The 13 Ugliest Skyscrapers in the World

13. Four Seasons Hotel (Manama, Bahrain)

The Four Seasons Hotel in Manama, Bahrain is a 50-story tower that was completed in 2015. The design is distinctive and innovative. It’s also blocky and intimidating like a monolith that just landed from space, or even a massive guillotine.

12. Carew Tower (Cincinnati, OH)

Carew Tower is a 49-story Art Deco skyscraper in Cincinnati. It was finished the same year as the Empire State Building and looks similar in design to it. However, it looks unfinished. The upper floors step up to an expected spire, dome, or other large focal point. Instead, they just stop in a very unsatisfying way.

11. Torre Velasca (Milan, Italy)

Milan’s Torre Velasca opened in 1958. Its design is intended to be a modern interpretation of medieval Lombard fortresses that were larger at the top than the bottom and supported by wooden beams. To a modern viewer, though, they give this tower a ramshackle appearance.

10. Russian Embassy (Havana, Cuba)

Some compare it to a sword, others a syringe. Either way, the Russian embassy in Havana looks like the sinister headquarters of an arch-villain. What’s in the top? Who knows. But given Cuba‘s proximity to the United States, some kind of spy stuff is a good guess.

9. Merdeka 118 (Kuala Lumpur, Malasia)

Merdeka 118 is the second-tallest skyscraper in the world, after Burj Khalifa in Dubai. Construction on this mixed-used tower was finished at the end of 2022. The irregular lines of the glass facade give it the appearance of a precariously balanced house of cards.

8. 100 North Main (Memphis, TN)

There’s nothing remarkable about 100 North Main in Memphis, and that’s a good reason for it to land on our ugly list. It’s a nondescript office tower like thousands of other forgettable buildings in cities around the world. Built in 1965, its age shows. When chunks of concrete began falling off of it in 2015, it was condemned and has been awaiting demolition ever since.

7. Nabema Tower (Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo)

Completed in 1986, Nabema Tower is the tallest building in Brazzaville, the capital of the Republic of the Congo. The building’s design is odd, something like a grain silo or power plant cooling tower. It was poorly reconstructed after being damaged in a civil war and costs the country a huge amount of money for upkeep, sheerly as a prestige symbol.

6. China Central Television Headquarters (Beijing, China)

How would you like to work in a building that looks like a big pair of pants? Then apply for a job at China Central Television Headquarters. The leaning towers and overhanging angled loop have earned it the nickname “Big Pants.” It also looks disturbingly unbalanced, like a children’s block construction.

5. Tour Montparnasse (Paris, France)

The Eiffel Tower isn’t the only supertall steel construction that dominates the Paris skyline. Standing just 200 feet shorter, Tour Montparnasse is the tallest office building in the city. It offers panoramic views of the city from its observation deck. And the best thing about those views is that it’s pretty much the only place where you can’t see how Tour Montparnasse mars the Parisian skyline.

4. Elephant Building (Bangkok, Thailand)

Bangkok’s Elephant Building was completed in 1997. Elephants have been an important part of the country’s history and development. But why is no one talking about the fact that this elephant has three “legs?” It’s a little too much like a child’s drawing to be taken seriously.

3. Strata SE1 (London, UK)

Strata SE1 was completed in 2010. Locals have dubbed it the “Razor” because of its resemblance to an electric razor. The top also looks a bit like a villain’s motorcycle helmet. The irregular window and facade widths on the sides of the building give it a crudely drawn appearance.

2. Žižkov Television Tower (Prague, Czech Republic)

The Žižkov Television Tower was finished in 1992. Its construction was an atrocity in more ways than one: excavation destroyed part of a Jewish cemetery, with tombstones and bones unceremoniously dumped in a landfill. And of course, its size and design are completely out of context in this city of historic medieval architecture.

1. 20 Fenchurch Street (London, UK)

London has made a name for itself in recent decades for its rapidly modernizing skyline with convention-breaking architectural designs. All of these have been controversial, but one of the oddest is 20 Fenchurch Street, nicknamed the “Walkie Talkie.” Frankly, its curved lines and bulging facade make it look disturbingly like something out of a hallucination.

What Makes a Building “Ugly” or “Beautiful?”

Some of the common features in buildings we’ve considered “ugly” in this article are odd lines that make the structure appear unbalanced or top-heavy, similarity in appearance to odd random household objects, and a building scale and style that are jarringly discordant with the surrounding community.

This doesn’t mean only “traditional” building styles are beautiful, in the public eye. The new One World Trade Center matches the surrounding towers of Manhattan in its sleek, soaring design and glass facade. But instead of a simple rectangular design, its sides are eight tall isosceles triangles that make it hard to tell if we should think of it as a “box” or “cylinder.” Somehow, it suggests a merger of the two towers of the former World Trade Center. Finally, a broadcasting antenna on the roof brings the building to a pinnacle and recalls the iconic antenna on the North Tower of the old WTC.

It’s noteworthy that the public had the chance to vote on the new WTC design, and few would deny they made a suitable choice. Although most skyscrapers are private property, their builders would do well to give more weight to public opinion. Otherwise, they may win critical acclaim while leaving most people asking, “What were they thinking?”