For Architecture Week 2007, the BBC website are featuring controversial buildings around the UK. My personal nomination is the Arndale Centre exterior in the centre of Manchester.

See the BBC News Website article on Gateshead car park.

Despite all the changes that have happened in Manchester, the Arndale Centre exterior remains to a large extent the same. It's true that along this section on Market Street, the infamous yellow tiles have been covered over with a contemporary layer, but they are still there underneath!. And the tower, still one of the most ill-proportioned and ugliest landmarks in the centre of Manchester, remains covered in those yellow tiles.
No exterior recladding or remodelling has taken place. Of all the tall buildings in Manchester, this one needs it the most.

The question of whether it should be demolished is not an issue. The northern part of it was demolished and rebuilt. The rest cannot be demolished. It is there and the owners have done the best they can with it.

Ultimately I think it ought to be properly acknowledged that it should never have been built in the first place, at least not to this design or scale.

Half of Market Street, with its beautiful 19th century facades, was destroyed to make way for this monstrosity. The new exterior - with its contemporary utilitarian design one step up from a distribution warehouse - can never come anywhere near the buildings that were demolished.

To see how Market Street might have been, visit New Street in Birmingham, Queen Street Cardiff, Buchanan Street, Glasgow or Grafton Street, Dublin.

Buchanan St Glasgow

Grafton Street Dublin

Queen St Cardiff

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Keywords: modern architecture, ugly modern buildings, modern architectural eyesores, worst architecture in Britain, demolish eyesore buildings, Manchester, City of Manchester, Lancashire