best irish building of 2009

its going to be a very short list

Maybe the Sean O Casey Community Centre in East Wall.. was that completed last year or 2008?

edit – seems like it was actually completed around September 2008, though not officially opened til February of 2009.

I quite like the one at the corner of mount street and the canal

@wearnicehats wrote:

I quite like the one at the corner of mount street and the canal

I was just going to say the same myself! It’s called “One Warrington Place”

There are a few images on Google of it and the estates agents brochure – no doubt it still remains empty!

One Warrington Place? Really? A bog standard HJL job? [If I sound condescending… I make no apologies]

Speaking of HJL, I’m not personally nominating it, far from it, but I’m sure someone will mention it, so we might as well get it out of the way….. the new criminal courts

……and I’m sure someone will also mention that blasted convention centre… now, thats out of the way as well.

If we were to broaden it to “structures” rather then strictly buildings, then perhaps we could consider the Samuel Beckett bridge?

I’m really searching to end on a positive here… I would second the Sean O’ Casey centre but unfortunately I do think that was 2008. Their Gaelaras in Derry was finished recently though I haven’t seen it up close…

Haha – once One Warrington Place was mentioned I ran for cover. One could hear spoil_sport’s strident footsteps from the far end of the Archiseek corridor.

Thank goodness Trinity Point hasn’t been mentioned yet. Oops.

The two houses in Ballsbridge by Taka were lovely. Leixlip Garda Station was great too.

@spoil_sport wrote:

One Warrington Place? Really? A bog standard HJL job? [If I sound condescending… I make no apologies]

Speaking of HJL, I’m not personally nominating it, far from it, but I’m sure someone will mention it, so we might as well get it out of the way….. the new criminal courts

……and I’m sure someone will also mention that blasted convention centre… now, thats out of the way as well.

If we were to broaden it to “structures” rather then strictly buildings, then perhaps we could consider the Samuel Beckett bridge?

I’m really searching to end on a positive here… I would second the Sean O’ Casey centre but unfortunately I do think that was 2008. Their Gaelaras in Derry was finished recently though I haven’t seen it up close…

I don’t reallllly think you can call it bog standard. It’s well articulated with a dramatic roofline (I think the overhanging roof is actually bronze). I sense an anti-commercial sentiment here – we can’t give awards to box-extensions all our lives

I’m even more surprised at your mention of the convention centre – a mind bogglingly crude pimple on the arse of the quays. now if we were giving awards in the “best building that looks like a barrel of nuclear waste tipped over onto a cardboard box” category then……

i think Derek Tynans (DTA) new social housing scheme is pretty decent, its up in Santry. Its under residential, and Santry Demense on their website. I have yet to go visit it, but for social housing it seems exceptional.

I’m sorry wearnicehats, but it is bog standard, a barrell corner bit and a stick-y-out roof bit a great building do not make; and even if it is a little more than that, that still does not warrant a place on “best irish building of 2009”; nor did I mention any box extensions.

I also think you misunderstood my sentiments towards the convention centre; on that we are in complete agreement.

@ba wrote:

i think Derek Tynans (DTA) new social housing scheme is pretty decent, its up in Santry. Its under residential, and Santry Demense on their website. I have yet to go visit it, but for social housing it seems exceptional.

That looks very promising alright. The street part of it looks a bit stark but I’m sure there are some more trees on the way. It’d be nice if they’d throw up some drawings and internal views on their site.

another housing scheme that isn’t bad is the Fatima Mansions replacement scheme, can’t remember the new name.

pic from the recent artic episode.

Can’t think of the architects, . . . . proabably some combination of three letters

its all about the brick for me this year no doubt:

TAKA two houses: http://www.taka.ie/001-01.html http://www.taka.ie/002-01.html

and Timberyard by OD+T: http://www.odonnell-tuomey.ie/webpage/timberyard/timberyard_05.htm

@spoil_sport wrote:

I’m sorry wearnicehats, but it is bog standard, a barrell corner bit and a stick-y-out roof bit a great building do not make; and even if it is a little more than that, that still does not warrant a place on “best irish building of 2009”; nor did I mention any box extensions.

I also think you misunderstood my sentiments towards the convention centre; on that we are in complete agreement.

ok just to ensure I don’t disgrace myself again – example of 3 non “bog standard” offices please

My top three buildings:

1.An Gaelaras – BD Article

2. Timberyard – BD Article

3. Carlow Arts Centre – BD Article

re: non bog standard offices – off the top of my head:
STW – Riverside One
Donnelly Turpin – Irish Times offices on Tara St
deBlacham Meagher – Grand Canal Quay and their own offices on St Catherine’s Lane
I could go on…

There is nothing about the composition of one warrington place to sugest that it was put together with anything more than average competency.

I think Copo is onto something; I had forgotten about the Carlow Arts Centre, yes a definite contender, but not by an Irish architect, should we hold that against it?

Carlow Arts Centre is architecture that doesn’t believe in itself.

@Copo wrote:

My top three buildings:
1.An Gaelaras – BD Article

It looks like a fancy prison i’m sure we all know why the mullions are so close…
The building is not cultural but the people might be i’m sure ornate precast would have been cheaper.

ornate and crime… gimme a brake

Is a Poll in order ????????

Is a critique in order ?

Gaelaras in Derry, in particular the internal spaces, looks wonderful although I have minor misgivings about the yellow painted windows – the colour is a little bit reminiscent of that radioactive orange that a lot of cheap “Rationel” type windows come in. It’s interesting that they are still considering whether or not to paint the whole facade red as was shown in the original renders. It’s nice that John Tuomey isn’t afraid of expressing his own doubts about the success or otherwise of the facade in the BD article. Personally I think the exposed concrete looks great.

Carlow Arts Centre is very admirable on a number of levels but a visit left me rather unimpressed. It’s spaces and particularly it’s external expression lack any humanizing qualities or concessions to context leaving it feeling quite bland and disconnected from the life of the town.

I can’t believe somebody said they like that big corporate glass pig at Mount Street Bridge 😮

Not this year, but this recent building, below, at Baggot Street bridge has hardly got a mention anywhere since being built. It’s a good example of developing beside a protected structure, the Victorian redbrick.

It’s not perfect – the top floor should have been pulled back from the chimney stack of the old building – but it’s pretty good.

I hate to be the asshole, I do, but again, really? I think there might be a very good reason why it has hardly got a mention anywhere….
I can’t really tell what makes this corporate stone pig any better than the “corporate glass pig” mentioned earlier, except for the utterly pointless and annoying metal frame and louvres on the other side not shown in the picture above, but they are randomly placed so that makes it trendy and therefore ok.

@spoil_sport wrote:

I can’t really tell what makes this corporate stone pig any better than the “corporate glass pig” mentioned earlier.

:eek::eek: The person who designed the Mount St. Bridge pig knows nothing about designing a building in an historic setting.

The building at Baggot Street Bridge is that increasingly rare thing: an architect designed building which recedes from the protected struture, does not dominate it.

I should admit that I am thinking of the building in contextual terms, as I am wan to do, rather than as a one off work of architecture which will keep the AAI and IA in covers for a year.

I will retract to an extent. I didn’t mean to imply that the building is without some qualities, it does some things well; its scale and massing are acceptable and colour is a good fit; but the expression, particularly the metal frame stuck to the front elevation, the pointless louvres, the proportions of opes and the stripes, dosen’t work and is compounded by some poor quality fenestration; nor does it meet the criteria of “completed in 2009” or “best” by any stretch.
…worth a special mention perhaps… but not a winner.

I’m with spoil sport’s earlier guise on this one – this is actually a particularly atrocious building i have many times passed it and shuddered. a scraping pass at the very best a special mention is kindness in the extreme.

But lets get back onto the topic of good things built in 2009 – its all to easy to slip back into lambasting rubbish buildings.

Well we all know whay YOU’RE like by now (:D)

BTW the building on Thomas Court beside St. Catherine’s Church which won your precious approval has just had a pasting from the planning appeals board.

Like planners know thier arse from thier elbow about architecture outside thier “architecture by numbers” rule-book…………..

@Devin wrote:

:eek::eek: The person who designed the Mount St. Bridge pig knows nothing about designing a building in an historic setting.

The building at Baggot Street Bridge is that increasingly rare thing: an architect designed building which recedes from the protected struture, does not dominate it.

I should admit that I am thinking of the building in contextual terms, as I am wan to do, rather than as a one off work of architecture which will keep the AAI and IA in covers for a year.

hardly historic. your mates in AFT didn’t even bother

It’s borderline … on the one hand in the Gnd. Canal office district / Mount St. 1970s write off and on the other in the older area ..
But I’m still shocked you like the building no matter where it is …

homing…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLSIU9BG41U&feature=related

UL President’s Humble 😀 Lodgings ?

http://www.clarecoco.ie/idocsweb/ViewFiles.aspx?docid=188600&format=djvu

>> p35/46 [Explorer browser only and DejaVu viewer installed.]

I will have to admit i’m feeling jaded…
Some countries spent 40 million euro you could almost buy a national monument for that…

some snaps of the Mount Street corner block [1 Warrington Place, I think]

I don’t think it’s fair to dump on this block, it’s just the architectural manifestation of over-blown speculative greed

It might be big, brash and blingy and gives a masterclass in creating awkward junctions, but as a pick-n-mix of iconic features from the modern movement back catalogue, it’s kinda fun :rolleyes:

mad looking yoke!

Not to mention the attached…….

This is just HJL’s biggest problem. they dont know when enough is enough. additional elevation treatments a better piece of architecture does not make.

@gunter wrote:

It doesn’t look too bad in those pictures …… but when you see it in its location it’s inappropriately self-important.

…….. It’s an architectural photographer’s building – that’s about the best you could say about it imo.

Is this my fault? By dignifying the original post with a response did I give this unholy mess of a building the legs it now has? I can’t understand how this is still being discussed in the context of “best Irish building”, negative or otherwise.

Let’s move on….