CIE's €100 million Tara Street Station construction

[marmajam]

as long as you're willing to clean it every week

[missarchi]

[missarchi]

remind's me of the white house and some british tv show...



choose one angle?



or dun lair

[marmajam]

you're half right missarchi. or half wrong if I'm in a bad mood...........

The only possible solution would be to turn it into a feature in it's own right with some very imaginative probably deconstructed adaptions.

Even if it never came to fruition it'd be worth it for the apoplexy that would ensue.

In fact if the DDDA had any sense they should propose obtuse blasphemous gigantic sculptures left right and centre just to annoy people

They need to be annoyed for their own good.

[rumpelstiltskin]

And have trucks crashing into it and suspending all train services in the city?

That's the kind of imagination that makes Dublin the most architecturally interesting and beautiful city in Europe!

[starchaser]

Those adverts were removed two years ago. Welcome to the future :-)

Welcome to the present?

Or is their something your not telling us Marty McFly?

[dave123]

I hate the loop line bridge it has got to be the bulkiest bridge in the world for what is. It's almost like a wall dividing Dublin. If they build a more gleaming silver or white bridge that would compliment the Custom house. I think the biggest eyesore in this area

Is that fucking loopline bridge I hate it. The Guinness legs and harp is so tacky it advertise Ireland to be a drunk drinking nation.

UGH....

[jimg]

It's really a very minor improvement. The whole thing is a black scar of psychological depression on the face of the city. It's a hammerblow of ugliness on the city centre. Isn't it possible they could remove the black metal at the sides and make it a little more aerodynamic, elegant and modern looking ... this would include getting rid of those orange max headroom signs which make it look like a throwback to the 60s.

Give it 20 or 30 years and when Victorian becomes as fashionable as Georgian is now, it'll be the pride of the city - a Victorian wonder admired for it's engineering ambition and robust execution; we all admire Roman aqueducts, no?

I'm being half facetious but it either stays as it is or it goes completely. The latter isn't going to happen this half century at least. The only thing that could be worse than it would be a "modern" looking replacement.

[green_jesus]

Has anybody any pics or info of what was proposed by Kavanagh Mansfield?

http://www.archiseek.com/content/showpost.php?p=4933&postcount=11

http://www.archiseek.com/content/showthread.php?t=708

http://www.paddi.net/beta/?func=display_structure&structure_id=4215&structure_location_id=6115

[Smithfield Resi]

Is that fucking loopline bridge I hate it. The Guinness legs and harp is so tacky it advertise Ireland to be a drunk drinking nation.

UGH....

I guess advertising if left up long enough burns into the brain.

Thanks to the efforts of those usually castigated for their sense of civic pride, as it has been pointed out, the Loop Line bridge no longer looks like this.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fe/Dublin_bei_Nacht.jpg

Stand up and take a bow you victorious campaigners, you know who you are!

[alonso]

heh butty bridge.... very clever denny

[rumpelstiltskin]

Give it 20 or 30 years and when Victorian becomes as fashionable as Georgian is now, it'll be the pride of the city - a Victorian wonder admired for it's engineering ambition and robust execution; we all admire Roman aqueducts, no?

I'm being half facetious but it either stays as it is or it goes completely. The latter isn't going to happen this half century at least. The only thing that could be worse than it would be a "modern" looking replacement.

I disagree. I think the Victorians did a lot of wonderful things, but this is a complete abject failure. It ruins the view of one of the architectural set pieces of Dublin and its bulky blackness lacks any elegance whatsoever. I don't think we should be so in awe of the past that we have no confidence that our age could improve upon this monstrosity.

[damnedarchitect]

I disagree. I think the Victorians did a lot of wonderful things, but this is a complete abject failure. It ruins the view of one of the architectural set pieces of Dublin and its bulky blackness lacks any elegance whatsoever. I don't think we should be so in awe of the past that we have no confidence that our age could improve upon this monstrosity.

I completely agree. It is an inelegant, clunky eyesore whose only saving grace is the view OF the Custom House as you cross it. This by no means excuses it. Arriving east of the bridge by car or on foot you really see just how criminal obscuring the Custom House is. The photoshopped image above - with Liberty Hall reduced and the loopline removed - looks so much better. Although it does seem to leave out the Lafayette Building (is this its actual title?)

This is a feeling I get so often looking at Dublin 'vistas'. We have the right raw ingredients BUT WE ALWAYS GET IT WRONG. Well not always, but often.

Rage.

[OisinT]

I'd love to see a photoshop with only the bridge gone.

[Yixian]

I agree, the Loopline is an insult on one of the most beautiful buildings of it's kind in the world (customs house). It needs to be replaced by a very thin, streamlined, minimalist bridge that opens up the customs house to O'Connell St and extends the centre of town out to the docklands. Psychologically it has this effect of dividing the city in half.

[marmajam]

It's an insult as it now stands, but anything can be adapted to harmonise with anything else if the will is there (as well as the skill)
anything.
a sculptural perspective needs to be taken on the 2 edifices.

[OisinT]

Even if it was replaced by a more streamlined bridge, you'd still have something blocking the Customs House.. unless you brought it down to street level and then back up again (which is silly).

[alonso]

why don't we raise the Custom House instead...

[Cathal Dunne]

why don't we raise the Custom House instead...

Damn straight alonso, these people just can't look at the bigger picture. We all know the solution to this is to put the Custom House on stilts.

[Cathal Dunne]

remind's me of the white house and some british tv show...

I would accept that if I could be sure that there would be a cluster of buildings 20 storeys plus built down in the docks. I would accept a fully low-rise city centre in return for buildings of truly high scale being built in the docklands.

[Yixian]

I would accept that if I could be sure that there would be a cluster of buildings 20 storeys plus built down in the docks. I would accept a fully low-rise city centre in return for buildings of truly high scale being built in the docklands.

+1 vote for this, I think a low-rise city centre is really what you want, it makes for a more open atmosphere, easier to find your way around.

[dave123]

+1 vote for this, I think a low-rise city centre is really what you want, it makes for a more open atmosphere, easier to find your way around.

What.........


I can find my way around Manhatten easily. That is really stupid what you just said.
To translate that.
Lets keep the city centre low rise (cus its easier to get around) Lets build high rise (cus its not easy to get around)


Dublin city centre can still be a low rise city with 6/9 story buildings. I would be happy if they maintained this height within the canals. It height has nothing to do with making an atmosphere or getting around. The issue with the city centre it's has architectural merit and much of the old buildings are protected structures. The city is generally 4/5 story's. Tall buildings would not suit. That is the reason why, not this "oh its not easy to get around"

[Yixian]

Well, in my person opinion I like the ambience of a low-rise city centre, it just feels more accessible. Manhattan is a bad example because of the way it's streets are divided so uniformly, but old cities like Dublin don't have that luxury and I value being able to see the tops of the few tall landmarks in the city centre to orient myself.

I don't live in Dublin so this advantage would disappear the more you get to know it - but I maintain that prefer it the height it is. Dot it with a few high rises sure, or better yet simply large monuments and statues.

Building the high rise either side of the centre of town would look nice, particularly from down the river.

And yeah 6/9 story is fine, I just mean not HK or NY scale in the very centre.

[OisinT]

I would accept that if I could be sure that there would be a cluster of buildings 20 storeys plus built down in the docks. I would accept a fully low-rise city centre in return for buildings of truly high scale being built in the docklands.

I totally agree with you on this... keep city centre a low rise and classical looking area and build the docks to the sky!

[thebig C]

I totally agree with you on this... keep city centre a low rise and classical looking area and build the docks to the sky!

I thought that was the original concept behind the docks, that it was a blank canvas. The ordinary criteria for building in the City could be relaxed and plot ratios and heights could increase. All the time preserving whats left of the historical core. Many reasonable people agree with this policy.

However, the anti-skyscraper brigade started to object to taller buildings in the docklands because the could be seen in the distance from historic areas!!....and ABP took these spurious arguements seriously! Matters were not helped when a certain DDDA planning officer imposed uniform 6 storey parapet heights in the IFSC. Of course because such a conservative short sighted decision was taken....nobody batted an eyelid!