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I visited Wurster Hall at UC Berkeley today. It was designed by, and currently houses, the architecture faculty. The UC Berkeley website notes that "Wurster is often voted Berkeley's ugliest building." I visited because I was curious about whether it would in person seem as unattractive as it does in photos. And, in short: it does. It's gaunt, austere, and filmed in grime. On an elysian campus, it stands out for its bleak hostility. It reminds me of the German submarine base in Bordeaux. The UC Berkeley page agrees that it was never designed to be attractive, quoting the curator of their design archives: “Wurster and his handpicked architects didn’t want anything romantic, or sentimental — they hated the idea of ‘making pretty buildings. They wanted a serious building.” I guess we have to concede success relative to their stated goals, but it does make one wonder what it all says about architecture as a discipline.