Roches Stores, Henry Street, Dublin

by **d_d_dallas** » Mon Feb 17, 2003 2:49 pm

Check out http://www.roches-stores.ie - some pictures of the new look shop...

by **Niall** » Tue Feb 18, 2003 10:00 am

new look Roches Stores from the photos looks awful, very cheap and nasty...

by **GregF** » Tue Feb 18, 2003 10:11 am

However it looks brighter and better than what was there ........is that cladding or glass I wonder

by **d_d_dallas** » Tue Feb 18, 2003 1:08 pm

Roches looks OK (well in comparison to what it was) - but the propsed Ilac... not too sure. Still anything to bring up that side of Henry St is a plus.

by **Rory W** » Tue Feb 18, 2003 3:33 pm

Nah its like the old one only bigger - boo to this it already looks dated

by **lostcarpark** » Tue Feb 18, 2003 5:55 pm

The New Roches looks remarkably like the Millennium Wing of the art gallery. :-)

James

by **GrahamH** » Tue Feb 18, 2003 11:10 pm

I see they're not even attempting to solve the worst aspect of the current Roches, the fact that it has a 3 storey, 6 building long blank wall as a facade. They're pawning off the Millinium Wing's sophisticated austerity as a solution to their problem.

Its not a solution.

by **Rory W** » Wed Feb 19, 2003 2:57 pm

It looks like a B&Q Warehouse with bits bolted to the side, it's too suburban and dated for this site I agree with Graham about the main problem of a blank facade not being addressed here - obviously they dont like windows

by **Paul Clerkin** » Wed Feb 19, 2003 3:18 pm

No modern shops like windows, look at the upper storeys of Arnotts and see your windows..... Clerys have recently addressed their windows on first floor level and opened upo a few of them to the shop floor.

I think this is great - and I know right well that Roches will not get any thanks for it. They didnt have to remodel the exterior of the store - they could simply have plonked another floor on top and reordered the interior, but no, they've decided to spend money.

This is not Galleries Lafayette hiring Jean Nouvel, this is a mass market cheap chain store and I think they should be commended for the effort. After all they didnt have to....

So what if architecturally its not going to win a RIAI award, its a step in the right direction - Dublin is not going to turn into Barcelona or Paris overnight....

by **GregF** » Wed Feb 19, 2003 3:19 pm

Probably underneath that fancy facade there is a concrete base wall of a substantial thickness. It would be an ordeal maybe to start slicing windows in it......and would eat into their alloted makeover budget. Probably the architects had to work with what resources there were too.
Hence a wallpaper solution has been applied.
Anyone know the name of the architects.

by **d_d_dallas** » Wed Feb 19, 2003 3:22 pm

Aren't ye being a little harsh? It is ROCHES afterall! I'm glad they're trying something - but it's still in keeping the traditional Roches on Henry St look...

by **GrahamH** » Wed Feb 19, 2003 10:20 pm

More like they can't be arsed to remodel the interior of the building to take account of this. How wonderful it would be to have sweeping views of Henry St through new windows, that filled the upper shopping floors with light and interest.

Arnotts also hasn't bothered to utilise their upper windows.

by **StephenC** » Thu Feb 20, 2003 10:58 am

Most retail stores dont.... large window areas mean less retail space. They also have to be cleaned more regularly than normal buildings (for appearences sake). And I agree it is Roches after all and at least they are making and effort to improve on that ghastly 70s creation they are replacing.

by **Rory W** » Thu Feb 20, 2003 2:54 pm

By replacing it with a ghastly 00's update?

Mind you the fact that Roches pulled down Frascati House shows they don't give a toss about architecture. I suppose they dont want to fade their tatty clothes with views of the southside. Even Schuh on O'Connell Street looks better with it's high level display windows rather than bald facade.

On a luck note the original plan for the bhs/penny's building on O'Connell Street had no windows either

by **d_d_dallas** » Thu Feb 20, 2003 3:48 pm

The shop will be out of date before it's even finished! But hey - would Roches want it any other way???

by **pvdz** » Fri Feb 21, 2003 10:25 pm

Definatly,the new Roches is going to look just as bad as the old one, if not actually worse, because our aspirations should have risen a lot since then.

Also while Roches may not be the most progressive clients in the world they didnt actually design the thing themselves and they were obviously up for something modern, which is a suprise considering the state of what happened the last time they trusted modernism. It is so easy for a client to use this as an excuse for a bit of fiddleditwee So a fair bit of responsibility has to be given to the architects for this new 'reworking' budgeting et al considered.

on a more pressing matter, whats the news on Zara moving in to this Roches soon? Has it all been a cruel rumour? I've been waiting for ages for them to come & now theyre even in New York before Dublin!!

by **Niall** » Sat Feb 22, 2003 11:33 am

I agree the new Roches is worse than the old one. No imagination or decent materials used in its design! As for the new look Ilac, don't bother leave it as it is.................

by **J. Seerski** » Mon Feb 24, 2003 12:23 pm

Yep, ZARA is moving in all right. I suppose the development ain't all that bad. Wait and see......

by **Paul Clerkin** » Mon Feb 24, 2003 1:43 pm

Some of the cladding is now visible on Roches, at the M&S end of the building.

by **Peter Fitz** » Tue Feb 25, 2003 12:59 am

now that m&s has been mentioned, i think it is probably the worst building on the street, and the fact that they were given permission to extend a few years ago, further enlarging the blank concrete dump, makes matters worse ...

by **GrahamH** » Tue Feb 25, 2003 11:30 am

Yep, its awful, esp when seen from the far end of Liffey St.

Saw the Roches cladding this morning, looks rather snazzy, but of course it will, when it's brand new, and before we see the other 3 acres tacked on...

by **Paul Clerkin** » Thu Jun 26, 2003 5:34 pm

You can get a good look at Roches now....

by **delta_jacob** » Thu Jun 26, 2003 7:17 pm

perosnally i think the m&s buildings is one of the ugliest in the city.

the new roches store cladding looks fine, but as someone else said previously, it reminds me a bit of a B&Q warehouse.

by **redeoin** » Fri Jun 27, 2003 3:32 pm

It is certainly unusual, and not at all what I was expecting. It all hinges on what happens to the Ilac Centre now. If they can come up with something to compliment the new facade, it could turn 'bold' and 'imaginative' into bold and imaginative.

As for M&S, the front of it is a disgrace, but the side of it really makes Liffey St look cheap. At times you would despair of Dublin; for every okay street there is an unnecessarily rundown bargain basement street just around the corner.

by **redeoin** » Fri Jun 27, 2003 3:35 pm

I don't like the lamps or the flags on henry St anyway. They completely crowd a fairly narrow street. The street should use wall lamps, and the flagpoles should be removed altogether. Every time I look down the street I can't get over how cluttered it is.

Roches Stores, Henry Street, Dublin

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