Architectural horrors: Shanghai's new cruise ship terminal

Shanghai has some insanely ugly buildings, but I was of the impression that they had scaled back on the craziness a little bit in the last couple of years. I don't know how I'd gotten that impression. This monstrosity, designed by SPARCH Architects, is going to be Shanghai's new cruise-ship terminal.

Called the "Shanghai Chandelier," it was "designed in part in response to some Shanghai city planners' desire to open up the notoriously jam-packed city in anticipation of the 2010 Expo," says Fast Company. Pod-like restaurants and bars are suspended by cables from a 130-foot-high, glass-clad archway. By lifting the restaurants off the ground, those walking through get a view of the new waterfront park.

There's nothing wrong with that concept or whoever's idea it was to put the entire terminal underground or some other interesting sounding doodads being incorporated into the building. Apparently, it'll use 'River Water Cooling Technology' with water from the Huang Pu acting as a refrigerant.

But why the garish colors, exactly? Why the nonsensical circus pods? Why the unbalanced look of curves and squares, see-through and opaque windows? Why the open, large and largely useless front space? I'm hoping that when this opens, it looks a lot better than what these photos are showing me right now.