Re: Re: belfast skyline

@Desmund wrote:

. . . . Belfast’s relevatively small core and plethora of tall buildings, just about slips into (small) big city status.

I also think that the city hall is one the finest examples of Edwardian architecture I’ve ever seen. Very imposing and impressive. Imposing can be a good thing too!

I would agree with Desmund, up to a point, but I think the best parts of Belfast are the three or four decent streets in the core where there’s still a Victorian/Edwardiam coherence, not the bits dominated by some pretty mediocre high rise blocks.

There was a slight ‘Temple Bar’ feel to some of the little streets around where the Victoria Square Centre was developed and that’s mostly gone now, but at least the new centre made a conscious effort to connect with Belfast’s great Victorian heritage and I think in that regard it’s been much more of an urban success than any of the random tower blocks I’ve seen.

I do think that the robust scale of the average Belfast streetscape meant that it was better placed to absorb some taller buildings than say Dublin, and I think some of the more modest [and better designed] of the taller structures, like that 60s block with the abstract muriel up at the Albert Clock, add to the urban quality of the place rather than take away from it.

a rough 1980s sketch of the space in front of the Albert Clock