Federation Square named among world's ugliest buildings on Virtual Tourist website

MELBOURNE'S Federation Square has been named among the 10 ugliest buildings in the world.

Melbourne's Federation Square has been named among the world's ten ugliest buildings by website Virtual Tourist. Picture: Warrick Attwood

MELBOURNE'S Federation Square has been named among the 10 ugliest buildings in the world.

Virtual Tourist puts Fed Square fifth on its list of eyesores, alongside a library in Kosovo, a television tower in Prague and New Zealand's 1970s-era parliament building.

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Editors and members of the popular Virtual Tourist travel network rubbished the $450 million events venue in Melbourne's civic heart, starting with its slogan "Melbourne's Meeting Place".

"We're guessing that this is where city residents meet - to go somewhere else," concluded the judges.

"Frenzied and overly complicated, the chaotic feel of the complex is made worse by a web of unsightly wires from which overhead lights dangle."

Fed Square has been mired in controversy for years, undergoing a redesign before its belated opening in October 2002.

Since then, it has provoked fierce debate among locals and tourists who either love or loathe it.

Its architects Don Bates and Peter Davidson, of Lab Architecture Studios, were out of work for six months after its unveiling as Davidson was besieged with hate mail from angry critics.

However, Fed Square management claims to have attracted a record 8.4 million visitors last year says the venue is among the top two tourist destinations in Victoria, alongside the Queen Victoria Market.

About 55 million people have visited Fed Square since it opened, according to the latest official count.

Virtual Tourist's list, its second annual compendium of ugly structures around the world, was complied by members of the online traveller's network and it editors.

It was released in the US over the weekend.

The ugliest building was the Morris A Mechanic Theatre in Baltimore, Maryland.

New Zealand's 70s-era "beehive" building, a wing of its parliamentary precinct, was ranked number three.

"A slide projector that fell on a wedding cake that fell on a waterwheel is one description of this building known," they write.

Virtual Tourist general manager Giampiero Ambrosi said the structures were awful.

"Many of these buildings don't have the warmth of an ice cube while others dont even seem completed," Giampiero Ambrosi said.

Virtual Tourist's Top 10 Ugliest Buildings in the World

1. Morris A. Mechanic Theater in Baltimore, Maryland

2. Zizkov Television Tower; Prague, Czech Republic

3. ''The Beehive''; Wellington, New Zealand

4. Center Georges Pompidou; Paris, France

5. Federation Square; Melbourne, Australia

6. Petrobras Headquarters; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

7. Markel Building; Richmond, Virginia

8. Michael Lee-Chin Crystal, Royal Ontario Museum; Toronto

9. National Library; Pristina, Kosovo

10. Ryugyong Hotel; Pyongyang, North Korea