apparently all any architect gives a shit about is whether or not it looks pretty.

[Winslow]

Pretty much every office building I've ever worked in was designed without human beings in mind. Bad airflow, skylights that leak when it rains and blind people when it's sunny, bathrooms with little or no ventilation...

I could go on, but the gist of it is, apparently all any architect gives a shit about is whether or not it looks pretty.

A lot of that is the owner (or developer) didn't want to pay to design or make things right.

[Night]

There's small building in Alaska that has a brightly colored face in the shape of a drafting triangle... Somebody must have forgotten to take the thing off when making copies for the builders.

[Fish Sauce]

There's a local shopping centre here that's terrible. Actually it's where I get my comics. It has a set of escalators in the middle going to the second floor, then to get to the next set you have to go all the way around the floor due to a cafe being in the area between them.

Granted, it's probably to make you walk past the shops, but the shops on the second floor are rubbish, and the comics one is on the third floor. The escalators work fine up to the fourth or fifth floor, then stop. To get any higher it's the stairs or the lift for you, buddy. And it goes 9 floors up.

This would be fine if people didn't insist on using the lifts to go up or down one damn floor, making it almost faster just to take the escalators to the fifth story than the lift. Including the walk.


There's some bad layout on the roads, too, but I'll stop now.

[Mac Danny]

The job I am working on had tons of problems.

The structure was not designed appropriately for the heavy custom HVAC units on the roof, requirng a re-design mid-way through steel erection.

The basement walls were impossible to build as designed.

And the plumbing work did not conforn to code . . .

The architect was rushed to let out the design because the Philadelphia School District HAD to have the building open by September 2006.


Where are you in the PHL Winslow? I'm over in the Jenkintown area, just about to move to Willow grove.

-Dan

[Aaron Kashtan]

There's a local shopping centre here that's terrible. Actually it's where I get my comics. It has a set of escalators in the middle going to the second floor, then to get to the next set you have to go all the way around the floor due to a cafe being in the area between them.

Granted, it's probably to make you walk past the shops, but the shops on the second floor are rubbish, and the comics one is on the third floor. The escalators work fine up to the fourth or fifth floor, then stop. To get any higher it's the stairs or the lift for you, buddy. And it goes 9 floors up.


I think that's deliberate. The Providence Place Mall has a similar design, although it sounds like it's not as bad as your mall. They could have arranged the escalators so that the top of one up escalator was right next to the bottom of the next one. But instead, the escalators are arranged so that in order to get from one up escalator to the next, you have to walk past a bunch of stores. Which, as you suggest, is probably the whole point.

[Adam Crocker]

But instead, the escalators are arranged so that in order to get from one up escalator to the next, you have to walk past a bunch of stores. Which, as you suggest, is probably the whole point.

The Midtown Plaza in Saskatoon doesn't have quite a cockeyed set up (but the major department stores in it do) where both up and down escalators are located on either side of the Mall. However, they not anywhere near the main entrance which faces downtown, though one escalator going up is.

[Noah Johnson]

As it happens, my father wrote a book on why buildings suck, why they don't suck, and how people make sucky buildings not suck.

It's actually immensely more complex than that, but just read or buy the damn book (http://www.amazon.com/How-Buildings-Learn-Happens-Theyre/dp/0140139966/sr=8-1/qid=1159591254/ref=pd_bbs_1/002-2473925-9338404?ie=UTF8&s=books). It's a fascinating read and I couldn't do it justice right now.

[howyadoin]

A lot of that is the owner (or developer) didn't want to pay to design or make things right.Oh, no doubt. But my guess is, a lot of architects - like a lot of art directors - design for best-case scenarios.

Which to me is moronic. At the very least it shows a fundamental misunderstanding of how the world works.

[hulahulk]

The 98-room hotel where I work was originally supposed to be an upscale bed and breakfast, but the owners decided to gear more towards the business travellers and become a 4 diamond hotel.

However, we have no refridgerators or coffee makers in any of the rooms. Furthermore, our banquet tables and chairs are stored on a floor below where the banquets are held, so we have to use a valet cart to move said items back and forth from hour to hour or day to day. Plus, our bar has no storage. If we need another bottle of wine or liquor, somebody has to go downstairs, unlock the storage area, and retreive the necessary item. This situation particularly sucks if we are serving, for instance, alot ofGrey Goose or Bud Light.

[TheTen-EyedMan]

Howard Roark.

http://www.archaos.org/issues/till/manifesto1/images/roark.jpg

[Winslow]

As it happens, my father wrote a book on why buildings suck, why they don't suck, and how people make sucky buildings not suck.

It's actually immensely more complex than that, but just read or buy the damn book (http://www.amazon.com/How-Buildings-Learn-Happens-Theyre/dp/0140139966/sr=8-1/qid=1159591254/ref=pd_bbs_1/002-2473925-9338404?ie=UTF8&s=books). It's a fascinating read and I couldn't do it justice right now.

That looks like a pretty cool book. I wish I had read it ten years ago . . alas. But I think some of the principles your Dad advocated, we incorporated in the last building construction I managed.

Is your Dad an architect? or planner?

He seems pretty cool:


Brand also documents his own unique habitats. He lives with his wife in a converted tugboat and houses his library in a metal self-storage container.

[JDogindy]

At my high school, there are two bad buildings to go to: Lone Hall and Morgan Hall.

You see, my school is finishing one huge restoring project. Before then, almost all of the buildings looked ugly and worn out. These two are left.

I'll leave the latter alone, since this is where people learn to sew, fix cars, and practice nursing (fixing the building up would interfere with these). The other one, on the other hand, is little more than an airline hanger who's original purpose was home economics. Since Home Ec is no longer taught, they have been used as other classes. Now, try sitting in a cramped room with more ovens than desks.

Then, you got the bathrooms. They are huge, unreliable, and have gigantic lighting problems. I mean, for a 23x15 room, there's only one urinal and one toilet.

I'm not going to get into what goes on the other side of the building.

EDIT: There's also this huge tunnel with cranes, elevators and even worse bathrooms that slices through it.

[Noah Johnson]

Is your Dad an architect? or planner?

His career's been... interesting and hard to map.

http://www.well.com/www/sbb/bio.html

[Paul McEnery]

His career's been... interesting and hard to map.

http://www.well.com/www/sbb/bio.html
He's so cool he's been refrigerated for the Long Now project, just like the captain in Dark Star.

Leastways, that's the rumour I'm starting. :D

[Nikita]

Have you ever had to use a building whose architect did not do a very good job? What are some inconvenient or annoying design features that you've had to deal with?

I'll begin by telling the story that prompted me to start this thread.

My university's new humanities library opened this year. They might as well have kept the old library, because it couldn't have been much worse than the new one. You enter on the first floor and immediately take an elevator up to the second floor, where you see the circulation desk in front of you. There is also a sign pointing to the bathroom. There is no indication as to where the actual books are-- not only is there no sign, but the building's architecture does not lead you in a natural way towards the book stacks. To get to the books, you have to go through an unimportant-looking hallway whose importance is not marked in any way.

Even more annoyingly, in order to get to the book stacks on the first floor, you have to take an escalator up to the second floor, and then take an elevator back down to the first floor. And the elevator is extremely slow.

Also, there were supposed to be a bunch of graduate student study carrels on the top floor, but it turned out that the carrels were improperly built and unsafe, so no one can use them until they're fixed.

Tell us your bad architecture stories!




I think any building that has stairs in general sucks. Because stairs are such a pain in the ass. Especially apartment buidings. The stairwells are always too narrow which makes it hard to get certain pieces of furniture up. I hate stairs! LOL.

[Sabrina_Fried]

The building my Day Job is in has Sick Building Syndrome. Poor ventalation, quirky plumbing, the whole bit. Every few months when someone gets sick enough, they send some guy around with a little sensor to test for various things in the air, but either they're not looking for the right things, or else they're not finding enough of the pollutants to do anything about it.

Most of York University, also has a horrible design - for Canada at least. The buildings do not insulate well, are very difficult to navigate and are not very pleasant to be in. The campus is also laid out in such a way that most people have to go out of their way to get anywhere, and the buildings form corridors that create what feels like wind tunnels. In the dead of winter. Ironically, the Farquharson building, the one that holds the life sciences programs, is about *this* shy from being condemned due to poor maitenance and various slimy things growing in the walls.

Sabrina

[Gary_B]

When I moved to Vancouver from the Toronto area in the late 80's there were whole buildings all over the city covered in giant tarps and scaffolding. I soon learned the term "leaky condo" which is a term unique to the west coast (in Canada, anyway). Energy concerns in the 70's had led to a new building standard in Canada called R20 that involved putting an air tight vapour barrier on the inside of all exterior walls of new buildings and insulating from the inside out. It works great in the rest of the country but the west coast is a rain forest and moisture can penetrate the exterior walls and collect in the timbers and insulating materials. The result is rotting wood and lots of mould and mildew. The only solution is to tarp the building and systematically remove siding, strip out insulation and replace all rotten and mouldy materials.

Many people had their dreams of home ownership ruined by the cost of repairing these buildings and in many cases people took huge losses because nobody wanted to buy these places when they went on the market.

[Fish Sauce]

Dammit, I have to go to the building today to get my comics.