So, is Rotterdam a nice or an ugly looking city? I went through it on the bus on the way to Amsterdam the other week - I asked a bunch of people and they didn't reach a consensus. For those who don't know, due to the important port in Rotterdam, the city was almost completely destroyed in WWII. It has almost none of the historical architecture that other Dutch cities are known for, so opinion is divided between those who like the modern buildings and those who hate them.
We actually talked about that during the meetup Thursday. Some people say that Rotterdam was bombarded twice: once by Germans and once by architects. Rotterdam is a city that really wanted to be cool and trendy (which was modernistic architecture after the war), so it's a city of modern buildings and far too much open space by Dutch standards.
It seems a very pleasant city, however, architecturally speaking, it doesn't suit my personal tastes. I don't feel that modern architecture consistently ages well. IMO this is typically the case when form is more pronounced than ornamentation. Modern buildings often lack an organic nature which to me, makes them age like consumer goods. They make a statement that is strongly attached to the time in which they were built.