When I was visiting my brother and his family in Missoula, Montana, I saw a church building that made me shudder. Now I’m not some flighty design student and fully understand that everything isn’t going to be beautiful. Average means average.

I suppose to have beautiful and average, though, ugly just needs to be there to complete the series. When I walked past this church as I was exploring Missoula, I stopped and stared. I thought, “Seriously? Did some architect actually design and specify those materials? Could he or she really have gotten his or her head that far up his or her butt?”

Here are two photos for you to determine if I’m exaggerating.

I suppose what bothered me most about the design was the wasted money on expensive materials that look cheap. For example, the concrete block looks like the cheapest quality available but is actually a reasonably expensive colored block. Similarly, the material behind the cross looks like OSB board but actually is an expensive stone panel. Generally all the different materials, and the trades that had to stop and start to get them installed, screams poor design to me.

So let me know what you think of this work of art. If you have any photos of buildings you find particularly ugly, shoot them over to me.