Block G Spencer Dock

[reddy]

I would think that a skyline is formed directly from various tall(er) buildings
example: Dublin city has no skyline , whereas most large cities of planet earth (throw a dart at a map you'll find one) have taller buildings and that is what gives 'em their skyline.

http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=Prague+skyline

http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=Oxford+skyline

http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=Edinburgh+skyline

http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=Rome+skyline&m=text

http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=San+Miniato+skyline&m=text

Just a few examples of beautiful cities with beautiful skylines which have nothing to do with tall buildings, but topography, punctuation, and the historical overlay of layers in the city's development. There's an art to creating a quiet, ordinary building.

[johnglas]

reddy: thanks for illustrating my point, and I don't have an aversion to all tall bldgs, just the assertion that they are the defining principle of 'modern' urban design.

[paul h]

Yes excellent examples of beautiful cities.
But you cant honestly compare us to Prague or Rome? Somewhere more like Liverpool would be a closer comparison i would have thought

[cgcsb]

I would think that a skyline is formed directly from various tall(er) buildings
example: Dublin city has no skyline , whereas most large cities of planet earth (throw a dart at a map you'll find one) have taller buildings and that is what gives 'em their skyline.

This building looks faceless, dull ,corporate, just like the rest of the docklands, the only difference is that its a little bit taller than its surroundings.
It's only redeeming factors are that its height attempts to break up the monotony and it's extra few floors give us more elbow room for our large businesses to operate in.

If it is so awful, which I don't think it is, actually it's probably the most pleasing to the eye buildings that has been proposed for Dublin in recent years, Would you enlighten us with what you would find acceptable?

[gunter]

I wish you had posted your . . .

examples of beautiful cities with beautiful skylines which have nothing to do with tall buildings, but topography, punctuation, and the historical overlay of layers in the city's development. There's an art to creating a quiet, ordinary building.

. . . yesterday, you could have saved me a lot of time last night in trying to suppress my rage enough to get down a few sentences.

Others will argue that the absence of any topography east of Parliament Street and the pretty shallow historical layers out that direction justify a big brash splash down in the Docklands, but I don't agree. I think the set-piece of the quays themselves provide all the framework we need to work up a new area of the city that has a real legible connection to the existing character of the city.

It comes back to that question of whether we want to replace Dublin with something else, a different image, a different vision, or whether we actually love Dublin, despite all it's faults, and we want to repair and reinvigorate it.

If you see the quay walls as a plinth, the scale of the river front buildings suggest themselves at the six to eight storeys that they've been using to date. At this scale, even the boring buildings perform a valuable function as the setting for the better ones, the public buildings, the corporate headquarters, the feature towers. At this scale the the landmark towers, the Calatrava bridges, the tilted drums, work as punctuation points. Punctuation doesn't work if someone's been scribbling on the page, which is what these geniuses are now at.

To the extent that darkman and cgcsb see something attractive in this scheme, I can only attribute this to the skill of the 3D guys who have excelled themselves once again and set up a superb colour contrast with the redbrick hotel. I would suggest that Hawkins House, cut and pasted into that view, would look stunning!

[wearnicehats]

it's a little known fact that the miniature statue of liberty in Paris was not, as is popularly thought, dedicated by american parisiens grateful for the gift of the original statue. It was, in fact, made by Irish emigrants, arriving in New York, who presented it to the city as being "of a far more suitable scale for this prominent waterfront area" How it ended up in Paris is lost in the mists of time, rather like An Taisce

[massamann]

I have to admit that I'm with wearnicehats on this one. Every time I see a new thread opened, with it's title referring to a new planning application, I feel a little sense of hope. "Maybe this time the proposal will be well received", I think.

But pretty much 100% of the time the discussion veers towards hoping that the scheme be rejected. Off hand, I can't remember a single thread that was generally positive towards a new proposal (don't worry, I'm sure there was a couple that you can point out to me, but for the life of me I can't remember them).

I believe there is a chicken and egg situation occurring - by constantly rejecting cutting edge or "different" buildings, we're closing off any debate within the general public. Most of what gets built now is bland, simply because it causes the least offense. Which means that Joe Public doesn't care about or recognise good architecture, because what he lives with, in and around is all so grey. I'm leaning towards the "build it anyway" viewpoint - we may end up with some crappy buildings in the short term, but at least it will generate debate on the ground or in the pubs. And that may well encourage the great unwashed to think about the built environment more, so that the next time they decide to move house, they won't simply be happy to purchase an identikit semi-d. Unless we can get this discussion raised as a topic among the average person, then we are going nowhere fast.

And it will lead to more and more of this lowest-common-denominator type stuff getting churned out.....

[gunter]

wearnicehats:

Entertaining as always, but what about a critique of the scheme?

Don't make it too cryptic, some of us went to Bolton Street, you need to keep it simple.

[wearnicehats]

wearnicehats:

Entertaining as always, but what about a critique of the scheme?

Don't make it too cryptic, some of us went to Bolton Street, you need to keep it simple.

is that the only image / drawing? I'd hate to be judged on my passport photo

[Rory W]

some people seem to like office park architecture, as long as it's tall office park architecture - this is dull

[CC105]

It is that photo that looks off scale not the building, I work down beside the conference centre and from the front it has significant presence on the river. This larger building if built will not look out of place beside the conference centre. The conference centre although not that tall highlights what a mess the IFSC 11 extension has been - - never more so if standing on the south side you look down the river towards the east link and look at the AIG building next to the conference centre.

[paul h]

It comes back to that question of whether we want to replace Dublin with something else, a different image, a different vision, or whether we actually love Dublin, despite all it's faults, and we want to repair and reinvigorate it.

No not change but 'add to' or 'grow'
You really think some taller buildings in the docklands will 'replace Dublin' or change its image??
What exactly is our image?
Dirty?
junkie/bum/wino filled?

Dublin is big enough and bold enough to soak up a couple of taller buildings down in her docklands
Chill out kid.

[dan_d]

So...nobody knows what this building is supposed to be then??!

[GregF]

Looks kinda like the new Eircom building up at Heuston Station. Looks like that building out at Blanchardstown as well.

However regarding the image, look how bad the concrete pile is on the left. What a mess of cluttered horizontal lines and dull grey concrete!

[Yixian]

Hadn't even heard of this - haven't found any indication of it's discontinuation either. At least the docklands will have some height!