Thursday, December 2, 2010

Hey We Made Another List!

Sure, this is a purely subjective list.

Sure, this site is more of a goof than anything else.

And sure, it's not a list we really WANT to make.  Or do we?

The Kaden Tower, located on Dutchman's Lane, (or as I normally call it, "The Ruth's Chris Building") made Oddee's list of 12 of the WORLD'S Ugliest Buildings.  The WORLD'S ugliest, kids... our building is on the list with buildings from Spain and Australia and Thailand and China. I don't know about you, but I'm thinking that's pretty awesome.

According to Wikipedia:  "Designed by a student of Frank Lloyd Wright, the building is notable for its cantilevered structure and its suspended lacework facade"  That student, in fact, was his son-in-law, William Wesley Peters.  And, "the Kaden Tower, when occupied at night, is reminiscent of a Japanese lantern with inside lighting illuminating the grillwork with a soft, yellow glow. During the month of December in the 1970s and early 1980s, transparent color gels were placed on the inside of the windows to form large seasonal symbols when the office lights were left on. Other notable features of the building are several Wright-inspired stained glass windows and a glass elevator system on the building's exterior, surrounded by a low dome that houses the building's air conditioning systems and accented with a reflecting pool and fountain."  

Check out the other 11 buildings on the list.  The Kaden Tower is pretty vanilla compared to some of the seriously uggums buildings out there.  But we'll take recognition where we can get it, won't we, kids?*  Ugly is AWESOME!**  Congrats to the Kaden Companies for keeping Louisville weird!

* I mean the kind of recognition that doesn't involve being ridiculed for being a state that provides tax incentives for the creation (pun intended) of 900 jobs at a theme park that most CERTAINLY won't be a EOE, you know what I mean?

** anyone else really, really want to live in a bolwoningen?? I TOTALLY do!

2 comments:

Linda said...

Clearly I have awful taste because I think all those "ugly" buildings are AWESOME.

Anonymous said...

Thanks, this one was interesting! Some unusual buildings on that list. I think they did a disservice to Ryugyong Hotel in North Korea. Not that it's not ugly, but their photos are way out of date. It's back under construction, and with the exterior cladding partially installed, it's really striking.

Photos from Aug 2010

I've long had a weird little crush on this building.