Blowhard, Esq. writes:

Although it’s almost two years old (hey, gimme a break, I’m a little slow), I just discovered that billionaire crony capitalist Carlos Slim has built a museum in Mexico City to house his fine art collection.

First, let us praise Señor Slim for giving back as admission to the museum will be free. Even if it’s in some way a monument to his ego, that doesn’t negate the fact that its 66,000-pieece collection — including works by Dali, Picasso, Da Vinci, Renoir, Miro, Van Gogh, Matisse, Tintoretto, and El Greco — won’t tangibly benefit the public.

Now that that’s out of the way, the building is a hideous piece of crap. Designed by Fernando Romero (Slim’s son-in-law) with engineering assistance by Frank Gehry and Ove Arup, the structure looks like a severed appendage from T-1000 or a disco ball that’s morphing into a butt plug.

Building-as-sculpture, blobitecture, an anti-human façade that contemptibly refuses to address the surrounding environment — check, check, check. And how expensive will it be to maintain all those shiny tiles over the years?

The antiseptic white gallery.

Well, OK, the hardwood floor is nice and adds a little interest. I guess we should be happy they didn’t go with concrete.

Related

• Oakland local Sally Ann Berk brought this other example of building-as-sculpture to my attention. Bonus points for rudely disrupting the traditional character of the neighborhood. (The building, not Sally. Sally’s cool.)