Ugliest buildings in New Zealand

New Zealand is a beautiful country, but some of these buildings aren't. Heres our top 20 picks for the ugliest building in Aotearoa.

#1 Gordon Wilson Flats, Wellington

Few buildings in New Zealand better demonstrate the visual shortcomings of post-war modernism than the Gordon Wilson Flats. Its enormous concrete slab, repetitive grid and stark rectangular form loom over The Terrace with little sense of refinement or human scale.

Photo: Ballofstring, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

#2 Michael Fowler Centre, Wellington

The Michael Fowler Centre is an enormous concrete and glass structure whose bulk overwhelms the surrounding streetscape. Its heavy geometric forms and dated modernist detailing give it the appearance of a 1970s civic megastructure rather than a carefully composed landmark.

Photo: Ziggurat, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

#3 Bledisloe House, Auckland

Bledisloe House is a particularly uncompromising example of mid-century modernism: a tall rectangular block with a repetitive façade and virtually no decorative relief. Its architecture is dominated by function and structure, producing an imposing office tower that feels cold rather than civic.

Photo: Paora, Wikimedia Commons (CC0)

#4 City Council Building, Palmerston North

The Palmerston North City Council building is a huge concrete mass whose architecture seems to have confused monumentality with attractiveness. Its fortress-like proportions and exposed concrete give the city's central square an unnecessarily heavy presence.

Photo: William Stadtwald Demchick, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0)

#5 Central Police Station, Auckland

The Auckland Central Police Station is an imposing slab of concrete and glass that looks more like a government bunker than a building intended to contribute to a city centre. Its repetitive façade and almost complete absence of ornament make it particularly jarring against Auckland's more characterful historic buildings.

Photo: Ingolfson, Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

#6 Te Pae Convention Centre, Christchurch

Te Pae is perhaps the clearest example of architectural symbolism being pushed far beyond what the building itself actually communicates. Its enormous patterned shell is supposedly inspired by the Southern Alps and Canterbury's "braided rivers", but from the street those references can be difficult to discern without first being told what they are.

The result is an enormous abstract form that seems to represent very little on its own. Much of its supposed cultural significance feels dependent on the explanatory narrative surrounding the building rather than something naturally expressed through its architecture.

Photo: David Palmer, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

#7 National Library of New Zealand, Wellington

The National Library is an enormous exercise in monumental concrete architecture that gives Wellington very little of the elegance one might expect from a national institution. Its fortress-like exterior and heavy geometric forms make the building feel closed-off and institutional rather than welcoming or distinguished.

Photo: Mike Dickison, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0)

#8 Richardson Building, Dunedin

The Richardson Building is a particularly unfortunate intrusion into Dunedin's historic architectural environment. Its stark modernist massing and concrete-heavy exterior stand in dramatic contrast to the city's ornate Victorian and Edwardian buildings.

Photo: Benchill, Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

#9 Departmental Building, Whanganui

The Wanganui Departmental Building takes the fortress aesthetic to a comical extreme. Its massive concrete forms and tiny windows create the impression of a scaffolded building under construction, rather than a government building intended to contribute positively to a historic city.

#10 Dunedin Public Hospital, Dunedin

Dunedin is famous for its grand stone architecture, making the hospital's utilitarian modernism particularly difficult to ignore. Its repetitive façades, large concrete forms and lack of decorative detail give it the appearance of an oversized institution rather than a building worthy of the city's architectural character.

Photo: Benchill, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0)

#11 Puaka-James Hight Building, Christchurch

The University of Canterbury's library is an enormous block of concrete and repetitive geometry that dominates its surroundings through sheer mass. Rather than creating visual interest through craftsmanship or ornament, the building relies almost entirely on scale and structural form.

Photo: MelodyOfDespair, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0)

#12 Greys Avenue Civic Building, Auckland

The former Greys Avenue civic building is a textbook example of the modernist tendency to reduce architecture to simple rectangular volumes and functional surfaces. Its blank walls and severe geometry provide almost none of the visual richness associated with Auckland's older civic architecture.

Photo: Paora, Wikimedia Commons (CC0)

#13 Union House, Auckland

The Union Building is an impressive display of structural engineering but a rather bleak piece of architecture. Its exposed concrete structure and repetitive grid turn the façade into an expression of construction rather than a carefully composed building.

#14 Dunedin City Library, Dunedin

The Dunedin City Library is a stark modernist interruption to the historic character of central Dunedin, replacing the city's former Carnegie library as its main public library. Its boxy concrete form, horizontal bands and near-total lack of ornament feel particularly jarring beside the city's ornate Victorian and Edwardian buildings, making it look completely disconnected from the streetscape around it.

Photo: Mike Dickison, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0)

#15 John Wickliffe House, Dunedin

The John Wickliffe House is a particularly jarring example of modernism in central Dunedin, made worse by the fact that it replaced the city's historic Exchange Building. Its bland concrete-and-glass façade and uninspired tower form offer little of the architectural character of the building that stood before it, leaving a conspicuous modernist void in one of Dunedin's most historic parts of the city.

#16 Aotea Centre, Auckland

The Aotea Centre is an enormous collection of competing shapes and materials that seems determined to make itself visually complicated without becoming particularly beautiful. Its heavy geometric forms dominate the surrounding streetscape while offering little of the coherent proportion and detail found in Auckland's older civic buildings.

Photo: Auckland Live RFA, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

#17 Hilton Hotel, Auckland

The Hilton's enormous horizontal form stretches dramatically into the harbour like a ship that has somehow become permanently stuck at the end of the wharf. Its repetitive balconies and bulky silhouette make it a particularly awkward presence on Auckland's waterfront.

Photo: Flickr user: Percita, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)

#18 Spencer on Byron Hotel, Auckland

The Spencer on Byron is an enormous vertical block that towers over its comparatively low-rise surroundings. Its repetitive balconies and generic resort aesthetic give it the appearance of a large residential tower dropped into Takapuna without much consideration for visual harmony.

Photo: Bjankuloski06, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0)

#19 Civic House, Nelson

Nelson Civic House is an unusually severe building for a city with such a strong heritage character. Its heavy modernist mass and blank concrete surfaces provide a stark contrast with the city's historic streetscape, making it feel more like an office building from another era than part of Nelson's architectural identity.

Photo: Ulrich Lange, Bochum, Germany, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

#20 Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington

Te Papa is an enormous building whose imposing concrete forms and deliberately irregular geometry create a strangely fortress-like presence on Wellington's waterfront. Its harsh combination of stone, concrete and angular forms can feel unnecessarily heavy, particularly when compared with the elegant traditional buildings elsewhere in the city.

Photo: Ulrich Lange, Bochum, Germany, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)