Dublin skyline

does anyone know when construction on the heuston gate building is due to start? that building was approved months ago.

The approved scheme, and what is currently up for sale is not the “tall building” phase of the development. That part is on land owned exclusively by the state and is currently with ABP. I imagine subject to a separate sale due to it’s different ownership and planning status.

Yep…….saw that programme too. It all seems to be happening in London and Britain in general. Even their provencial cities are getting stylish makeovers. ie Gatehead Newcastle, Birmingham, etc…..Thought the same as well that we are lagging way, way behind here in Ireland in shaping the look of our towns and cities for the future. In all fairness London is emerging as the great European city with stylish new 21st landmark trappings too. Illustrious native architects such as Norman Foster, Richard Rogers etc…..leading the way. London has it all; despite the Nazi air raids which obiterated some parts of the city and most of Wren’s Cathedrals, it still has a plethora of old stock buildings and famous landmarks unique to London. Added to this today, the Gherkin, the Lord Mayor’s Office, The Eye, etc. etc…and with the new Wembley Stadium due for completion next year we are left here in Ireland truely in the shade. All we are getting with our building boom are houses and standard appartment blocks. Dublin as capital city should be leading the way for the rest of the country. New emerging Dublin is kinda basic in essence. The promise of a twisted tower in Dublin and a Leibeskind art centre or whatever, we really dont have much to look forward to. Sure is it any wonder that Cork, Galway, Limerick etc… won’t be any better as they normally follow and don’t lead. We really and truely lack ”style” when it comes to architecture!

Check out next Wednesdays programme on BBC1 ”A Short History of Skyscrapers” ….Its gonna deal with the new buildings of Asia.

(Last Wednesday’s programme aptly ending with the eerie tune of Roxy Music’s ”In each Home a Heartache” with Brian Eno on the keyboards)

Is that view taken from the second turn off after the canal on the Ranelagh Road?

There’s some great views of the dome to be had about the south city, including from Camden St and various glimpses along the canal.
Always remember Frank McDonald’s mourning of the loss of the view from as far away as Earlsort terrace until that brown brick office building went up.

@jimg wrote:

It seems current fashion is that we should have “landmark” tall buildings dotted seemingly at random around the city – at least this is the impression I get. This is a model of development that London has belatedly realised causes damage to existing historic skyline. I’ve always felt we should concentrate ALL tall buildings in one part of Dublin, protecting existing skyline as well as ensuring that any individual tall building only becomes a “landmark” if it deserves it architecturally and not simply because it dwarfs all surrounding buildings.

I absolutely agree. As well as landmarks, developers are now automatically presuming they can go for 7, 8 or 9 stories in a 4 to 5 storey area. And they’re often granted by DCC, even though there’s any number of objectives and policies in the Development Plan that protect the historic scale of the inner city.

And they’re granting towers in historic areas as well in breach of their own Development Plan – a 32 storey tower in a very sensitive area at Heuston (currently with ABP), and an 11 storey tower beside the landmark church on Thomas Street (refused by ABP).

The developers redeveloping that group of ‘60s office blocks at the southeast corner of Stephen’s Gn. were all going for heights like 9 stories – and probably would have been granted by DCC only for objections by An T and others.

You’d wanna see what is currently being sought for the vacant site on Upper Ormond Quay very close to the Four Courts – a 7 storey building 😮 , seriously damaging the famous image of the Four Courts dome rising above the Georgian-scale terraces on the quays. It’s on further information at the moment.

Agree also about the lack of ‘wow’ for the stuff we are to be getting. That Libeskind hotel is uninspiring.

I’m not against high rise – it’s the way so many developments now are sneakily going for 2 or 3 more stories than the established street scale.
Some inner city parts can take a tower – like Smithfield west side – but mostly tall buildings should be in the one place (docklands)

Ah now Dave – I’m sure you wouldn’t like to see a 10 storey building, regardless of the design, competing with the Four Courts as you suggest.
Think of the cold hard reality of that, impinging on the classic views of the capital’s signature building. You wouldn’t have any objection to that?
The drum of the Four Courts has, an admittedly advantageous, dominant position on the riverscape of the city – this ought to be respected, as should the height of the immediate area of the historic core of the city. Just as any ‘landmark’ buildings of the 21st century ought to be respected by a subservient lower-rise backdrop, so should this 18th century ‘landmark’ building.
The concept is no different.

As for ‘not getting anywhere’ unless we have tall buildings – should cities be rated simply on the height of their buildings?
Should Dublin be littered with tall buildings purely to keep up with other cities, and in the process become just that – ‘any other city’?

Much of Dublin’s identity stems from being low-rise – this should be protected in the immediate city centre, with ‘landmark’ developments pushed over to the Docklands, which by all accounts is the perfect setting as you describe.

There’s no doubt that higher densities are desirable and I’m strongly in favour of tall buildings in Dublin. High density development is required to make public transport viable and creates a counterbalance the strong economic forces which support sprawl and the destruction of the countryside and structure of traditional villages and towns in the vicinity of Dublin and to a lesser extent the other cities. These forces are caused by the fact that most of the costs associated with sprawling development are not externalised (i.e. borne by those who benefit – the developers, residents and to some extent the local councils).

Unfortunately, I feel that the popular sentiment against taller buildings in Dublin has been replaced by what people imagine to be a more sophisticated attitude which is that we should dot very tall buildings randomly around the city. This is a failed model which has damaged many UK cities but is one which our city planners seem intent on replicating in Dublin. Instead, I believe a Parisian (La Defense) model for high-rise development would be far superior. It would mean that all high-rise buildings are concentrated in a particular area or maybe in two areas. These areas would be identifiably modern in the same way that parts of the current city are identifiably Georgian, Victorian or even medieval (at least in terms of street patterns). The docklands would have been absolutely perfect for this. It was a huge central brownfield area containing little of architectural merit within walking distance of the traditional centre of the city and it’s near public transport hubs. Unfortunately the DDDA insisted on using City West as it’s “inspiration” for what a low-rise docklands should look like instead of trying to create a living urban centre with proper street scapes and incorporating high rise buildings to increase density.

@Highrise wrote:

all attempts to build highrise buildings are quashed at planning stage

And rightly so…Local Authorities are great for breaching their own Development Plans – they do it all the time in the country… you find loads of guff about protecting the landscape & reducing the need for car journeys in county Development Plans, but they just grant permission for hundreds of bungalows every year…it’s fucking hilarious
Only when you go to An Bord Pleanala is a local Development Plan abided by…..and so a high building that Dublin City Council have granted permission for in the inner city is refused….

they should be in the one place, like La Defense in Paris

The problem is using appropriate locations for tall buildings. Would you be in favour of building a 15 story office building in the grounds of St. Mary’s Cathedral in Limerick?

The unfortunate situation regarding tall buildings in Dublin is that the people who control development in the part of the city which is perfectly suited to tall buildings, the DDDA, are venemently opposed to anything taller that suburban office park style six story buildings. This means Dublin will probably end up with tall buildings in other areas which are less suitable and will end up with the most boring and inappropriate dockland redevelopment in Ireland (or Britain for that matter).