There is a lot of awkward architecture around. Conference centers, trade centers, convention centers, exhibition halls, stadiums, multi-purpose buildings. Good for whatever they´re built for, but as single standing buildings in most cases an optical insult. Very few of them are architectural highlights, seldom do they snuggly fit into a city´s skyline. Only in very few cases is a city so ugly that a convention center stands out as a gem in urban solitude. There are some enormous buildings that look like a UFO after an emergency landing, very sleek and cool, or just like out of the Metropolis filmset. The Klinikum in Aachen, Germany, is one example that springs to mind. Another is the German Chancellery in Berlin. 

Recently I have been to The Washington Convention Center. While the exterior is not so dramatic, its inner life is quite awkward. I have come up with the term "awkward architecture", because the out-of-scale dimensions and the sheer size of the buildings, although they seem to be needed, are not easy to incorporate into the normal grid of a city. Inside of these buildings there is a lot going on, and most of the space is somehow being used, but there are still some parts that suggest a great emptiness.

More pics of Convention Center and other scenes.