Dublin’s Ugliest Building
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What about that pile of crap beside Christchurch. Red brick and a ridiculous clocktower – to make it ‘fit in’? Shopping centre style. I think there’s a company called DDFH&B in there.
Bewleys at Christchurch is a pile of lego too – anybody seen their branch on the Naas Road? HA HA Ha… that clock?!?!?! I think I’m going to be sick.
Actually, I wouldn’t call that an ugly building – more a stupid looking one. How about a ‘stupid looking’ category too?
John
I’ve always referred to those type of building as ‘International Toylandism’ – they’re property developer’s ideas of architecture.
Very good Paul – I always think of Noddy myself when I see that tripe. I do think a ‘Silly looking buildings’ section would be fun.
Oops, mustn’t lower the academic tone too much though! After all this is an excellent site as it is.
It’s funny . they tear down an actual ‘georgian’ or classical style structure in one place and put up and assemble a mock – georgian’ lego structure somewhere else. Do we not provide these rich gits with enough incentive to work with what’s already there when picking a business location – or is it just that they’re rich gits?
John
While Hawkins house was, of course , my first choice another big hitter in the crimes against art category would have to be the telecom building on Fitzwilliam street (lower?). Another candidate is the Trusthouse Forte hotel at the airport on account of ti’s overwhelming banality.
Ceann nach bhfaca mé anseo nó in ait ar bith eile e an foirgneamh uafasach atá os chomhair Ti an Chustaim ar bhruach na Life. Is le Ulster Bank an chruit mhór cramhach sin. Chan é go bhfuil an foirgneamh sin os chomhair Ti an Chustaim ach gurbh i bhfad bhfad ni b’fhearr a bhéadh sé dá mbeadh sé site in Estát Tionscail faoin tuaith. Feicim an ‘pile’ seo achan oiche agus cuireann sé deistin ‘s aifeala orm go bhfuil cruit chomh gránna le sin i lár na cathrach.
One I haven’t seen mentioned before is that awful pile across from the Custom’s House. It’s not its look but its site that defeats me. It would be grand in an out-of-town Industrial park but not in the middle of a city !
Is this the one on Beresford Place?
If so I have to agree its sterile blandness overwhelming, but the problem in my opinion is really the way it fails to engage with the city. On old maps, Beresford Place appears as a crescent focussing on the Customs House. This building both curves the other way and effectively barricades the IFSC from the rest of the city.
When the IFSC was originally designed, why didn’t it connect with the city centre instead of creating a suburban campus next to but isolated from it?
How about the Stephen’s Green Shopping Centre – looks like a Mississippi Steamboat marooned on the green.
Top of my list for now is the new apartment building on Grand Canal Street, near (or on) the Bolands Mill site. In such a historic area this is a disgrace. It looks cheap and nasty and a year after completion is beginning to look ready for demolition. The only saving grace is that a large office block is now being built between it and the city.
I can still see it from the train though.
so many buildings, so little time.
1) the keyhole shaped petrol station across from arran quay is a dog of a building. 2)the virgin cineplex transplant from belfast is another contender: its sheer lack of respect for context and is an offence. what can you expect from a photocopy of someone else’s plan? 3) lucan.Overweight civic offices, poor self-esteem, trapped in loveless relationship with transparent extension (intends to leave) would like to meet similar granite-clad piece of crap for fun and possible good times. Smoker preferred. Genuine offers only (has been hurt before).
The brightly lit building beside the Pepper Canister Church. Should be kept in darkness..
Designed by some crap architect who later described himself as a “Committed Modernist.” I presume that this means that he is a modernist who should be committed. We’re awful smart in this area of the city.I agree with the suggestion of the Stephens Green Shopping Centre. It is twee,staid and uninspiring.
Anything that Bewleys or Jurys put their hands to these days….
how about:
ILAC shopping Center?
Bord Failte Baggot Street
Most of Lower Mount Street
The new hotel built just behind the Bleeding Horse on Camden Street.
This building has managed to totally ruin the old small street pattern whereby the Bleeding Horse was one of those fine Vitorian corener buildings. It now looks like a shrivelled appendix sticking out of a bloated colon, waiting for a swipe of the scalpel.
This is a sad, sad building.
The yokes on Harcourt Road? especially the precast concrete clad tower with the silly additions around the base to ‘improve’ it which McHugh O Cofaigh put on in the last decade
i think the pair of buildings on mount street which face each other – the bar with a sort of nightclub attached called “howl at the moon”, and the building which i think is by andrej wechert in a pseudo Gerogian style with a vomit of glass cascading from the roof and the oh-so-ironic free-standing granite columns at the the front door -really are the ugliest pair together. how the hell did they get permission for those neon lights all around the bar?
I have’nt been to Dublin for over a year but the building shown in some advertising that came with this weeks AJ looks pretty bad. Connaught House near St. Stephens Green by Arthur Gibney. Is it just as bad in real life ?
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