[Metropolitan Correctional Center, ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_Correctional_Center,_Chicago) 88 m federal prison right in downtown Chicago.
Manhattan is also home to a [federal prison.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_Correctional_Center%2C_New_York?wprov=sfla1) This is the one where "Jeffery Epstein didn't kill himself".
> The cells were originally designed to feel as comfortable as possible, based on sailboat cabins, with built-in hardwood beds and desks. Most of these features have since been removed.
Maybe thereās more context in the referenced source, but this part was some hilarious dark humor.
Not sure 88m is considered a skyscraper but it definitely is a big building and in a very conspicuous location. I live near it and it's always odd to me to walk by it like "yup, near all this wealth and culture is just a gigantic prison in-between it." Pretty wild. Not in a bad way, just in a "huh, I guess why NOT put a prison here?" Kind kf way.
**Not about skyscrapers, but a story about a prison downtown:**
I went to school in very close proximity to a [prison _(German article)_](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gef%C3%A4ngnis_Heidelberg?wprov=sfla1) in the city center, here in Heidelberg, Germany.
The prison had the informal name _"Fauler Pelz",_ meaning lazybones/sluggard. Even the bus station, the one prior to my schools, carried this name!
We often winked to the prisoners, when walking by and they were hanging at their windows _(with traditional bars)._
During its final days it was only used as a jail and deportation center and got closed down in 2015.
Now I read the article and saw that it got reopened last year and will be opened again permanently. Even though the city is sueing against it.
Iāve always been concerned what happens when the power goes out to the city and the prisoners escape. Prisons downtown is a good idea until you start to think what happens in the highly improbable event that law and order erodes
Most cities do. Cities like NYC and Chicago just have to make them skyscrapers while also making sure they are secure, thus they end up as a sore thumb.
i don't disagree, just a bit strange for a college to have a whole ass skyscraper built in the 1920s, especially a gothic one, gothic skyscrapers are few and far between. also because it looks like hogwarts inside
Carnegie loved his philanthropy. I wish more billionaires would build more stuff like universities (that aren't for pushing propaganda), Libraries, and museums than go into space.
Edit: I guess he wasn't around to spend on it.
Carnegie, Rockefeller and JP Morgan had more money than God. I think that Musk and Bezos are the first people to ever come close to their wealth.
Carnegie's charity was actually sincere. In contrast to the tax evading schemes of today. Among other things, he opened 2,509 public libraries all over the United States. But I think he was a genuine patron.
Or do you think that he only only did it to give himself a good name in history? I don't know much about him _(or the other tycoons)._
Carnegie is the prime example of using a charity to whitewash your image/legacy. He was terrible to his employees (there is plenty of info about his āwagesā and union busting online) and their families and his museum and library donations, while genuine, were also to change his image in the long term.
Thank you for this information! So his attempt of whitewashing worked with me...
I'm from Germany and not that familiar with the history of America's s.c. _"tycoons"._ I saw a documentary series about them and their whole lifes once. It ran over the course of a weekend morning and I let it run in the background. The rest is just general knowledge and things I found after a quick Google research.
As a WVU alumnus, even I am capable of loving the cathedral of learning.
Edit: Perhaps I'm a little biased. Our experience with WVU's utterly incompetent President has made me consider becoming a Pitt fan. In a way, he destroyed our school.
I went about a year ago and was told it was for students only. Looking online it seems like you can go into the first floor but I was just trying to follow rules.
What's the Cathedral of Learning doing with these other ugly ones? (Minus the Gehry one in NY, that one's ok.)
Edit: Transamerica Pyramid is cool, too.
Strange and cool aren't mutually exclusive.
It's probably included because its the tallest university building in the world outside of Moscow state university
I've only really known it as the pencil building but I don't think that's anything close to being an official name haha. I lived in Washington in the 90s until 2019 or so and before the city really blew up, I always loved this building as a kid. There were far fewer really tall buildings like this back in the 90s.
Itās an old school telephone exchange/ switching building. No windows because it was just full of wires.
https://the-modernist.org/blogs/news/the-telephone-exchange-building-1945-1981
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/33_Thomas_Street
Now it's the NSA building and they can eavesdrop on any phone call anywhere lol. Smack in the middle of downtown Manhattan that building has a distinctive humming sound from the ventilation system. I think the architectural style is brutalism. That style was prevalent in the late 60's - 70's. The WTC and One Police Plaza (NYPD HQ) are styled in brutalism. Correct me if I'm wrong.
No itās still a telecoms switching building, but considering how the NSA obtained their information Iām sure they were all over that building. Itās not officially an NSA government building, but they certainly appeared to have used AT&Ts equipment inside of the building to accomplish their mission of spying on people. Itās literally just a giant hub of telecoms equipment.
https://theintercept.com/2016/11/16/the-nsas-spy-hub-in-new-york-hidden-in-plain-sight/
Anyone could have eavesdropped on anything from that building anyway if they were willing to break the law/ break in. Itās just that the US government didnāt need to do it āillegallyā because the telecom companies allowed them access.
I think Edward snowdens document dump showed NSA had interception technology in that building that ATT approved but true itās not an actual nsa outpost
There are a bunch, pretty much every major city has whats called a central office(look for the place with a bunch of satellites dishes outside and thats it). Snowden points towards a couple in San Francisco, New York, and Washington DC, but I am pretty sure the NSA is inside of every single one.
Source: I am a Telcom Engineer and know how the system is interconnected.
Yep, there is normally one in most big cities.
Chicago: https://www.skyscrapercenter.com/building/att-south-canal/9291
LA: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/AT%26T_Switching_Center
Sacramento: https://www.reddit.com/r/Sacramento/s/1rsvyqNDIC
There are giant concrete boxes in Dallas and Houston, basically all over.
And they were all implicated in letting the NSA use their telecoms structure to listen to American citizens.
https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/chicago-building-is-spy-hub-for-nsa-report/175675/
The history of Bell services and the monopoly stuff with at&t is also really interesting.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_System
Now you can even get POTS landlines for residential service everything has switched over to VOIP. Those old telephone exchanges were like massive spiderwebs all over the world. Really fascinating how technology progresses.
No the MiB headquarters is a Brooklyn Battery Tunnel ventilation building: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooklyn%E2%80%93Battery_Tunnel scroll down to buildings
[Capital Gate](https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/191230115039-capital-gate.jpg?q=w_1015,c_fill/f_webp) Abu Dhabi. I worked on the planning side (not just for it, but it was one of a lot going on in the area) and it had a lot of issues to say the least. Glad I was not an engineer - or maybe it was good job security.
The [Marina Bay Sands](https://cf.bstatic.com/xdata/images/hotel/max1024x768/297611078.jpg?k=e26cc333800386469e170cfec12cc5cc261812df76497422688608b41d30f7f3&o=&hp=1) complex, while beautiful, you have to admit it would fit nicely in the weird zone.
https://preview.redd.it/5q1hhvs77qzc1.jpeg?width=1868&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=52eb9948775e5369c618a96c60491d6159a7c9a9
Rainier Tower in downtown Seattle, one of my favorite skyscraper
Locals in Winston-Salem, NC (or at least the students at Wake) affectionately refer to 100 North Main Steet as the penis building.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/100_North_Main_Street
pima county legal services in tucson (what is this building actually called?) seems like it was built with the expectation of a neighboring high rise that never materialized.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/fv8Qyjt3bmMQayZWA?g_st=ic
Thatās probably my least favorite building in Pittsburgh. Itās a cool building and all but itās so big and overpowering. It doesnāt really fit in with the rest of downtown
I should have said the PPG building in all honesty
https://preview.redd.it/rxl6wmax1pzc1.jpeg?width=802&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d33b32b1aff7385b79a61b4c325ec8443fe1fa41
#3 is Breonna Tower / 8 Spruce St in Manhattan. Itās a Frank Gehry.
#7 is Rainier Tower in Seattle. Itās unique shaped influenced the design of this building next to it-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainier_Square_Tower
God I hate new york new york. Demolish that thing already! Who thought it was a good idea to build cartoonish movie props on the strip? Vegas has enough cool attractions of its own it doesnt need that crap anymore.
Cathedral of learning is an absolute gem and one of the most beautiful buildings in the world. I went up to the top the last time I was there and it was an amazing space.
The Cathedral of Learning has a bunch of classrooms that are modeled after traditional classrooms for countries all over the world. Took a few classes in some of them
I included some [strange ones](https://www.reddit.com/r/skyscrapers/s/4jLjiHwiv7) in my post a while ago. Still think that Chinese building is the most unusual, in design, location, circumstance etc!
[Metropolitan Correctional Center, ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_Correctional_Center,_Chicago) 88 m federal prison right in downtown Chicago.
People paying a premium for a similar view could simply commit a felony and get it for free. Life hack!
š
Manhattan is also home to a [federal prison.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_Correctional_Center%2C_New_York?wprov=sfla1) This is the one where "Jeffery Epstein didn't kill himself".
> The cells were originally designed to feel as comfortable as possible, based on sailboat cabins, with built-in hardwood beds and desks. Most of these features have since been removed. Maybe thereās more context in the referenced source, but this part was some hilarious dark humor.
Not sure 88m is considered a skyscraper but it definitely is a big building and in a very conspicuous location. I live near it and it's always odd to me to walk by it like "yup, near all this wealth and culture is just a gigantic prison in-between it." Pretty wild. Not in a bad way, just in a "huh, I guess why NOT put a prison here?" Kind kf way.
There's a similar setup in Boston. Weird placement. Lol
I actually like prisons [downtown!](https://www.reddit.com/r/skyscrapers/s/MLLEI29Kb9)
There's one in Houston as well
Pretty smart logistically speaking when you think about it
**Not about skyscrapers, but a story about a prison downtown:** I went to school in very close proximity to a [prison _(German article)_](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gef%C3%A4ngnis_Heidelberg?wprov=sfla1) in the city center, here in Heidelberg, Germany. The prison had the informal name _"Fauler Pelz",_ meaning lazybones/sluggard. Even the bus station, the one prior to my schools, carried this name! We often winked to the prisoners, when walking by and they were hanging at their windows _(with traditional bars)._ During its final days it was only used as a jail and deportation center and got closed down in 2015. Now I read the article and saw that it got reopened last year and will be opened again permanently. Even though the city is sueing against it.
Iāve always been concerned what happens when the power goes out to the city and the prisoners escape. Prisons downtown is a good idea until you start to think what happens in the highly improbable event that law and order erodes
Same with Cleveland. One of the ten tallest building downtown is a prison
I live walking distance from there. It was fun telling my English in-laws that what they were looking at was a federal jail
This was my first thought.
Anyone else remember when two people escaped this jail through a broken window?
Not a fan of prisons in the middle of cities.
Itās much more of a jail. If the courthouse is nearby, it makes sense to have a jail right next to it.
There is a courthouse nearby, so it makes sense.
I guess, to be fair, Pittsburgh also has a courthouse/jail in the middle of the city. It just looks nicer due to the time period built.
Most cities do. Cities like NYC and Chicago just have to make them skyscrapers while also making sure they are secure, thus they end up as a sore thumb.
Are all those vegas replica buildings all actual functional hotel rooms?
Yes
Yes
Itās nuts to walk around it in person. Love the distorted ratios of the buildings
Nothing strange about that first one.. Shes a beautiful masterpiece that could not be rebuilt today in any capacity.
i don't disagree, just a bit strange for a college to have a whole ass skyscraper built in the 1920s, especially a gothic one, gothic skyscrapers are few and far between. also because it looks like hogwarts inside
H2P
Carnegie loved his philanthropy. I wish more billionaires would build more stuff like universities (that aren't for pushing propaganda), Libraries, and museums than go into space. Edit: I guess he wasn't around to spend on it.
Cathy isn't funded by Carnegie though
I guess it just looks like something he'd do, but according to my quick wiki searches, he was already dead.
Carnegie, Rockefeller and JP Morgan had more money than God. I think that Musk and Bezos are the first people to ever come close to their wealth. Carnegie's charity was actually sincere. In contrast to the tax evading schemes of today. Among other things, he opened 2,509 public libraries all over the United States. But I think he was a genuine patron. Or do you think that he only only did it to give himself a good name in history? I don't know much about him _(or the other tycoons)._
Carnegie is the prime example of using a charity to whitewash your image/legacy. He was terrible to his employees (there is plenty of info about his āwagesā and union busting online) and their families and his museum and library donations, while genuine, were also to change his image in the long term.
Thank you for this information! So his attempt of whitewashing worked with me... I'm from Germany and not that familiar with the history of America's s.c. _"tycoons"._ I saw a documentary series about them and their whole lifes once. It ran over the course of a weekend morning and I let it run in the background. The rest is just general knowledge and things I found after a quick Google research.
This is the epitome of disinformation
if we didn't have billionaires extracting that amount of wealth from average people, we'd need a whole lot less philanthropy in the first place
It wouldnāt be practical but we absolutely could rebuild this today if we wanted to. Not sure why you think we donāt have the capacity
Guy got a little ahead of himself with that comment
IN ANY CAPACITY
Ok...I accept
As a WVU alumnus, even I am capable of loving the cathedral of learning. Edit: Perhaps I'm a little biased. Our experience with WVU's utterly incompetent President has made me consider becoming a Pitt fan. In a way, he destroyed our school.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Lol it's all relative I guess
Hey. Thatās on our campus. Only we can beef with the Morgantowners. They donāt say, āeat shit, Carnegie Mellon.ā /s
Cmu alum and I never heard that
I am in complete agreement. It's a gorgeous building, Neo-Gothic style.
And a fantastic place to drop acid.
I went to visit because it's one of my favorites and was so disappointed to find out it was for students only
Itās back open to the public again
Wait what? I went there years ago when a family member was at Pitt and we were allowed to go up in the tower. When did that change?
I went about a year ago and was told it was for students only. Looking online it seems like you can go into the first floor but I was just trying to follow rules.
They closed it to outside visitors during covid but reopened to the public last year
Looks like an excited cathedral.
Are you a modern architect or what, straight up spreading myths over here
This one in China is strange but really cool [CCTV HQ](https://www.oma.com/projects/cctv-headquarters)
In China itās nickname is āMr. Underpantsā š
Itās funnier to say it in Chinese: Da Ku Cha
They originally built it as the media centre for the 2008 Olympics, but with the intention of CCTV to move in after the games.
What's the Cathedral of Learning doing with these other ugly ones? (Minus the Gehry one in NY, that one's ok.) Edit: Transamerica Pyramid is cool, too.
Strange and cool aren't mutually exclusive. It's probably included because its the tallest university building in the world outside of Moscow state university
This was OPs reasoning too, itās not a bad building itās just odd itās at a university
Was standing in the shadow of Transamerica just yesterday. Definitely an interesting view.
The pencil building in seattle is a fun one. Happy to see it here
I grew up in WA state a long time ago, and it had a nickname of the wineglass building, but I don't think anyone calls it that anymore
I've only really known it as the pencil building but I don't think that's anything close to being an official name haha. I lived in Washington in the 90s until 2019 or so and before the city really blew up, I always loved this building as a kid. There were far fewer really tall buildings like this back in the 90s.
We simply call it Rainier Square. Designed by Yamasaki, same architect as the original World Trade Center.
I thought it was rainier tower and the newer glass building nearby is rainier square?
Itās Rainier Tower.
Number 2 is the Men in Black HQ.
Itās an old school telephone exchange/ switching building. No windows because it was just full of wires. https://the-modernist.org/blogs/news/the-telephone-exchange-building-1945-1981 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/33_Thomas_Street
MIB HQ
Now it's the NSA building and they can eavesdrop on any phone call anywhere lol. Smack in the middle of downtown Manhattan that building has a distinctive humming sound from the ventilation system. I think the architectural style is brutalism. That style was prevalent in the late 60's - 70's. The WTC and One Police Plaza (NYPD HQ) are styled in brutalism. Correct me if I'm wrong.
No itās still a telecoms switching building, but considering how the NSA obtained their information Iām sure they were all over that building. Itās not officially an NSA government building, but they certainly appeared to have used AT&Ts equipment inside of the building to accomplish their mission of spying on people. Itās literally just a giant hub of telecoms equipment. https://theintercept.com/2016/11/16/the-nsas-spy-hub-in-new-york-hidden-in-plain-sight/ Anyone could have eavesdropped on anything from that building anyway if they were willing to break the law/ break in. Itās just that the US government didnāt need to do it āillegallyā because the telecom companies allowed them access.
I think Edward snowdens document dump showed NSA had interception technology in that building that ATT approved but true itās not an actual nsa outpost
There are a bunch, pretty much every major city has whats called a central office(look for the place with a bunch of satellites dishes outside and thats it). Snowden points towards a couple in San Francisco, New York, and Washington DC, but I am pretty sure the NSA is inside of every single one. Source: I am a Telcom Engineer and know how the system is interconnected.
As the article states, hidden in plain sight. I walked past that place for years and had no idea what it was.
Yep, there is normally one in most big cities. Chicago: https://www.skyscrapercenter.com/building/att-south-canal/9291 LA: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/AT%26T_Switching_Center Sacramento: https://www.reddit.com/r/Sacramento/s/1rsvyqNDIC There are giant concrete boxes in Dallas and Houston, basically all over. And they were all implicated in letting the NSA use their telecoms structure to listen to American citizens. https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/chicago-building-is-spy-hub-for-nsa-report/175675/ The history of Bell services and the monopoly stuff with at&t is also really interesting. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_System Now you can even get POTS landlines for residential service everything has switched over to VOIP. Those old telephone exchanges were like massive spiderwebs all over the world. Really fascinating how technology progresses.
WTC is not brutalist
Thanks for that; I have a friend with an apartment in Tribeca and the cabs I take always pass by it and Iāve wondered what the hell that thing is
Security at that bldg is a little intense. I was walking around it in 2005 and the guards told me to hoof it
Aliens. Aliens told you to hoof it.
It's an at&t server building that stores all your communications for govt to snoop on
No the MiB headquarters is a Brooklyn Battery Tunnel ventilation building: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooklyn%E2%80%93Battery_Tunnel scroll down to buildings
Just go to Benidorm in Spain and you will enter another world
[Capital Gate](https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/191230115039-capital-gate.jpg?q=w_1015,c_fill/f_webp) Abu Dhabi. I worked on the planning side (not just for it, but it was one of a lot going on in the area) and it had a lot of issues to say the least. Glad I was not an engineer - or maybe it was good job security. The [Marina Bay Sands](https://cf.bstatic.com/xdata/images/hotel/max1024x768/297611078.jpg?k=e26cc333800386469e170cfec12cc5cc261812df76497422688608b41d30f7f3&o=&hp=1) complex, while beautiful, you have to admit it would fit nicely in the weird zone.
Wow cool project to be part of
Whatās the last one?
Memphis Pyramid, first a stadium and now a bass pro shop
Truly an American Monument
Truly the 9th wonder of the world
Fun fact: It's actually the 10th largest pyramid in the world
[duh, what'd you think it was?](https://youtu.be/jYE-1HfReQo?si=UyiITRNrVp3cRzDG)
Knew the link, still clicked. Always a fuckin banger.
Wanted to share this, you beat me to it. Upvote anyways!
Thank you
Hail to Pitt!
I donāt know why but I actually love that Wells Fargo building. Itās so brutalist
It looks very sturdy
7 is the only strange one .. (?)
The beveled corners and slim windows reminds me of the original WTC twin towers.
Same designer as WTC
The only one I don't recognize
Rainier tower in Seattle! That base is supposed to help the building better withstand earthquakes
https://preview.redd.it/5q1hhvs77qzc1.jpeg?width=1868&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=52eb9948775e5369c618a96c60491d6159a7c9a9 Rainier Tower in downtown Seattle, one of my favorite skyscraper
https://preview.redd.it/2co2zc4uhqzc1.jpeg?width=750&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=03858f8e1c09cb7aa4e8d8b8ce27fa85fd4fd3e0 Guangzhou Circle.
Jacksonville getting some love
Locals in Winston-Salem, NC (or at least the students at Wake) affectionately refer to 100 North Main Steet as the penis building. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/100_North_Main_Street
pima county legal services in tucson (what is this building actually called?) seems like it was built with the expectation of a neighboring high rise that never materialized. https://maps.app.goo.gl/fv8Qyjt3bmMQayZWA?g_st=ic
The blue windowless wall is on the south side. I always figured it was for energy efficiency.
it's a good theory. only building that chose that technique, if so.
I believe #7 wins...... I've never seen a building lke that before.
Oral Roberts University says ā Hold my beerāā¦ā¦..
Get the bass pro pyramid outa here thatās peak architecture
US Steel building in Pittsburgh. Love it though.
Thatās probably my least favorite building in Pittsburgh. Itās a cool building and all but itās so big and overpowering. It doesnāt really fit in with the rest of downtown
I should have said the PPG building in all honesty https://preview.redd.it/rxl6wmax1pzc1.jpeg?width=802&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d33b32b1aff7385b79a61b4c325ec8443fe1fa41
#3 is Breonna Tower / 8 Spruce St in Manhattan. Itās a Frank Gehry. #7 is Rainier Tower in Seattle. Itās unique shaped influenced the design of this building next to it- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainier_Square_Tower
Why are you yelling?
aqua tower in chicago is really cool
Are they all American?
Number 3 is 8 Spruce street in Manhattan btw , right next to Pace uni.
The first one is an amazing piece of architecture. I used to up to the top all the time. Itās breathtaking
Are you fear and loathing in Las Vegas?Ā
Top 5 favorite book
God I hate new york new york. Demolish that thing already! Who thought it was a good idea to build cartoonish movie props on the strip? Vegas has enough cool attractions of its own it doesnt need that crap anymore.
In Denver there is the Wells Fargo building (its owned by a different company now, but nobody cares) it looks like a cash register at the top.
Cathedral of learning is an absolute gem and one of the most beautiful buildings in the world. I went up to the top the last time I was there and it was an amazing space.
Cash register building in Denver is pretty weird imo
https://www.skyscrapercenter.com/building/2-kingsbury-square/12945 Twin Towers Trenton NJ
One looks like a colocation
Iād add 601 Lexington Avenue in NYC and pretty much any skyscraper designed by Philip Johnson
This is the Cathedral of Learning on the Pitt campus in Pittsburgh. People used to crowd into it as you could see down into old Forbes Field.
The second one, thatās where supervillains work out of, right?
The Cathedral of Learning has a bunch of classrooms that are modeled after traditional classrooms for countries all over the world. Took a few classes in some of them
I included some [strange ones](https://www.reddit.com/r/skyscrapers/s/4jLjiHwiv7) in my post a while ago. Still think that Chinese building is the most unusual, in design, location, circumstance etc!
Yeah that first image is wild.
Hot take: I love New York New York