The campuses I know best, Penn and UW, are a mixture of the gorgeous and unfortunate, which, in a way, gives them a nice, lived-in look. They've grown over time and so have buildings reflecting a variety of architectural trends, budget crunches and splurges, and the like.

And I do tend to prefer old-school architecture to the modern kind--sometimes I feel like my aesthetic century is the 18th, and none of the fashions have been quite as beautiful after 1815 or so, be they music, architecture, clothing, or whatever. But I definitely differentiate between "not my style, but attractive for what it is" and "OMG WTF were they thinking?!"

Modern architecture is often much nicer on the inside than the outside, imho.

What looks like a barely clever box with some sort of jaunty roof angle ends up being this airy bathed in light space with amazing views and flow.

I know there's a lot of Pratchett fans here, and thus I'm assuming that they would want to hear some bad news that's just come out -- he's been diagnosed with the beginning stages of a form of Alzheimers.

[link]

We've been mourning that news in Literary, Theo.

a mixture of the gorgeous and unfortunate

I remember Tulane as the same. Big 19th century neo-Gothic at one end of the main quad, modern box on stilts (so the sidewalk could run under it) at the other, with social sciences in the middle in a wood frame building that would be only moderately out of place in the residential area of a small town.

a mixture of the gorgeous and unfortunate

This is actually my favorite school of campus architecture -- I've never been a fan of Everything Matches schools. They look to me like housing developments. Or bridesmaids. But when you've got a campus that developed over time and across a range of styles, you're gonna have some stinkers...

Why does Office Depot feel housing pain? My elevator shouldn't force me to google.

Ahhh, I am already feeling the benefit of giving notice. I got out of a meeting on a new project. WHEE!

I've always found UTEP's architecture to be striking: [link]

Too bad it is in such an ugly city (nice geography, El Paso is just ugly.)

I just don't see what's so wrong with brick. When you've got building after building of concrete, yuck. But brick... it may not be pretty, but it doesn't approach the sheer ugliness of concrete.