The Building That Looks Like a Penis

Erecting record-breaking buildings seems to have become a fierce competition in the last decades. Owning it is a matter of great pride, not only for the builders � which gain a lot of fame and also a lot of money � but also for the hosting country, which will benefit from having one of the most important tourist attractions in the world.

Some of the buildings out there are really strange and usually produce amazement and admiration towards the designer. Well, this one did exactly the opposite, and has managed to give birth to many controversies, because of its revolutionary design.

A new building about to be erected in San Diego has city residents protesting against it even though it is only a project, for now. The problem is the fact that there's too much "erection" involved in the project, since the building looks like a penis.

At least that's what many citizens think, despite the good intentions of the designers, who wanted to introduce a new organic approach to the 40-story-high residential building.

"If it looks like a phallic symbol, someone has a strange perception," says Sandor Shapery, the San Diego-based developer behind the design. "You can find sex anywhere if you want to...There's just some sick people out there."

Pugh + Scarpa's architect Gwynne Pugh seems to agree, at least in part, with the allegations, as he was hired by a downtown redevelopment agency to analyze the new building designs. "With its rounded forms and swelling of the uppermost floors...this building structure is very phallic," he says.

The poor architects are puzzled by the negative reaction, since they only wanted to design a building which would meet the highest energy conservation standards, like recycling water from the cooling system for use in the swimming pool, laundry, and irrigation.

Some modifications are now planned before the next review, but some people seem to always find a phallic symbol, in just about anything they see. Probably the best comment comes from a reader, who says: "The only thing it's missing is a giant fountain on the roof."