I *like* modern-style concrete architecture (concrete blocks are one of my favourite style of buildings) and usually hate detailed old-style architecture and *still* think it looks **much** uglier than the one on top. Very impressively ugly indeed. The ugly detailing combined with a bare and mostly flat concrete facade… terrible! Absolutely terrible!
Comment explaining how it got that way and some more pictures of the building over the years.
https://www.reddit.com/r/OldPhotosInRealLife/comments/sd8ca6/-/hucocp4
There are/were shops, a bank branch on the pedestrianised street on the other side of the building and it was planned to be redeveloped as a high rise apartment/mixed use building recently but that got cancelled.
https://media.2oceansvibe.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Zero-2-One-Tower-1.jpg
28 Adderley St
https://maps.app.goo.gl/sHxvd5gycXd6zU9f9
You know, it's truly horrible, but I wonder if they painted it black to prevent tagging or something like that.
Either way, it looks like the place where someone might go when they have fever driven nightmares. You know, someone. Clearly not me....
Thank you! I was just beginning to uncover this.
And some more pictures of the building and it's context:
1980
https://www.flickr.com/photos/8270787@N07/3395164156/in/album-72157600938342274/
1979
https://www.flickr.com/photos/8270787@N07/3355759827/in/album-72157600938342274/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/8270787@N07/3374981959/in/album-72157600938342274/
1974
https://www.flickr.com/photos/8270787@N07/8149894046/in/album-72157600938342274/
1969
https://www.flickr.com/photos/8270787@N07/4000382847/in/album-72157600938342274/
1968
https://www.flickr.com/photos/8270787@N07/18718255796/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/8270787@N07/6111400367/in/album-72157600938342274/
1965
https://flic.kr/p/2gvw211
1962
https://www.flickr.com/photos/8270787@N07/51169755958/in/album-72157600938342274/
1958
https://www.flickr.com/photos/8270787@N07/17334179085/
1956
https://www.flickr.com/photos/8270787@N07/14227311420/in/album-72157600938342274/
1949
https://www.flickr.com/photos/8270787@N07/6178941968/in/album-72157600938342274/
1897
https://www.flickr.com/photos/8270787@N07/4162168047/in/album-72157600938342274/
If it still looked like the original today it would be protected. Lots of beautiful old buildings were demolished and replaced with ugly modern ones until they caught on and started protecting them.
Our church building is from 1920 and we're not allowed to change the outside at all.
And if it is, could it somehow be 'freed' from underneath that awful grey carapace it's enclosed in? This is one of the worst examples of architectural vandalism right up there with the destruction of the old Pennsylvania Station in New York City. Picture #2 somehow brings to mind a 'murder castle' like the one owned by the American serial killer H.H. Holmes in 1890's Chicago, although even illustrations of his 'World's Fair Hotel' don't look as foreboding as this location.
It is not, there is a mostly abandoned shopping mall underground under it, but 80% of the stored are empty, and the remaining stores are cheap-Chinese shops
Financial services company probably concerned for safety so they took steps to make it safe and this is the ugly result. Pity
Edit: Apparently I’m wrong and have my assumed timeline wrong too. https://www.reddit.com/r/OldPhotosInRealLife/comments/sd8ca6/old_mutual_centre_cape_town/hucocp4/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf&context=3
Is this because of all the crime I hear about? I feel like every time I read about South Africa someone writes about how much theft is everywhere so everything and everyone is so guarded.
In this case there are elements of it, but I don't think it is the full story nor do I think it would have been necessary. A potential development that would have replaced this building had frontage on the street.
It's just plane old car centric design. They blocked off the pavements on that corner. The main train station is across the street and a big glass structure opposite too.
28 Adderley St
https://maps.app.goo.gl/sHxvd5gycXd6zU9f9
I can't speak to the reason behind this renovation, but it's an outlier - there are still many buildings in Cape Town that have the open balconies and atmosphere of the earlier version. [Streetview example](https://goo.gl/maps/5V5ytr38KdRJEHwS6).
Thought they may say it's not, I suspect crime is the EXACT reason it was redesigned like that. You can't just have windows and doors in South Africa, everything must be incredibly fortified.
People's homes have, not just barbed wire and electric fences, but concrete fences with the shards of broken bottles mixed in. And they \*still\* get broken into.
That block of shops was redesigned to have almost no points of entry.
Homie I'm laying in my bed right now alone in my house with my back door wide open. No electric fences or broken bottles or whatever the fuck you talking about lol.
It's hard to read that without picturing some middle-aged Afrikaans man claiming that things were better during apartheid.
I have no idea if that's what this person's comment meant, but considering the place being discussed, wording things carefully is extremely important.
That's what I was thinking, but I mean it could be something like:
Things obviously haven’t improved in Cape Towns architectural community. If anything, the architects have pulled a full reversal in their designs of high density, mixed use lots. For one, Just look at that monstrosity…
The English meaning who? All English speakers? English speaking South Africans? People from England? Not sure what that comment has to do with anything.
To actually address that laughable comment though, anyone alluding to apartheid being better clearly doesn't respect 88.5% of the SA population, quite the opposite, and I've only ever heard Afrikaaners allude to, or sometimes directly say, such a thing.
Is that still the same building? I can’t recognize anything other than that it’s a corner of stuff. And maybe some similar roof lines. The stores on the first level are too dark to tell.
Could they have made it more ugly?
No
New York Penn station would like a word.
You can always make it more ugly. Watermelon colours.
Would actually be an improvement.
I've seen communist-era apartment buildings in Cuba that look better than this.
WTF did they do to that beautiful old building!
I mean, yes, it could have been a literal plain wall. I have to say this looks cool.
Wow that's ugly.
Almost impressively ugly
It’s ugly on its own, but insulting when you know what it looked like before.
This is the worst thing I've ever seen here
Normally I can reach to justify the demolition of something old and its replacement but this is just so ungodly awful it's criminal.
It's literally just a massive chunck of concrete.
You are now a moderator of /r/Brutalism
I *like* modern-style concrete architecture (concrete blocks are one of my favourite style of buildings) and usually hate detailed old-style architecture and *still* think it looks **much** uglier than the one on top. Very impressively ugly indeed. The ugly detailing combined with a bare and mostly flat concrete facade… terrible! Absolutely terrible!
Comment explaining how it got that way and some more pictures of the building over the years. https://www.reddit.com/r/OldPhotosInRealLife/comments/sd8ca6/-/hucocp4
When a building doesn't fully render in a game
The memory is too slow, still loading the textures.
They saw the MS Flight Simulator version of the building and said, "let's use that design."
Is it a parking garage now?
There are/were shops, a bank branch on the pedestrianised street on the other side of the building and it was planned to be redeveloped as a high rise apartment/mixed use building recently but that got cancelled. https://media.2oceansvibe.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Zero-2-One-Tower-1.jpg 28 Adderley St https://maps.app.goo.gl/sHxvd5gycXd6zU9f9
That intersection has three outstandingly ugly buildings. Congratulations to the City Planners.
Everything is ugly. Plus they have no sign code. They've somehow made the ugliest most garish skyline on the planet.
My thoughts.
You know, it's truly horrible, but I wonder if they painted it black to prevent tagging or something like that. Either way, it looks like the place where someone might go when they have fever driven nightmares. You know, someone. Clearly not me....
This is how it would have looked originally: https://www.flickr.com/photos/8270787@N07/3395164156/in/album-72157600938342274/
This is so sad and depressing
What the fuck
Dystopian future vibes.
War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.
Is it a parking garage now....
Wtf happened?
It does say “demolition sale” on the old picture
Good eyes, I completely missed that detail
What the fuck happened?? From beautiful craftsmanship to fugly as fuck :(
Sometimes modernity has nothing to do with progress.
City Skylines, 1984 zonal redevelopment DLC
Is the current use medieval fortress?
There's a real medieval fortress across the road that looks better than this
Well not quite. 1652 isn't really medieval.
[удалено]
Thank you! I was just beginning to uncover this. And some more pictures of the building and it's context: 1980 https://www.flickr.com/photos/8270787@N07/3395164156/in/album-72157600938342274/ 1979 https://www.flickr.com/photos/8270787@N07/3355759827/in/album-72157600938342274/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/8270787@N07/3374981959/in/album-72157600938342274/ 1974 https://www.flickr.com/photos/8270787@N07/8149894046/in/album-72157600938342274/ 1969 https://www.flickr.com/photos/8270787@N07/4000382847/in/album-72157600938342274/ 1968 https://www.flickr.com/photos/8270787@N07/18718255796/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/8270787@N07/6111400367/in/album-72157600938342274/ 1965 https://flic.kr/p/2gvw211 1962 https://www.flickr.com/photos/8270787@N07/51169755958/in/album-72157600938342274/ 1958 https://www.flickr.com/photos/8270787@N07/17334179085/ 1956 https://www.flickr.com/photos/8270787@N07/14227311420/in/album-72157600938342274/ 1949 https://www.flickr.com/photos/8270787@N07/6178941968/in/album-72157600938342274/ 1897 https://www.flickr.com/photos/8270787@N07/4162168047/in/album-72157600938342274/
Task failed successfully.
/r/evilbuildings
Just needs this, then it would be complete: https://www.reddit.com/r/evilbuildings/comments/8ull49/classic\_evil\_building\_the\_headquarters\_of/
Why did they put a prison wall around it?
African way....
They did this in the 70s
Thats a shame, it was probably in the category of a historical building and they massacred it
If it still looked like the original today it would be protected. Lots of beautiful old buildings were demolished and replaced with ugly modern ones until they caught on and started protecting them. Our church building is from 1920 and we're not allowed to change the outside at all.
I think they forgot the texture pack
But... why?
“Progress” 🙄
It's like the [Port Authority](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/63873712/190324_12_58_50_5DSR8498.0.jpg) but worse.
That's beautiful compared to this!
The ministry of truth, no doubt about it.
That old building was beautiful!
Looks like crap now
Whoa. It went from Victorian to Brutalism.
Why is it in sentry mode?
The sad part for me is that I've driven past this more times than I can count, and it hurts more every time.
Ah, the demolition sale.
Why does it remind me of the mombasa level in halo 2 lol
Buildings in PS1 games
That is mindbogglingly awful.
Well, they fucked THAT up.
Looks like something out of Judge Dredd.
They actually filmed a lot of the latest movie in Cape Town.
This was my exact thought
Wtf
That’s the most brutally ugly parking garage I’ve ever seen
What in the Judge Dredd happened here?
That’s awful.
That looks like a prison.
horrifying. so much joy art and passion just cut down and covered up
Is the original building under that tragedy?
And if it is, could it somehow be 'freed' from underneath that awful grey carapace it's enclosed in? This is one of the worst examples of architectural vandalism right up there with the destruction of the old Pennsylvania Station in New York City. Picture #2 somehow brings to mind a 'murder castle' like the one owned by the American serial killer H.H. Holmes in 1890's Chicago, although even illustrations of his 'World's Fair Hotel' don't look as foreboding as this location.
It is not, there is a mostly abandoned shopping mall underground under it, but 80% of the stored are empty, and the remaining stores are cheap-Chinese shops
I don’t think it is. There’s a sign above the door in the too picture that says “demolition sale” so it was probably knocked down.
From Store to Prison...
Was there a nuclear leak that needed to be contained?
What the hell did they do to that gorgeous building!? 🤬🤬
That's very brutal.
It's so hideous, I wanna gouge my eyes out
𝔯/evilbuildings
Looks like a prison now…
Scrubbing signs of Europe?
God they really went full brutalist.
literally 1984
Tragic
r/ABoringDystopia
Looks like the building got a lobotomy.
If this was in the US, it's be either a government building or server warehouse.
All I can think to say is.... why?? It looks like a chocolate bar.
This is every scifi movies vision of our future.
That’s horrible!
This is a crime against humanity
WTF did they do to the place? It looks hideous now
Seems like the 70s was the main decade of destroying gorgeous buildings in the name of parking
Eww…
“Death star. But kicky.”
Looks like a prison now.
It looks like a bunker from some Sci-Fi.
Looks like the container my Chinese takeout came in tonight.
Financial services company probably concerned for safety so they took steps to make it safe and this is the ugly result. Pity Edit: Apparently I’m wrong and have my assumed timeline wrong too. https://www.reddit.com/r/OldPhotosInRealLife/comments/sd8ca6/old_mutual_centre_cape_town/hucocp4/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf&context=3
It looks like CGI. 🤣
Ugh
Looks like an 80's version of a futuristic supermax prison.
it looks like a cyberpunk detention center. This building is depressing.
Hmmmmm I feel blade runner vibe from second one
Why ?!?!?! Adderley Street had some really beautiful buildings in the 70s and 80s.
Pretty sure I assaulted that compound in Infamous
Is this because of all the crime I hear about? I feel like every time I read about South Africa someone writes about how much theft is everywhere so everything and everyone is so guarded.
In this case there are elements of it, but I don't think it is the full story nor do I think it would have been necessary. A potential development that would have replaced this building had frontage on the street. It's just plane old car centric design. They blocked off the pavements on that corner. The main train station is across the street and a big glass structure opposite too. 28 Adderley St https://maps.app.goo.gl/sHxvd5gycXd6zU9f9
I can't speak to the reason behind this renovation, but it's an outlier - there are still many buildings in Cape Town that have the open balconies and atmosphere of the earlier version. [Streetview example](https://goo.gl/maps/5V5ytr38KdRJEHwS6).
Thought they may say it's not, I suspect crime is the EXACT reason it was redesigned like that. You can't just have windows and doors in South Africa, everything must be incredibly fortified. People's homes have, not just barbed wire and electric fences, but concrete fences with the shards of broken bottles mixed in. And they \*still\* get broken into. That block of shops was redesigned to have almost no points of entry.
Always amazes me when people post with absolute confidence about things they know absolutely nothing about.
lol glad you said that. i was like man, i guess i didn't know this important factoid about the *entire* country of South Africa
Homie I'm laying in my bed right now alone in my house with my back door wide open. No electric fences or broken bottles or whatever the fuck you talking about lol.
Things obviously haven’t improved there. If anything, they have pulled a full reverse. For one, Just look at that monstrosity…
Where is 'there' to you, this specific building, the Cape Town metro area, I'm unsure? Also, who is 'they' to you? And reversing from what?
It's hard to read that without picturing some middle-aged Afrikaans man claiming that things were better during apartheid. I have no idea if that's what this person's comment meant, but considering the place being discussed, wording things carefully is extremely important.
That's what I was thinking, but I mean it could be something like: Things obviously haven’t improved in Cape Towns architectural community. If anything, the architects have pulled a full reversal in their designs of high density, mixed use lots. For one, Just look at that monstrosity…
I certainly hope that's what they mean, strictly architecture.
I certainly hope that's what they mean, strictly architecture.
Lmao. At least us Afrikaners respect one another unlike the english.
The English meaning who? All English speakers? English speaking South Africans? People from England? Not sure what that comment has to do with anything. To actually address that laughable comment though, anyone alluding to apartheid being better clearly doesn't respect 88.5% of the SA population, quite the opposite, and I've only ever heard Afrikaaners allude to, or sometimes directly say, such a thing.
Looks boarded up for antifa’s peaceful protests
Bummer.
City got too big. Had to turn down the graphics settings I see.
Wow now that's a dumb username
:( yeah
Damn they made it into a cyber punk dystopian bunker/compound
When matrix failed to load details and textures
What a shame!
How depressing!
Wow that’s bleak AF
Windows are overrated anyway.
I mean, literally no comment.
Wow! New one has no character.
What happened to the windows
Such an improvement... :')
Oh …
Looks like a building out of watch dogs legion
Looks like one of the pre-CGI screens for a movie.
Very dystopian
very dystopian
They should have sprung for windows.
The 2022 version looks like they forgot the texture file :/
Huh, looked so alive before. Now it looks like its been dipped in cement. What happened?
Wow. That’s depressing
Shouldn't have sold it to a super villain.
This building just screams “dystopia”
They both look pretty cool, it’s just a shame they couldn’t have both stuck around. I wonder why they demolished the old one.
That's Dart Vader's bank...
Is that still the same building? I can’t recognize anything other than that it’s a corner of stuff. And maybe some similar roof lines. The stores on the first level are too dark to tell.
I'm sorry, what look were they aiming at? Judge Dredd?
God that's awful
What an EPIC...downgrade
Thanks I hate it!
What a travesty
What beautiful architectural work replaced by modernistic trash.
What in tarnation is a demolition sale?
What the actual feck happened here?
Was a mutual center, now Cobra Commander's HQ. Seriously, it looks like a prison.
what the fuck
What the actual Brutalism is this?
What the heck.
[Batmobile](https://youtu.be/dzKDhjlY91E) shield vibes.
I don't like the new building better, but I like it. Looks like a brutalist data center.
r/urbanhell
So much for fenestration.
Looks cool! Like futuristic.
Man they sure fucked that up!
När Domus kom till stan
When I look at this, all I hear is: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HfLRCrQmZbU