Bailout Architecture.

Hypo Group Alpe Adria Building - designed by Morphosis

Taxpayers fund another bank bailout. Austria nationalizes the troubled financial institution Hypo Alpe Adria. Approximate cost: about 1.5 billion euro.

Why mention this - after a year of financial crisis?

I wonder about all the headquarter buildings which are now (involuntarily) symbols of mismanagement. What happened to all the (built) good intentions?

Like the Hypo Alpe Adria headquarters in Klagenfurt, Austria - built in 2000 by Morphosis. The former "signature-building" got now the symbol of the bank's decline.

(See the "image-film" of the troubled bank: from the movie's text: "Whatever the future has in store, banking still is – and always will be – a people business, where a smile makes all the difference in the world.")

Cartoon of the Hypo bailout (from "Der Standard")