In an essay titled “ Why Is Everything So Ugly? ” published in n+1’s Winter 2023 issue, the magazine’s editors explored a wide range of unattractive, unseemly, and visually depressing phenomena across the contemporary built environment, with journeys into ugly architecture, ugly product design, ugly films, and ugly lighting. The purpose was not to be denunciatory, but rather to taxonomize, to interrogate, and above all to notice. The essay became one of n+1’s most-read pieces ever, and garnered numerous letters to the editor from defenders and critics of ugliness alike. To deepen and continue the conversation, the essay’s authors—n+1 co-editors Lisa Borst and Mark Krotov —will join architectural historian and editor Mariana Mogilevich , film editor and writer Blair McClendon , and painter and critic Dushko Petrovich Córdova and endeavor to theorize contemporary ugliness in architecture and beyond.…