I tend to think Grove Pointe looks a lot more like a college dormitory. But there are worse buildings than Grove Pointe. Mostly my issue is with the choice of facade, the mix of that white and gray brick along with the red. I think on the Newark Avenue side they did a decent job of creating multiple elevations, but the uniform red, white and gray brick ruins the illusion created by the setbacks. There are several varying rooflines on the Newark Avenue side which I think nicely transition the main tower from to the smaller buildings at the western side of the plaza.

However, the parking garage, while I appreciate that its not a tumor off the side of it, still has turned Morgan Street into a cold place to experience the building as a pedestrian. Its a serious architectural failure on the north face of the building and something easily corrected by installing some smaller sized retail on Morgan Street. They have in effect created a building with a rear, even though the back of the building is actually on a street.

I also think the Marin Blvd side of Grove Pointe is extremely harsh; its the full height of the building straight up to the top roof, and while the short little width of the building on Columbus has set backs every ten floors, this does nothing to minimize the scale of the Marin Blvd side. From Steuben Street, Grove Pointe is simply a giant vertical wall. Also the facade here doesn't help either. The uniform size of the windows and the generally uniform color of the brick enhances the vertical elements of the building rather than reducing the impact of the height.

The Trump Tower! How on earth could anyone build such an ugly thing next to the Powerhouse, it is truelly saddenning.

I was looking up from the Paulus Hook side the other day and thought, oh it isn't as totally horrible as I thought, at least they have some black patterned varaiation on this side. Then I realised I was mistaken and was looking another tower to the West instead (50 Columbus perhaps?).

The Trump Tower itself is just unmittigatingly bad. Horrible, horrible, horrible.

Robin.

How about Grove Pointe. The irony here is that it looks just like a hospital, and the hospital might make a better apartment building facade. How in the 21st century, above a major transportation hub, someone decided to put up a big red brick monstrosity is beyond me. I'm more apt to let the others slide, but not when building something NEW. Anytime someone new comes to visit, they ask, "oh, is that the hospital?"

The Columbus Health Service Building at 115 Columbus Ave. Between Grove and Barrow. This maroon/brown structure is hideous in every respect.

Any 1-3 family house with aluminum siding.

I am surprised this bizarre building hasn't come up yet:



It's the Boys and Girls Clubs of Hudson County building where Grand Street meets Grove Street!

When I first moved here and I saw this place, I wasn't sure if I was looking at...

- An elevated train or subway station?

- The back of a portion of some sort of old stadium structure?

- The offspring of a warehouse and a tractor trailer?

- What happens when a clock tower mates with a greenhouse on steroids?

I have to wonder if an architect was involved AT ALL when that place was designed.

I really, REALLY hope that the folks at the Liberty Harbor North development are required to set aside a certain amount of their profits to give that prominent place a much-deserving facelift.

(Please note that while their building's facade blows, the Boys and Girls Clubs of Hudson County do incredible work and are always welcome in Jersey City. )

Quote:

Paulus Hook Tower and 30 Montgomery Street were runner's up. I actually bumped them off my list when I remembered the Golden Door building and 100 Pavonia.

Quote:

What more can you say?

Greenpoint and Williamsburg are getting a very respectable architecture, and we're getting shite.

But they are part of NYC and we're Dirty Shitty.

It has, and will always be like that.

Quote:

You forgot the Paulus Hook Tower at 100 Montgomery Street.

Compare to some Williamsburg buildings...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jennabascom/544499654/

http://www.brooklynpaper.com/assets/p ... _richardsonstrender_z.jpg

http://www.streeteasy.com/nyc/image/46/1748146.jpg

http://www.topnycapts.com/blog/media/196scholes.jpg

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1235/1407506397_1ee1920790_o.jpg

I only pick Williamsburg because it's attracting similar Manhattan diaspora.

Quote:

The garage doors/curb cuts certainly add to the hideousness, but c'mon, those boxes are eyesores whether they have garages or not (not all do). And if you think that cars are actually parking in those garages, you're crazy. Those garage doors in most instances conceal the illegal third apartment on the first floor. I have never once seen a car drive into or out of one of those "garages".

The problem with a lot of the new small construction in the city is simply the curb cuts granted for the driveway. In fact, I would argue that the biggest problem facing all new construction in Jersey City is a suburban reverence for the automobile. With the larger projects, its the parking garage pedestals and tumors jutting out from the base; with the smaller projects, its the wall of garage doors.

The tall building on the corner of Columbus and Barrow contains Lex Galleries one of the last, but probably most active and vibrant, art scenes in the city.

For this reason it is an excellent candidate for destruction.

LUXURY WILL NOT BE DENIED!

Any of the track housing construction built along Manila Avenue in the early 80's or the garbage put up in every vacant lot in the Heights, Greenville, JSQ, and Marion. These houses are constructed cheaply and quickly with wax and spit. In other words, anything that looks like this:




or this:



or this:



I lived in this town my whole life and remember when it was burning down in the 1970s. It's a shame that permits are being issued to built these cookie-cutter monstrosities.

If you live in one now, I mean no disrespect. The architects, investors, and the city are to blame.

This model is pretty popular lately:

I have some thoughts on this. I've limited my list to the downtown, though there are a few buildings near Journal Square which probably would be at the top of this list too, but I don't look at them as often, so I'm less offended by them. Also, after looking over the list I made, I think the two biggest things that are problematic are mid-1960s architecture and parking garages. Also, I linked to the buildings in my database with photos for a point of reference.


10. Battery View
9. Holland Gardens
8. 100 Pavonia Ave
7. Candlewood
6. Metropolis Towers
5. James Monroe
4. Golden Door
3. international Finance Center
2. Villa Borinquen Tower
1.Harborside 4A

Oh I\'ve got 5 in a row!
Mack Cali building (has a new name, but not sure what it is) on Columbus Drive (across from Grove St. Path, with the beautiful jersey barriers around it)
moving east, the next four buildings between Montgomery and Columbus are all atrocities. All four are slab high rise apartment buildings surrounded by awful parking lots. The whole three-block stretch makes me cringe!

"Another man's garbage is another man's treasure :)"

The difference being that most people who find garbage appealing drag it back into their hovels.

The garbage that is constructed in Jersey City is semi-permanent and visible by all.

The low-quality of development here is astonishing. Who allows an entire city to be constructed out of hideously designed buildings?

Look at those old brown project looking monstrosities near Grove Street.

They might have looked "ok" in the 80s, but now they look like outdated crap.

It's basically an unforgivable sin for developers to build hulking behemoths that will last decades if not centuries, and chintz on the design.

Why not make each building beautiful, or at least pleasant to look it?

Another man's garbage is another man's treasure :)

Oh, and I pre-nominate the Rem Koolhaus pizza boxes.

And the freedom tower, since we'll have to look at it everyday.

How about all the McTowers that dot our beautiful waterfront?

Were architects even consulted on these, or do developers just shit these borg bricks composed from the souls of the communities they devour out whole?

Conversely, the entire old Medical Center complex should have been raised, as it's an example of the worst architectual instincts of our thieving forefathers.

The new courthouse has all the appeal of a communist government building.

I'd love to knock down all of the buildings between Montgomery and Newark (btwn Marin and Washington). That square would make a great park (the trees are already there!).

I nominate the hideosity in Journal Square that is the Port Authority building. Ugly, concrete eyesore.

If you don't know which ugly gray building I'm talking about over by Wayne and Barrow, it's in the photo below that I borrowed from ianmac47's New York's Sixth blog.



For those who are curious, Jersey City Vibe has photos of what the place looked like years ago AND sketches of what it will be transformed into after the Columbus Corner complex is developed (assuming that project is still in the cards).

I just picked up my copy of Thursday's AM New York and saw this on the cover:

10 TO LOSE: Ugly Buildings New York City Would Be Better Without

Of course, I immediately thought of how this kind of fun could be easily translated to JERSEY CITY!

My vote would be to get rid of the gray eyesore with maroon trim at the corner of Wayne and Barrow (because I have to walk by that mess practically every day).

If they don't restore the monstrosity to its former Victorian glory soon (as part of the Columbus Corner development), I hope they just bulldoze it and start over.

Anyone out there have 9 other buildings (or more!) that you think Jersey City would be better off without?

C'mon, I know you do -- let the hijinks begin!