Topic: The 7 Ugliest Government Buildings in Washington, DC

[Glock32]

This is a pretty funny critique of how government buildings reflect the sclerotic bureaucracy contained within.  Have a good look John and Jane Taxpayer, this is the best your government can do with $17 trillion of debt.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/bennyjohnson/the-7-most-heinously-ugly-government-buildings-in-washington

On a serious note, when you look at stuff like brown duct tape covering cracks on the sign for the J. Edgar Hoover Building, how is it that so many people remain credulous of claims that the power of government can fix this or that nebulous social phenomenon (poverty, inequality, obesity, whatever the latest nonsense is)?

[Libertas]

Jeepers Cripes is that fracking hilarious!

It's like they tracked down the last of the Soviet architects that survived purges from Stalin onward and put them to work!   

The duct tape, the crumbling, the rust...the massive slabs of lifeless cement...the Dorito's ad outside HHS was funny...most of these temples to sloth and inefficiency are already showing signs of "life after people" while the fricken people are in them! 
 

Obviously, that government is failing is no surprise...but it takes a special kind of incompetence to design in failure in structures...

And I thought bank art was stupid...the government makes bank art look extremely high-brow!   

Welcome to Amerika, commrade!  Don't our edifices of bureaucracy remind you of home?  "Da."

 

[AlanS]

But you can bet they got a deal on those properties! <sarcasm>

[richb]

You missed the "other" article that goes with that piece..................... 

http://www.buzzfeed.com/bennyjohnson/why-you-should-not-take-photos-of-the-7-ugliest-buildings-in

At six of the seven buildings, (I am guessing the guards were sleeping on the job at the seventh) the photographer was hassled by security or (agency) police for taking pictures.  The camera was taken at one point by one security guard and probably was only returned because the photographer ID himself as part the news media.   Every agency then denied later that picture taking is not allowed, hmmmmmm.   Oh,  by the way,  it's legal to take pictures from the public right of way,  which  IMHO includes the entirety of PUBLICLY owned buildings. 

But boy oh boy do we own some ugly,  unmaintained buildings.    And you know what, we really don't need any of those agencies................ I am guessing we will be getting the bill for new construction or renovations from those useless agencies soon.  The federal government sure is good at not taking care of taxpayers property.   It just shows how government works,  or not works,  as building maintenance is hardly rocket science (or all that expensive to boot).

[trapeze]

Can't do building maintenance and repair when you are working hard to stuff money into pension plans for public workers.

Priorities.

Until there is a disaster. Then it will be all hands on deck, we need more money.

[AlanS]

Can't do building maintenance and repair when you are working hard to stuff money into pension plans for public workers.

Priorities.

Until there is a disaster. Then it will be all hands on deck, we need more money.

Don't forget free phones.

[richb]

Can't do building maintenance and repair when you are working hard to stuff money into pension plans for public workers.

Priorities.

Until there is a disaster. Then it will be all hands on deck, we need more money.

The buildings themselves are ugly enough as they are,  then you top it off with no maintenance and you get what you see.    Rust stains,  crumbly concrete, wind swept cement plazas where only weeds can live.   Imagine what is being ignored inside.  Most of those buildings are coming up on their 40-50 year  birthdays so even maintained buildings are needing new HVAC,  complete roof replacements etc.   

[Weisshaupt]

Can't do building maintenance and repair when you are working hard to stuff money into pension plans for public workers.

Priorities.

Until there is a disaster. Then it will be all hands on deck, we need more money.

The buildings themselves are ugly enough as they are,  then you top it off with no maintenance and you get what you see.    Rust stains,  crumbly concrete, wind swept cement plazas where only weeds can live.   Imagine what is being ignored inside.  Most of those buildings are coming up on their 40-50 year  birthdays so even maintained buildings are needing new HVAC,  complete roof replacements etc.

Just imagine how they will take care of your body when you are dependent  upon them for health care.

[AlanS]

Can't do building maintenance and repair when you are working hard to stuff money into pension plans for public workers.

Priorities.

Until there is a disaster. Then it will be all hands on deck, we need more money.

The buildings themselves are ugly enough as they are,  then you top it off with no maintenance and you get what you see.    Rust stains,  crumbly concrete, wind swept cement plazas where only weeds can live.   Imagine what is being ignored inside.  Most of those buildings are coming up on their 40-50 year  birthdays so even maintained buildings are needing new HVAC,  complete roof replacements etc.

Just imagine how they will take care of your body when you are dependent  upon them for health care.

I wonder why I don't have the warm and fuzzies?

[Glock32]

Hey now, you can do a lot with a roll of duct tape.

[Pandora]

Just imagine what poor shape the VA facilities must be in.

[Predator Don]

Hey now, you can do a lot with a roll of duct tape.

And if not a trillion bucks a roll, it could have been two rolls.

[richb]

Just imagine what poor shape the VA facilities must be in.

I have 2nd cousins that work in one.   The building is a dump.  They have nice gardens,  but its the community that takes care of that.

In a few years every hospital will look like  those government buildings.  Just like the hospitals in the NHS in England. 

[Glock32]

I remember back in the 80s my granddad going to the closest VA hospital for some sort of treatment. He and my parents said the whole place was like a scene out of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

Yes, if Obamacare stands (and at this point, who really thinks it is going to be vetoed by anything other than reality?) then hospitals are going to resemble Britain's NHS.  Patients in their 20s dying of dehydration in their hospital beds, elderly patients dropping dead in hallways while people just step over the bodies.

[Libertas]

Eventually the progs will make the entire Earth look like "Life After People"...