Purely based on Simulator and practice emergency drill experience, when something goes wrong, you are suddenly very busy and very focused on establishing some salient facts:
1. Do you still have a modicum of flight control?
2. Do you have power or are you now a glider?
3. Are you on fire?
4. How likely is it that the answers to 1 through 3 will suddenly change to a less popular option?
Not ever having flown anything with Mr Martin and Mr Baker's option for express transport to the Board of Inquiry, getting on the ground usually dictates looking for a clear area. Depending on your height and speed, that normally means pointing towards what you perceive as a greenish (or blueish, if near a lake/coast) area rather than a greyish area, hopefully grass green, not tree green. As you get closer and lower, and assuming the answer to question 1 is still yes, you might begin to see wires, trees and other hazards, but if the answer to question 2 was no and question 3 was yes, you are probably committed to the spot anyway. Pilots have a healthy sense of self-preservation, so putting it down on a bowling green next to the orphanage might make for good Daily Fail headlines, but the orphans were probably not in the pilot's original landing assessment.
"Do I avoid the buildings if I can?" is a relatively straight forward question to answer. There are undoubtedly cases of stunning heroics and self sacrifice, but if you look at a set of Flight Reference Cards, under "Immediate Actions following Catastrophic failure" it does not (yet) say "Locate nearest Orphanage, Nunnery or Nuclear Processing Facility and land nearby, if possible set transponder code to Alert media, ensure flying suit badges are current".