The emoji building. Picture: Bart van Hoek/Attika Architekten

A new building in the Netherlands features 22 emoji faces — from the heart-eyed smiley to the tongue-sticking-out winker — on its facade.

The structure, which faces a leafy square in the city of Amersfoort, has shops on the ground floor and apartments above. Though it finished construction in 2015 and move-ins started last year, the concrete-cast emojis were installed recently and official photos were just released.

After architect Changiz Tehrani of Dutch firm Attika Architekten did an interview with tech site The Verge this week, building images went viral, prompting outrage, disbelief and chuckles from all corners.

“This is where we’re at society,” tweeted @JeffFermin. User @Oryender chimed in with a proclamation: “The death of classy architecture.” And @DevannePena expressed her opinion of the building by posting a GIF of Elmo throwing his hands up in front of a raging fire.

For his part, Tehrani is happy with the building, called Plein Rond de Eik, and claims it’s an undeniable sign of the times.

The emoji building. Picture: Bart van Hoek/Attika ArchitektenSource:Supplied

The emoji building. Picture: Bart van Hoek/Attika ArchitektenSource:Supplied

The emoji building. Picture: Bart van Hoek/Attika ArchitektenSource:Supplied

The emoji building. Picture: Bart van Hoek/Attika ArchitektenSource:Supplied

The emoji building. Picture: Bart van Hoek/Attika ArchitektenSource:Supplied

Architect Changiz Tehrani. Picture: Bart van Hoek/Attika ArchitektenSource:Supplied

“In classical architecture they used heads of the king or whatever, and they put that on the facade,” Tehrani told The Verge. “So we were thinking, what can we use as an ornament so when you look at this building in 10 or 20 years you can say, ‘Hey, this is from that year!’” (Heads of kings are, like, so 1917.)

Of more than 1000 emojis available, Tehrani and his team chose 22 of the faces from the chat platform WhatsApp to cast in concrete. He added that students in the school across the square love photographing it.

“Emoji is a thing of now,” Tehrani said. “We always like to put in small details that makes the project a little bit more than a boring building.”

Critics and fans are pondering big questions. Are these emojis modern-day gargoyles? Or grotesques? (Some others might think they’re simply grotesque.)

The building just might be “one of the most 21st century things you’ll ever see.” CityLab editors are debating whether “architecture can be light and sweet and filled with visual relief, even gags” or if “this rendition is too cute.” Most agree that, given the rapid pace of technological change, the building will date itself pretty quickly.

“Maybe we won’t use emoji in 10 years — that’s fine,” Tehrani said. “It’s still from our time.”

Millennials, meet the architecture of your generation. Smirky face.

This article originally appeared on New York Post and was reproduced with permission.