Re: Re: Dublin’s Ugliest Building

I don’t disagree on that one. But making a street from a heavily trafficked dual carriageway, where the public realm has already been shaped by pedestrian barriers, island ‘refuges’ (as road engineers themselves have the audacity to title them) and galvanised steel lampposts and other furnishings, is no easy task. I agree that so much of Cork Street and St. Luke’s ‘Avenue’ has failed to create a modern street, but I wouldn’t dump this problem at the door of Timberyard, it being one of the more successful components. The sense of enclosure, digestable make-up of blocks and visual animation it generates along with the adjacent yellow brick development on the corner with Ardee Street is the most successful piece of contemporary streetscape along the entire the by-pass.

I don’t think it would be fair to blame the ills of this ‘street’ on the stoicism, or the lack of retail, or the stern demeanor, or whatever, of Timberyard. Its design is justified – sadly it is the rest of the street that fails so miserably to step up to the plate.