Sunday, July 22, 2007
The New Lisboa - The World's Ugliest Building?
I first visited Macau in 1974 as an exchange student in Hong Kong. At that time, the Lisboa hotel and casino (the round building in the lower left corner of this photo) was the tallest building in this quaint Portuguese backwater.
Macau has changed a lot over the years and recently replaced Las Vegas the the world's leader in gaming revenues. I tend to experience some level of culture shock every time I go there, though I have long ago given up my nostalgia for the old Macau that I absolutely loved to visit.
A couple of weeks ago I visited Macau again and got a chance to see (and be shocked by) what I consider to be the ugliest building in the world -- the New Lisboa. The casino part of the New Lisboa is in the gold bulb, while the hotel is currently under construction in the tower behind the casino.
The New Lisboa is taller than any of the other buildings and looms over the old historic district of Macau. It can be seen from almost any point on the peninsula and looks like a Japanese robot transformer toy.
In my opinion, this is clearly the ugliest building in the world, both in its architectural style and in its impact on the city of Macau.
We remember the same Macau who no longer exists... Nice to know!
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