Convention centre

[poukai]

Wow, that's a very nice picture. Can you upload it on flickr so we can see the full quality? That would be great

Yup, will try to do that if I can get the original file, my brain, my memory and access to internet in the same vicinity for any period of time...

[wearnicehats]

Lovely glossy sheen there alright!

Truly, I want to like the NCC. It is important to feel affection for a public building. I agree with reddy about the striking view from O'Connell Bridge - a view vista is born in the city. Very surprising to see it glinting beneath the Loop Line Bridge!

But so very sadly, this is where the love affair must end. I visited the site over the weekend for the very first time since construction began. Never have I been more sorely disappointed with a piece of architecture. Aside from the drum, which holds obvious - if popular - appeal, the building as a whole is the most spectacularly ugly concoction to land in the city since Robocop on Dame Street. It is so breath-takingly, staggeringly bad in real life as to make one wonder why the Emperor has no clothes. Is nobody else actually seeing this?! Really, get down there and have a look at what is unfolding before our eyes!

A gigantic, immensely arrogant, dusty pink, stone-clad leaden block, topped with swoopy parapets plucked from of the worst Miami beach residential architecture of the 1980s, barely punctuated by random, minimal flush bands of windows employed as postmodernist racing stripes. This host box for the poor unfortunate drum has translated so spectacularly badly from concept into real life (though it must be acknowledged a number of people here did point this out long before now), that it is nothing short of an embarrassment to the city as a supposedly prized civic building. At least Mansfield's stuff out on the M50 is shameless, even comforting, in its ignorance; the NCC by contrast - which has PPP written all over it - has no such excuse.

I love the drum: obvious but fun and civic-minded, but the rest is well, I really don't know what else to say...

What would be the icing on the cake now would be a chic 30-storey plus slab block rising out of it! The last thing this yoke needs is further complication. Such a disappointment. Here's hoping most delegates will arrive along the quay and look up at the imposing projecting barrel - one of its few virtues.

if they're selling the naming rights Heinz might be interested

[Peter Fitz]

[quote="GrahamH"]
But so very sadly, this is where the love affair must end. I visited the site over the weekend for the very first time since construction began. Never have I been more sorely disappointed with a piece of architecture. Aside from the drum, which holds obvious - if popular - appeal, the building as a whole is the most spectacularly ugly concoction to land in the city since Robocop on Dame Street. It is so breath-takingly, staggeringly bad in real life as to make one wonder why the Emperor has no clothes. Is nobody else actually seeing this?! Really, get down there and have a look at what is unfolding before our eyes!

A gigantic, immensely arrogant, dusty pink, stone-clad leaden block, topped with swoopy parapets plucked from of the worst Miami beach residential architecture of the 1980s, barely punctuated by random, minimal flush bands of windows employed as postmodernist racing stripes. This host box for the poor unfortunate drum has translated so spectacularly badly from concept into real life (though it must be acknowledged a number of people here did point this out long before now), that it is nothing short of an embarrassment to the city as a supposedly prized civic building. At least Mansfield's stuff out on the M50 is shameless, even comforting, in its ignorance]



In a way i'm surprised at your surprise Graham ?
If ever a building lived up to its modelling & renders this is it. For me, the drum is the building, the rest really amounts to bland casing and i suppose there was no indication that it was ever going to be any different, though always a faint hope flickered that dusty pink would not be the chosen colour.

The unknown imo was whether the drum would be appropriately articulated throughout the interior, to be more than just a facade & elaborate stairwell, unfortunately it appears to be just that.

The other great disappointment is the relationship between it and its neighbour, pwc's hq arrogantly throws two fingers up at everything that surrounds it, I wouldn't mind so much if it amounted to more than office park drivel itself, pity it wouldn't continue its pompous march that bit further and fall in to the river, woops.

I don't want to be too negative, overall the drum is pretty impressive and makes a positive contribution to a river front that was crying out for something, anything!

[marmajam]

In a way i'm surprised at your surprise Graham ?
If ever a building lived up to its modelling & renders this is it. For me, the drum is the building, the rest really amounts to bland casing and i suppose there was no indication that it was ever going to be any different, though always a faint hope flickered that dusty pink would not be the chosen colour.

The unknown imo was whether the drum would be appropriately articulated throughout the interior, to be more than just a facade & elaborate stairwell, unfortunately it appears to be just that.

The other great disappointment is the relationship between it and its neighbour, pwc's hq arrogantly throws two fingers up at everything that surrounds it, I wouldn't mind so much if it amounted to more than office park drivel itself, pity it wouldn't continue its pompous march that bit further and fall in to the river, woops.

I don't want to be too negative, overall the drum is pretty impressive and makes a positive contribution to a river front that was crying out for something, anything!

it breaks up the monotony but......

what makes me laugh is the treasury tripe: the most important building in Dublin since the 4 courts. it's hawkins house jazzed up.

[Pot Noodle]

Looks like a Dalex stuck in concrete or R2D2

[DjangoD]

Looks like a Dalex stuck in concrete or R2D2

Think someone got there before you on that one...

http://www.archiseek.com/content/showpost.php?p=93607&postcount=290

[CC105]

regardless of looks it should generate a lot of revenue for the city - very important these days -dont think hawkins house does that,
- - -at least it is actually built regardless of whether people like or dislike it - a rare enough achievement for Dublin.

[marmajam]

regardless of looks it should generate a lot of revenue for the city - very important these days -dont think hawkins house does that,
- - -at least it is actually built regardless of whether people like or dislike it - a rare enough achievement for Dublin.

you're right, the venue long overdue.

just laughing at Treasury, are they that naive or do they think everybody else is?

[Pot Noodle]

Think someone got there before you on that one...

http://www.archiseek.com/content/showpost.php?p=93607&postcount=290

Thats good

[rumpelstiltskin]

I used to think I'd like it too, but it's shite. It would have been great if it was just a cube, made of stone, intersected by a perfect cylinder.

[GrahamH]

Actually getting built is not a virtue of a major civic structure, or indeed any building that helps shape the public realm.

In a way i'm surprised at your surprise Graham ?
If ever a building lived up to its modelling & renders this is it. !

To be honest, you're 100 per cent correct on that Peter. The centre looks exactly as those dodgy renders first purported it to be from the outset all those years ago. I suppose I got so used to them, as we all have over such a long period, that objectivity begins to fade. Seeing it in the flesh brings matters home like a bullet train smashing you in the face - it's frightening to observe such a disaster unfold on a mammoth scale in front of your eyes!

Aside from the obvious faults of the design of the structure outlined above, what is perhaps most disappointing about CCD is how this major public building effectively holds the same status as every other office park development along both sides of the quays. It exhibits the same crew cut, the same boxy character, the same 'unit-ising' approach of the building appearing constrained by a regimented plot of land doled out as if located in an IDA industrial estate, and the same conformity with the quay line. The fact that the building doesn't even take account of the amenity and modicum of breathing space offered by the adjacent canal makes its design all the more incontextual and arbitrary.

Without question, people will look back in decades to come, when this building is eventually handed over to the State, and wonder who the heck was running the show for an entirely new-build, brownfield docklands redevelopment to not even have the ability to accommodate a major piece of public infrastructure with a modicum of architectural swagger, never mind civic presence and grandeur. Such a wasted opportunity.

[spoil_sport]

Bravo!
I was feeling a litle lonely in my hatred for this thing.

[alonso]

well said Graham. I see this thing every day and I want to, I really really want to like it but I can't. A major disappointment. I just have to trust that it functions brilliantly inside and will be a revenue generator for Dublin and the wider economy. Many on here despise the O2 from the outside but I can categorically state that it is a world class venue. i hope this makes it a double for the North Wall from that perspective at least

[GrahamH]

Yep absolutely! And shush, spoil_sport. People will start getting ideas about us and buildings on the quays.

No really, the drum has a dramatic quality looking directly upwards, but that's about it, sadly.

[Satrastar]

For me, the colour is a big disappointment. That dull pink stone may as well be concrete.

But maybe in the future, they can re-clad the building...

[lostexpectation]

does it make anybody else stomach queasy looking at it?

[fergalr]

Surely as convention centres go, it's not terribly bad looking?

[Rory W]

Feck sake lads it's a convention centre, it's supposed to be a box to hold conventions and compared to the likes of the NEC in Birmingham or the Excel centre (as seen in G20) in London this is a pleasure.

Really what were you expecting, another Customs House?

[jdivision]

For me, the colour is a big disappointment. That dull pink stone may as well be concrete.

But maybe in the future, they can re-clad the building...

Having been up close and personal with this I disagree, the stone looks quite well, especially on a bright day. The glass is also impressive - they can light it any colour they want - and based on observations by friends the glass drum can be seen reflecting the sun while flights are circling around before coming in to land at Dublin Airport. I don't think the building's amazing or anything but it's a solid addition. Having been inside, it's damn impressive and vertigo inducing from certain places!

[spoil_sport]

This is how the Chineese did it (not holding this up as a brilliant example by any stretch, but certinally better than our lump)
http://www.worldbuildingsdirectory.com/project.cfm?id=184

"Feck sake lads it's a convention centre, it's supposed to be a box to hold conventions"

Yes it is a convention centre, but it is also one of the most prominant additions to the quays since, well the four courts, surley that is a reason in itself to consider its worth as more than just fulfilling its function, so yes another customs house would be nice (by which of course I mean in a modern idiom, handeled with the same competance and skill)

Convention centre is just a name, its a place of assembly, which puts it in a far broader category of reference, hell even Liebeskind's thing is better, another quick sacan of the "world building directory" gives us this:
http://www.worldbuildingsdirectory.com/project.cfm?id=1020

Again not necessarily my cup of tea, and conext is somewhat different, but at least it exhibits some reasonable skill in execution.

[Rory W]

This is how the Chineese did it (not holding this up as a brilliant example by any stretch, but certinally better than our lump)
http://www.worldbuildingsdirectory.com/project.cfm?id=184

"Feck sake lads it's a convention centre, it's supposed to be a box to hold conventions"

Yes it is a convention centre, but it is also one of the most prominant additions to the quays since, well the four courts, surley that is a reason in itself to consider its worth as more than just fulfilling its function, so yes another customs house would be nice (by which of course I mean in a modern idiom, handeled with the same competance and skill)

Convention centre is just a name, its a place of assembly, which puts it in a far broader category of reference, hell even Liebeskind's thing is better, another quick sacan of the "world building directory" gives us this:
http://www.worldbuildingsdirectory.com/project.cfm?id=1020

Again not necessarily my cup of tea, and conext is somewhat different, but at least it exhibits some reasonable skill in execution.

Yes but in reality we are in the realm of where STW buildings are considered edgy - it's not ideal, but it's not as bad as it could have been. It's a functional box and it is of it's time - at least after 20 years of tooling around we're getting the convention centre

[GregF]

That Chinese building is bloody awful and would look awful down Dublin's docks instead!

[GregF]

I've Googled a few images of convention centres from around the world and as convention centres go, I suppose the new one in Dublin doesn't look too bad, in all honesty, especially when you consider how ultra conservative we are in Ireland.

[what?]

The convention centre is a massive, scale-less, bombastic box which is completely out of ‘fashion’ because A: it was designed sooo long ago and B: it was designed in the most overtly ‘fashionable’ and facile period of architecture of the last century.

[marmajam]

The convention centre is a massive, scale-less, bombastic box which is completely out of ‘fashion’ because A: it was designed sooo long ago and B: it was designed in the most overtly ‘fashionable’ and facile period of architecture of the last century.

but do you like it?