Butt Ugly: Boston City Hill

You know it, I know it, we all know it. Now, a poll to prove it: Boston City Hill is damned ugly.

VirtualTourist.com put [Boston] City Hall atop its list of the ugliest buildings on the planet, based on a poll of the site’s editors and readers.

The California site offered a sharp-tongued assessment of the Hub’s center of power.

“While it was hip for it’s time, this concrete structure now gets routinely criticized for its dreary facade and incongruity with the rest of the city’s more genteel architecture. Luckily, it’s very close to more aesthetically pleasing attractions.”

Mayor Thomas M. Menino has sought for years to move City Hall, most recently pitching a move to the seaport, where it could anchor the growing district.

Also on the list: Port Authority bus station in New York City, Montparnasse Tower in Paris, and the LuckyShoe monument in Tuuri, Finland, a golden horseshoe overshadowing the Baltic country’s second-largest shopping mall.

The design of City Hall was selected after a nation-wide design competition. The winning design was by the architectural firm of Kallman, McKinnell and Knowles (now Kallman, McKinnell and Wood).

Aaron Margolis is a life long resident of the Bay State, and works at an architectural firm north of Boston. Aaron has a Master of Architecture Degree from Boston Architectural College and is currently in the process of becoming of a Registered Architect.