Anti-modernist architecture group declares Simmons Hall "America's ugliest building"

Sweden-based group Architectural Uprising has released an announcement naming Steven Holl Architect's Simmons Hall at MIT the winner of its International Aesthetic Atrocity Awards.

Architectural Uprising (AU), which advocates for classical over modernist architecture, announced the first of what will be an ongoing award to show "exceptional achievement in the continued uglification of our cities".

American studio Steven Holl Architects' Simmons Hall, a residence hall for the university MIT, was given the "award", based on what AU said was a "heated debate".

"Architects and urbanists unveil 2025's 'Ugliest Buildings in America," said the AU's announcement.

"Ultimately, Simmons Hall was chosen as it bears all the classic hallmarks of Modernism and its failures."

"It is, for example, the kind of structure which can only be built by an architect who has accepted the erroneous maxim that 'beauty is relative'."

Simmons Hall is a 10-story residential building with a long footprint. Its volume has voids that give it a blocky appearance, and the studio said in the project documentation that it was designed to be porous.

The openings along the facade roughly correspond with the entrances and divide the building into multiple blocks to bring in sunlight and air to the dense residential programme.

Its reinforced concrete structure was clad with aluminium, and it has colourful window jambs that highlight the highly ruled facade. The colours of the windows reference the size of the steel in the corresponding reinforced-concrete panelling beneath.

In 2003, it won the American Institute of Architects Honor Award for Architecture.

AU took aim at the aesthetics of the building in line with the organisation's opposition to modernist architecture. This is based on claims of public disapproval and preference for traditional architecture, as well as what it claims are modernist architecture's negative environmental and health effects.

"The building is a colossal, yet decidedly impractical, structure which betrays a complete lack of interest in the building’s users," said the AU's citation.

"Its function as a residence for young students, many of whom are likely away from home for the first time and deserve to be housed in spaces which are welcoming and uplifting, was found to be particularly troubling. And finally, it's just plain ugly and terrible to look at."

American critic and AU cofounder Michael Diamant, who was on the judging committee, said the project was a "perfect example of design against humanity".

The Aesthetic Atrocity Award was decided by an "international panel of architects and urbanists" according to AU, which will convene in May for a conference called the Beauty and Ugliness Conference in Oslo.

Runners up for the award were also all built in the United States and include Morphosis Architects' San Francisco Federal Building and 41 Cooper Square, as well as Daniel Libeskind's The Ascent in Cincinnati.

This criticism of modernist American architecture follows US president Donald Trump's recent executive order promoting traditional and classical styles for federal buildings.

Organisations such as the AIA have spoken out against the order, while supporters such as National Civic Art Society president Justin Shubow have said the public supports more traditional architecture.

Last month, Steven Holl published an opinion on Dezeen which said "Stalin, Hitler and Trump all tried to block modernist architecture".

Photography via Wikipedia Commons. 

The post Anti-modernist architecture group declares Simmons Hall "America's ugliest building" appeared first on Dezeen.