The nominations for the Curbed LA Ugliest Building Contest are coming in now fast and furious - and we're keeping the polls open until March 31, 2007. So keep sending us your nominations. We find them very entertaining. Here's how to enter: email us at la@curbed.com with your nomination. In addition to a brief description of why you're nominating the building, your submission should include one of the following: 1. a picture. 2. a web link. 3. or Local Live Link.
A panel of judges will select the winner and runner-ups. The winner, announced at the end of the month, will receive a free dinner for four at Shakey's Pizza AND prominent mention on Curbed LA.
Today's submission: that hulking hunk of retail from the 1980s: The Beverly Center. Even its constant attempts to renovate the space hasn't pleased this reader:
I think the Beverly Center is the most offensive in the trifecta of hideousness in the central LA area (the other two being the miserable endless work-in-progress Cedars Hospital and recently face lifted but to no avail Sofitel Hotel). It's like a hermetically sealed, airless, virtually windowless shopping prison elevated high above the street. It's like Alcatraz with a Bloomingdales and a shitty food court. I've been going there for years and despite numerous attempts to freshen and remodel it and make it feel more human, every attempt has been futile. The phrase "lipstick on a pig" comes to mind. Inside it has all the charm of an airport concourse and somehow they've managed to make the central atrium actually repel people. Although shops line the building at street level there is virtually no connection between the ground and the mall in the air. The scale is just completely oppressive. At risk of sounding overly negative I would like to say that I do find it pretty easy to get in and out of the mall. The secret is to use the San Vincente entrance.
Such a Pollyanna! Always looking on the bright side.