According to Virtualtourist.com our Wellington Beehive is ugly…

Virtual Tourist lists that the Beehive in Wellington is the worlds third most ugliest building… their description is “”a slide projector that fell on a wedding cake that fell on a waterwheel”

I find this hard to believe, that across the globe that this building is one of the worst. Our Beehive was designed by Scottish Architect Sir Basil Spencer, from a rough sketch in 1964 while dining with Sir keith Holyoake, the building was then drafted by Gibson O’connor a NZ building company.

The beehive boasts ten storeys (72 m) high and has four floors below ground. The entrance foyer’s core is decorated with marble floors, stainless steel mesh wall panels, and a translucent glass ceiling - how could this ever be possibly called ugly?

The winner of the worst building was The Morris A. Mechanic Theatre in Baltimore, Maryland, USA.

Maybe Virtualtourst has something against the Sixties?  Both were world class leading construction and architectural projects and at their time led the way for modernisation of building design.

Is the Beehive really a bad design, did us Kiwi’s get it wrong? Or are there buildings that should have got into the top ten instead?  The list of the worst buildings is posted below, discuss in our forum or by registering to this blog.

1. The Morris A. Mechanic Theatre in Baltimore, Maryland, USA
2. The Zizkov TV Tower in Prague, Czech Republic
3. The Beehive in Wellington, New Zealand
4. The Pompidou Centre in Paris, France
5. Federation Square in Melbourne, Australia
6. The Petrobras Headquarters in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
7. The Markel Building in Richmond, Virginia, USA
8. The Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Canada
9. The National Library in Pristina, Kosovo
10. The Ryugyong Hotel in Pyongyang, North Korea