U.S. Bank Stadium ranked ugliest stadium in the world, survey says
MINNEAPOLIS -- The U.S. Bank Stadium was, for many Minnesota football fans, a major step up compared to the Vikings' previous "home base," the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome.
Now, a new survey finds that much of the rest of the world doesn't particularly agree with that sentiment.
Buildworld, a British-based building supplies outlet, conducted a survey to find what most people would regard as the ugliest buildings worldwide, and the Minneapolis stadium ranked just outside the top 10 ... in the entire world.
"Buildworld curated a long list of buildings from around the world, the UK and the U.S. that are often said to be ugly. We identified all the design-themed tweets about these buildings on Twitter," the site reported, adding they then took a look at the "percentage of tweets that were negative about each building's design."
The stadium ranked seventh among all U.S. buildings in overall ugliness, a list headed up by the J. Edgar Hoover Building in Washington D.C., followed by the Boston City Hall and New York's Verizon Building.
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Those in downtown Minneapolis Friday tended to disagree.
"Compared to the Metrodome, it's fantastic," said Reggie Brown of Minneapolis. "I love this stadium. It's new, it's exciting. I think the people, they love it. I speak for myself, I love it. I can't speak for all, but it's a beautiful stadium."
"Whoever is talking about it, they're looking at the structure of the building," said Khawusu Kaba. "If you look at the building in its totality. If you understand that. Then you know what you feel. That's different than someone that doesn't know."
However, U.S. Bank Stadium was the highest-ranking stadium in the rankings for both the U.S. and the world at large. The next highest-ranking American stadium on the list was San Antonio's Alamodome. Among all buildings across the globe, U.S. Bank Stadium was ranked 12th ugliest.
Overall, the highest-ranking building on the worldwide ugly list was the Scottish Parliament Building in Edinburgh, Scotland. Only one building from outside the U.S. or U.K. ranked among the top 10 ugliest buildings, the Ryugyong Hotel in Pyongyang, North Korea.
"The (Hotel of Doom) got its nickname during a long building lull and looks moderately less doomy now it has metal and glass cladding and LED lights. Its tapered, pyramid shape was a costing solution — the hotel is made of cheap but heavy concrete — but the shape, scale and cladding are a sinister sight over Pyongyang's otherwise modest and mundane skyline," Buildworld said.
In a statement, representatives from US Bank Stadium pointed toward its 2017 award at the World Architecture Festival.
"The Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority and ASM Global are proud of U.S. Bank Stadium's iconic design and the incredible sports and entertainment environment that this state-of-the-art facility provides for our community and our guests," wrote a stadium spokesperson.
