ESB Headquarters Fitzwilliam Street

[GrahamH]

…has been painted pink! It looks terrible.

Why paint a building who’s concrete was specifically coloured to fit in with its surroundings? Is Fitzwilliam Street an ACA? Were DCC informed if this disastrous decision? The building stands out even more so now, and from a quarter of a mile away.

[GrahamH]

.

[anto]

Sam Stephonsen won't be impressed!

[GrahamH]

Twas Gibney's facade though!

[Paul Clerkin]

Swear alert.... what the fuck are they thinking....

[Paul Clerkin]

Just thinking again, maybe it's a temp fix before a major facade overhaul?

[phil]

That does look weird. I hope they don't change the facade of that building (apart from removing the paint!).

[PVC King]

The ESB are out of there fairly soon for Leopardstown; I doubt that current facade would attract a grade A tenant

[GregF]

Pull the lot down!

[PVC King]

Particularly the back on James' Place East

[phil]

Pull the lot down!

That is probably a fair enough view if the ESB move out. I would just worry that some mock georgian facade might be plonked on to the front of it, with very little change to the structure itself.

[PVC King]

It will go,

it is a complex designed for a single tenant with no real seperation between zones let alone floors; it will certainly go and be redeveloped into a more user freindly format to accomodate a number of users; in this era of decentralisation there isn't tenant large enough remaining to take it on that hasn't already lease obligations elsewhere.

[Paul Clerkin]

If I was going to paint it, I would have went for a colour not some strain of beige....

[phil]

That's a tough choice, but I think I would go with the blue/purple myself

[d_d_dallas]

I don't think they painted it - twas under scaffolding for ages so prob just got a steam clean - think of that house on Stephen's Green (Dawson St side) restored in the past few years...

[a boyle]

please take we take this thread down from the website. The building is so frightfully awfull that just thinking about it, and what the powers that be did to georgian dublin upsets me !

[GregF]

I think court proceedings should be implemented and the architects prosecuted. This building is an atrocious and unforgiveable crime of epic proportions. The black hat should be the out come for the architects.

[GrahamH]

I think it is a rather good building, ground floor aside, were it not for the location.

It was a painted - I was so incredulous that I deliberately checked the underside of the first floor and sure enough there's little spatters of pink paint on the soffit cladding.
Unbelievable. The muted red concrete has been banished and there's no getting it back.

[BTH]

I actually think it's a reasonable enough building as well, the mount st. facade anyway, or at least it was before the bloody paint job - I just noticed it the other day and it really is unbelievable - the most sickly beigey pink and it completely jarrs with the bronze windows...

At least the previous finish had a somewhat natural look with tonal variations and visible aggregates etc. - and it blended in much better into the streetscape. Now it really does scream for attention...

Obviously the building is a disaster that it caused the destruction of an important piece of Dublin's historic fabric. However it is quite well proportioned and about as sensitive to it's surroundings as any modernist building in the location could be. The current roofscape is atrocious though as is the completely dead and dismal ground floor area. A bit of a revamp could have solved these problems. Instead they completely destroy the building with a totally unsuitable paint finish - The mind boggles as to who thought this was a good idea.

And since theres no going back now I'd tend to agree with previous posts - Get the bulldozers in or do something radical like painting it a crazy colour. I actually really like the purply blue image above!

[Frank Taylor]

If the building were to be replaced, I would favour high quality pastiche infill but I guess there is no chance because the new building has an extra floor and nobody's going to give that away.

[d_d_dallas]

God doesn't this city have enough bloody Georgian pastiche...

[Paul Clerkin]

I reckon come redeveliopment, the facade will be stripped off and the building simply stripped back to the structure and a new modern facade installed.

[Devin]

God!! That's like refacing Hawkins House - you just get a new building in the shape of what was a '60s timepiece - the blandest outcome of all!

I thought the impact of the building (pre-painting) on the Georgian Mile was surprisingly low for all the fuss there was at the time about how wrong it was to demolish the original buildings & put a modern building there.
It may not be too late though - you can get proprietary paint solvents that remove paint without damaging finishes. If this was done & the cluttered roofscape improved I'd be happy.

[Maskhadov]

If I was going to paint it, I would have went for a colour not some strain of beige....

any of which are an improvement

[Paul Clerkin]

I know... I really like the bluish one myself..