KEY POINTS:
Nothing is so horrendous that a lick of paint won't soon fix it, the manager of Auckland's worst building reckons.
Yesterday, Trish Miles was soaking up the ignominious honour awarded by an online survey of 2500 people to find the city's best and worst buildings.
Ms Miles' Newton
Comfort Inn and Suites on Newton Rd finished at the wrong end.
Voters in the online competition at bestandworst.co.nz were given a shortlist of 30 buildings from which to choose the best and the worst examples of Auckland architecture.
They picked her workplace as the worst.
Ms Miles said the verdict was probably well deserved - it was the garish colour people disliked the most.
"The green and these funny facades ... they don't swing my wheels much really. It's very well designed, we've got absolutely huge rooms, people are blown away.
"It's just butt ugly."
While people might drive past the eyesore, there were others who were worse off. Herself, mainly.
"You think the people voting had it hard. What about me? I have to come to work in it every day."
But the award could be the leverage she needs to get the bosses to act - she's been hoping for the past year to get a mocha-latte colour scheme, which has been on her computer, on to the exterior. The owners might be a bit more receptive now, she joked.
"This sort of publicity is just what I need to persuade the powers that be to get the building painted sooner rather than later."
And there's no accounting for taste. She said she understood the building won an award when it was built a decade ago, but her Google searching yesterday had come to nothing.
So did her search for the architects who designed the inn.
The other buildings in the bottom five were the Auckland City Council headquarters, Scene Apartments, the Tank Farm and the Downtown Shopping Centre.
On the flip side, city dwellers love nothing more than the Auckland War Memorial Museum, followed by the Auckland Ferry Building, Chancery, West Plaza and Metropolis.
Museum director Vanda Vitali said the 80-year-old landmark had stood the test of time.
"That it continues to hold such a place in the heart of our public is a testament to the people who built this remarkable place of remembrance."
But the list also showed that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. The Sky Tower ranked as the sixth best and 10th worst, and Princes Wharf ranked as 15th best and 14th worst.
Ignite Architects ran the survey, and hope to make it an annual event.
Managing director Jeremy Whelan said it had succeeded in getting Aucklanders to engage in healthy debate about architecture.
