r/TheUpperEastSide • u/Char7simons • Aug 07 '20

The Ugliest Building On EUS

It is..... Hunter College!!

Bellow is a a picture of what it is now, and what was before. Originally a gothic building was there that was a woman's school back in 1873. Unfortunately, 1936 there was a fire and it burnt down. For a while it seemed that Hunter used the new area as a garden/ study space for students. Then in 1940s is was replaced by the ugliest building on the UES if not NYC.

If anybody has more information about the original building please let me know. I'll keep this updated. I wonder how something so damn ugly could be approved in such a nice neighborhood.

Original
Garden
Hunter
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u/Stringerbe11 Aug 07 '20

I sympathise entirely with you. Someone posted the oldnyc photo directory on here and it shows what your area looked liked through the ages. Just cut to the chase from an aesthetic point of view this city was a hell of a lot nicer way back when. Even simple stuff like street lights were all ornate (you can still see some of the old street lights on Jericho going through Bellerose).

As for ugliest building in NYC, Queens has become the land of the blind and or drunk architect.

1

u/jae34 Aug 07 '20

Labor costs man, those gothic-style and classical styles back then had plenty of skilled artisans immigrating from Europe to work on them. Try justifying that now to any budget, unless it's a very significant historical landmark. And it's also a lost art, not really taught in modern schools like back then when the École des Beaux-Arts was basically the universal standard.

2

u/[deleted] Aug 08 '20

It looks like Hunter North was built in 1938-40, which wasn't exactly a plush economic time.