Favourite building in Dublin?

[Nancy O'Brien]

What is your favourite building in Dublin built in the last 10 years and which architects firm designed it?

likewise, your least liked....

[PaulC]

My favourite(off the top of my head) are...
- Dublin City Council Offices
- Millenium Tower
- Herbert Park Office Development

[fjp]

If it's got to be the last ten years I'll also go with the DCC offices. But the Central Bank isn't one bit happy about this negative time limitation....

least liked: all the crap lego (tm) apartments.

fjp

[GregF]

How about that beautiful hotel they built in Ballsbridge, the Four Season's, or all those beautiful appartments they built along Dublin city quays.........not forgetting the new office blocks down the dock's too......
PS......'I AM MAD' as in (aka) 'Bonkers'.

[dmcg]

but fjp isn't the DCC just a scotts lego-by-numbers public building equivalent of all the unimaginative apartment buildings that are splattered all over our city.......

[deepnote]

yes it is

[fjp]

no it isn't.
it looks excellent.

I can't really explain why it looks good, I just know it does. The proportions/height/length/colour/glass/door/pillary bit all come together to make something that causes my brain to releases happy pills. Lego apartments somehow fail to achieve these simple proportional values and details, and so they end up looking like poo poo. There are many excellent apartment blocks too, but they're in the minority.

fjp

[dmcg]

yeah....undoubtedly it's far from the worst building in town - but top 10 it ain't!
It hardly compares to our cities two other great liffey fronting buildings, namely the customs house and the four courts.
And frankly it is so glaringly an stw building and their, shall we say 'consistent' design approach (ie. isn't it really just an enlarged version of their many other modular set-out granite and glass buildings) just gets my goat. They may be historically the leading firm in Ireland but they are and were loathe to lead in our profession today, and wasted a great opportunity at the DCC on behalf all architects in Ireland to showcase our professions talents.
So generalisations aplenty there...but do you get my point - the DCC is a monument to the QS and not the people of this city who actually paid for it and deserved better!
On a lighter note, (and so I can contribute more positively to the original question) I nominate the wooden building, it's creche and green jungle courtyard as a shoe-in for my top 10.

[deepnote]

it gets my goat too, stuck in the past and proud of it...

[vitruvius]

I don't know who designed it but the one building of the last 10 years that really turns me on is the slim, glass-fronted job next to Columbia Mills on Sir John Rogerson's Quay.
The colour of the glass, the transparency, the lighness of touch - less is more. I adore the way it slopes outward - leaving the rest of the quay behind it! - Gives one hope for the future, I mean if the architect's infill buildings are this good.....

[fjp]

I'll concede that the DCC isn't the ultimate in design, but that's not the point here. I like a number of it's qualities, regardless of whether or not they're cutting edge. I personally appreciate size being as a pure factor, so the DCC building would actually appeal to me more than a smaller but "smarter" building.

If you're going to get your goats got over buildings in dublin being stuck in the past, then your goats are already as got as they can get. This place is screwed, and every time I visit London I have this belief firmly hammered home again (tough: I like London for all it's screw ups - at least it's got the balls to try). I picked a building that appealed to me, and although I understand that it's not "super-duper", I feel it's still quite a worthy building for the reasons I mentioned above.

that make sense???

fjp

[Paul Clerkin]

Yes, and the whole idea of opinion is that everyone should have one, and if we all had the same, wouldnt it be boring.....

[Hugh]

Any support for the Millennium Wing at the National Gallery as laureate?

As for worst, in most cities it's either a hotel or a shopping mall. Any pix available of the Four Seasons?

[Paul Clerkin]

Four Seasons Hotel

[dmcg]

yes I would definitely support the millenium wing though I find it overly fussy and would rather see some cool calm siza like finishing which would allow the spaces themselves to be emphasised. Isn't the finishing pretty shocking though......I would hate to see the snag list which hopefully is still in operation!
Full support also for the nomination of the 4 seasons - what do our planners think as they drive past now I wonder?
Back to the best though and it may be premature but the clarion quay apts do look superb. I would also be a big fan of Zoe's millenium tower.

[thomas o brien]

goes outside the ten year quota me knows but berkly in trinners cant be beat me thinks by athin since, the rest only catch the eye at most as stated above only one opinion