Re: Re: goodbye hawkins house

Just replacing Hawkins House wont do a huge deal for that area of town. The An Post office building is, in my opinion, just as ugly and visually damaging. Hawkins House is mostly “contained” on its site. While I’ve a soft spot for the Screen cinema because I was a frequent patron, the way it’s set back from the street destroys the screetscape from many angles. For example, it would be just about possible to visually “terminate” Fleet St. if there was a properly shaped corner building on that the screen site. A curved corner building would have symmetry with the Garda Station, Doyles pub and the ever changing corner resteraunt at the Townsend end of D’Olier Street. I know currently there’s a vital traffic artery running through it but, who knows, maybe in a decade or so, that “square” of Dublin could be pedestrianised.

I won’t be chaining myself to Hawkins House if the wrecking balls arrive but I would have like to have seen one of the Ballymun towers refurbished and retained.