ESB Headquarters Fitzwilliam Street

[tommyt]

As pointed out ,the repro facades on Parnell Sq opposite the Rotunda main entrance have been completed to a very high standard and cannot be faulted by any reasonable judgement.

There is significant scope for a contemporary block of a substantial size including a decent basement to enliven James St. East with the right roof treatment. We don't really 'do' decent roofs in Irish archticetural practice though imo.

[Paul Clerkin]

Grafton Architects Ltd & O’Mahony Pike Architects Ltd, have reportedly won this. No word if it actually will ever be built, or renderings yet.

[wearnicehats]

wow - first #1 Ballsbridge, now this. OMP must have a drawing cabinet in their office with a picture of a big white elephant on it

[missarchi]

It's a strange state of being you win a competition but you can't show your scheme.
Guess changes are being made or goals posts are moving.

[Morlan]

So is everyone still against the idea of forcing the ESB to reinstate the entire terrace with high quality Georgian replicas?

[SeamusOG]

I grew up fairly close to this location, most of which was built on marshy land basically reclaimed from the sea.

I remember hearing, as a child, that certain works carried out on the original buildings had put extra stress on the wooden piles which supported them. The wooden piles would have been fine under the structures which had earlier been in place, but these extra works eventually necessitated the removal of the original buildings and their replacement with the current structure. Is any of this true?

[shadow]

If Germany can rebuild most of its historice urban centres with a high degree of autehticity after the war to make up for the cultural destruction of that conflict surely it is possible ot reconstruct fitzwilliam street to make up for the cultural destruction of unbridled urban reconstruction.

[davidarthurs]

True. IMO the best of Dublin as an identity is as a Georgian City. I'd hate to see what they are doing around the North Docks encroaching more and more into the whole city especially the relatively small Georgian spaces that are left.
I was in the ESB building offices many years ago and it a maze of small cubicles with no air - truly hideous. I'd imagine it is horrible to work in.

[thebig C]

I had a stroll around "former" Georgian enclaves in North Dublin City recently. Its a truely depressing and dismal sight. When in a way makes a mockery of ABPOs refusal of the NCH on the grounds that it is a historic area.

I a sense though, the scale of destruction wrought in the North City makes it all the more important that what remains is consolidated and preserved. If ever there was a case for sensitive reconstruction (not pastiche a la Mount Street in the 70s/80s) this is it. A historic wrong would thus be corrected. Frankly, given how attitudes had changed, I was rather surprised that the ESB pushed ahead with this project.

C